well, if you're lucky. because of the 33 richest countries, the united states is the only one that does not require paid vacation time for workers. one in four american workers, no paid vacation? >> that's right. we don't have any law that would require any employer to do that. >> reporter: no vacation nation. coming up. >> osgood: actor dennis hopper died at his home near los angeles yesterday at the age of 74. our rita braver paid hopper a visit a couple years back and showed all of us why he was one of a kind. >> reporter: we got to know him in "easy rider." but dennis hopper played scores of film and tv roles in a career spanning more than 50 years. there's an old phrase, "larger than life." but your life is kind of larger than life. >> i must have had an incredible guardian angel watching over me because none of this was really planned. >> reporter: later on sunday morning, the remarkable times of dennis hopper. >> osgood: we'll also pay a visit to buffet and son. an object lesson in personal responsibility that's all in the family. tracy smith will make the necessary introductions. >> reporter: his dad is one of the richest men in the world, the oracle of omaha who is not leaving even one million of his many billions to him. >> i kind of think it's your money or your life and i'll choose the life. >> reporter: we'll talk about life with peter buffet. >> and his dad. >> later on sunday morning. >> osgood: les we forget tomorrow's holiday has a meaning that goes far beyond warm weather fun and games. some folks need no reminding of that as our bill geist will be showing us. >> reporter: amidst all the picnics and backyard barbecues memorial day was proclaimed to honor the one million people in killed in battle from lexington to khandahar. but wayne van doren never forgets as you'll see later on sunday morning. snarlt more besides but first here are the headlines for this sunday morning, the 30th of may, 2010. the top-kill did not work, and oil is still flowing from beneath the sea and into the gulf of mexico. bp says its attempt to plug the leaking well with mud has failed. the next try on a fix will involve inserting a pipe into the well to divert the oil. the spill is now officially the worst in american history. more on the oil spill later on sunday morning. demonstrators marched in phoenix, arizona, yesterday protesting the state's new crackdown on illegal immigration. last night supporters of the new law rallied at a stadium outside the city. a military probe has determined that a mistaken attack by a predator drone killed 23 civilians in afghanistan in february. four american officers have been reprimanded. a new poll finds that more than half of all americans say that they're feeling little or no stress over debt. then again that means nearly half of us are. philadelphia phillies' pitch roy halladay through the 20th perfect game in major league history yesterday. 27 up, 27 down. to give him the 1-0 win over the florida marlins. dallas braden pitched a perfect game for oakland against tampa bay on may 9. the first tropical storm of the season agatha is now history. it's dissipating over the mountains of guatemala not before torrential rains caused at least 12 deaths. the unofficial start to summer is officially hot and humed with a chance of storms in some parts. tomorrow promises to be much like today. enjoy the holiday. >> in the fourth generation now. >> osgood: ahead, a visit with the buffets, father and son. >> reporter: you like ice krem for breakfast? >> i do but i also like it for lunch and dinner. >> osgood: and later, the fast and fascinating times >> osgood: there's no time for lazying in the hammock. for those who live in an all work no play world. just who lives in such a non-stop busy land? plenty of us it turns out. our cover story is reported now by jim axelrod. >> reporter: this memorial day weekend our unofficial start to summer. many americans will look ahead to the next couple of months and their vacation plans. but not as many as you might think. one in four american workers, no paid vacation? >> that's right. one in four american workers don't have paid vacation provided by their employer. we don't have any law that would require any employer to do that. >> reporter: john schmidt, an economist at the center for economic and policy research, is the author of "no vacation nation," a study detailing one unique feature of our economic system that's not the envy of the rest of the world. out of the 33 richest countries, the u.s. is the only one with no legally required paid vacation for its workers. >> if you look at all the other rich countries, about the same standard of living that we have it's pretty standard to have 20 or 25 days of paid vacation per year. england, 20. france, 30. germany, 22. italy, i think it's 22 or 23. >> reporter: i could keep going? >> yes, exactly. >> reporter: the united states is the only country to have 0. >> yes, that's right. >> reporter: the average american has just nine days of vacation a year. one 2009 survey shows just 10% of us will take a full two weeks off. and as for part-time workers, only a third get any paid time off from their employers. john schmidt says we have a tortured relationship with vacation in the best of times and the recession has only made it worse. even when times are good people don't take their vacation. they don't want to be seen as that guy who is always taking his time off, who values his time off more than being at work. being in a recession simply makes it worse. >> it completely intensifies the pressure on workers to buckle down and work as hard as they possibly can so that if the boss has to make a decision about letting 10% of people go that you're not on that list. >> reporter: you could blame the puritan work ethic although in great britain where the puritan work ethic got started workers are guaranteed 20 days off. >> there's no question we're different but it's because we choose to be not because we can't afford to be. we are as rich as the europeans are. we would be a little less rich in material terms if we took more time off as a nation. but we would be-- some of us at least-- happier to do that. >> reporter: this economics professor says it all comes down to a society's position on vacation. is vacation a perk? or is it something that is an essential like good health care, a good job, enough vacation to be healthy and regenerate? >> i don't think it's a perk personally. i a very good job that i love. but what are we doing this for? our jobs if not to have a life. and have a good life. >> you need time off to recharge the batteries and to make yourself happy. >> reporter: alan grayson is adamant that vacation is a right. in fact, he wants to make it a law. >> 69% of all middle class americans say that their number one desire in life is more free time. i think it's do-able. >> reporter: he's in a better position to do than most. since he's a congressman. a freshman democrat from orlando, of course. often called the vacation capital of the world. >> we lead the world in science. we lead the world in innovation. i don't think we need to lead the world in people who can't take a vacation. >> reporter: grayson wants to guarantee at least one week of paid vacation for every worker at a company with 100 or more employees. he says it will lead to greater productivity from well rested and healthier workers. >> we're talking initially about only one week off which is only a quarter of what every european worker has. i mean the old saying is all work and no play makes jack a dull boy. what we're seeing more and more is all work and no play makes jk a dead boy. >> reporter: of course this might not be the best week to point to the ways europeans run their economies as an example. with greece near insolvency, spain also teeltering, and the rest of europe shaken, everything is now on the table as far as easing economic pressures there. well, everything but vacation. >> why is that so? it's because the employers feel that they benefit from that law. primarily because they also feel that it has positive effects on the productivity. >> reporter: this man is germany's consul general here in new york. >> now we had a lot of reforms just recently regarding our work force, fringe benefits, unemployment protection and what have you. nobody-- neither the legislative nor the unions, the employers-- nobody touched the vacation. >> reporter: we sat down with him, the deputy consul from switzerland and denmark's consul general. all three countries have had national vacation laws on the books for decades. >> five weeks i think in denmark, right? >> correct. mandatory. >> reporter: mandatory. >> yes. >> reporter: we're talking about everybody from factory worker to high-priced lawyer. >> yes. it's mandatory. >> reporter: denmark's unemployment rate by the way is 3 points lower than ours at the moment. as for vacation policy in switzerland? >> i think the first paid vacation came in 1937. it was in the watch maker industry. to give the people the possibility to not be overworked and to give the opportunity of feeling more relaxed and more comfortable. >> reporter: wait a minute. you're not worried when you take your vacation that the guy at the next desk is going to get ahead of you while you're gone? >> that's the point of it. if i would be worried about that, you probably wouldn't take a vacation. that's why it's legal its in the law. it's on the books. >> reporter: the u.s. economy with weaker unions than europe and less regulation has higher growth rates and pays higher salaries. but european workers consistently rate themselves more satisfied with the balance in their lives. i have a feeling if i were to run that idea by some members of the business community in the united states, they might say, you know what? that sounds like a european idea. the balance. you laugh. >> yeah, i mean, we think it's a good idea. it's a good foundation for creating a society where you have respect for, let's say, both family life and the working life. >> reporter: some food for thought to throw on the grill this memorial day weekend when you might already be feeling like you won't get nearly enough time off this summer. the rest of the world has a very different recipe when it comes to vacation. >> you can't always attach a price tag to something. there are some things in life that you can't pin down in dollars and cents. >> the bottom line is in europe people have smaller cars but much bigger vacations. in the united states we have bigger cars but much smaller vacations. >> what's up, doc? >> osgood: the answer is just ahead. causing you pain. ok. what is it? dad, it more than doubles your risk of a heart attack or stroke. you better read about plavix. if you have p.a.d., plavix can help protect you from a heart attack or stroke. plavix helps keep blood platelets from sticking together and forming clots, the cause of most heart attacks and strokes. dad, don't put this off. promise me you'll talk with your doctor about plavix? i'll do it. i promise. 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[ female announcer ] talk to your doctor about plavix. as the towel used to dry them. so why use the same hand towel over and over, instead of a clean, fresh one every time? new kleenex® brand hand towels. a clean, fresh towel every time. >> osgood: and now a page from our sunday morning almanac. may 30, 1908, 102 years ago today. day one for a much loved hollywood star or should we say stars? >> what's up, doc? >> osgood: for that was the birthday of mel blanc. he gave voice to all those warner brothers cartoon characters during the goalen age of and i... animation. >> oh, for shame. >> osgood: mel blanc was bugs bunny. >> i bet you monsters lead interesting lives. >> osgood: daffy duck. >> you're here at last and you're mine. all mine. >> osgood: porky pig. >> get out. out, out, out, out! oh, my lunch. >> what do you suppose that puddy-kat is up to now. >> osgood: tweetie and tweetie's nemesis, the sputtering sylvester. >> grammy, smammy. you're my christmas present and i'm a-wrapping you up, kid. >> osgood: and many, many more. >> you better say your prayers. >> we will hear a waltz written by strauss. >> osgood: they didn't call him the man of a thousand voices for nothing. >> there is meant more where he seems to come from. >> say something. explain yourself. your tongue is flapping but no noise is coming out of your big mouth. >> osgood: bugs bunny is almost certainly blanc's best known voice. >> miami beach at last. last one in is a rotten egg. >> osgood: he liked to tell story of how it came to be. >> tell me that he was a tough little stinker and i had to get a tough voice for him. which is tougher? brooklyn or the bronx? so i put the two together. that's how i got the voice for bugs bunny. >> osgood: though mel blanc went on to do the voice. flintstones barny rubble. >> hi, ya, fred. >> osgood: and other hannah barbara characters. he'll always be remembered west for his warner brothers cartoons. >> exit our hero through the front door, stage right. >> osgood: cartoons the studio says it's now about to relaunch. sadly mel blanc won't be the one behind the mike. he died in 1989 at the age of 81. but not before delivering his own epithet. >> that's all, folks. >> osgood: next, how much longer? , sir? boss: we're slammed. tons of people interested in all the money they could be saving by switching to geico... gecko: yeah, 'course. boss: boy, did we miss you last week. that temp wasn't working out at all. exec: took me all morning but i got those quarterly figures for ... you. 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[ woman announcing ] new beneful incredibites. another healthful, flavorful beneful. >> osgood: as we reported earlier, bp said last evening that it's so-called top-kill operation failed to stop the gulf oil leak. don teague has this sunday journal. >> reporter: it's been almost six weeks since the explosion and fire that destroyed the deep water horizon drilling platform killing 11 workers. more than 40 days of oil, gushing at what experts now fear may be a rate of up to a million gallons a day. and more failure at every attempt to stop the flow. the latest failure, the so- called top-kill procedure of sealing the well with mud, cement and bits of junk confirmed yesterday by bp chief operatoring officer doug suttles. >> after three full days of attempting top kill we have been unable to overcome the flow from the well. >> reporter: a new setback for a gulf of mexico disaster that's been described as a hurricane katrina in slow motion. scientists are now tracking a plume of oil 10 to 15 miles long, some 3300 feet below the ocean surface. every day more of that oil washes up on beaches or into delicate marshes, more birds and marine life perish. and more tourists, key to the gulf economy, are driven away. and the people who depend on these once clear waters to make a living are driven closer to bankruptcy. people like fishing guide jeff brumfield. >> this is the beginning of our entire eco-system. this is where the shrimp and the fish and everything starts in this marsh. if it kills this marsh grass, the entire eco-system is gone. >> reporter: memorial day weekend is supposed to be the high season here at grand isle, louisiana. ordinarily these beaches would be packed with tourists, but this weekend they're empty. clean-up workers, the only people out, in large numbers. >> a lot of people don't understand, you know, this is our gulf shore. this is where we're from. we need to protect it. >> reporter: questions are mounting about bp's efforts to clean up the spill. yesterday the company responded to charges that an army of workers that suddenly appeared around the time of president obama's visit friday was largely there for show. >> this was not window dressing. if you went there today, you would find people... i just flew over it. there are people there working today. >> reporter: bp announced yesterday plans for the building of tent cities and even floating camps to house clean-up workers so they can spend more time at work. and the next step? the company says it will now cut off the well's broken, gushing riser pipe and try to replace it with a new riser to help capture the oil. that would be the next option to stop the flow but it takes a little longer to do that. >> reporter: but all the while, the waters of the gulf of mexico, like the emotions of those who live here, grow a little darker. >> osgood: a set with the rolling stones is next. and later, remembering dennis hopper. >> i had my moment where i was completely out of control. ♪ >> it's sunday morning on cbs, and here again is charles osgood. >> osgood: that's from exile on main street, the classic 1972 rolling stones album that's just been rereleased. this is the rock music novel evening's empire just released by our friend bill flannagan of mtv. as you might expect our mr. flanagan is a stones' fan of longstanding. >> reporter: the rolling stones have been around for 48 years! ♪ >> reporter: for the first half of that time they concentrated on making records, many of which were fantastic. ♪ for the second 24 years the stones focused their energy on spectacular concerts. ♪ now as the 50-year mark approaches, the stones have are finally entering their retrospective phase. this can be very lucrative. the beatles have been repackaging their legacy for 40 years and a lot of us still get excited every time they open the vault. the stones have never done it. they never looked back. ♪ big news for rock fans. they have lately remastered, rereleased and added bonus material to one of their greatest albums "exile on main street." mick jagger, the least sentimental of rock stars, has at last dipped his toe into the river of retrospection. those of us who swim in that stream could not be happier. in the spring of 1972 the beatles had broken up. dylan was in seclusion and hendricks was dead. the stones had claimed the mantle of greatest rock'n'roll band in the world with three home runs in a row. ♪ exile on main street was the topper. geometry and chemistry homework went out the window as we sprawled with our heads between the speakers trying to figure out what mick jagger was saying. ♪ at first it sounded like jagger's voice was mixed so far down that it took about ten listens to hear him above the avalanche of guitars, piano, horns and drums. that was the beauty of exile. you had to play it loud just to make out what was going on. it sounded like it had been recorded in a stinky, sweaty basement, which it turned out it had. the words that finally emerged were a tour of the underside of the mythical american self. juke joints, gunmen, smugglers, diamonds, disease and loose many married to gospel songs and robert johnson records. it was the first summer of watergate and the last summer of vietnam. so there were also lyrics about black radicals, revolutionaries on trial and million dollar protest movies. exile captured all the anxiety, tension and sheer psychic overload of a moment when the old culture seemed to be coming apart and no one had any idea what might replace it. ♪ those of us who were there never got over it. those who missed it can now hear what all the fuss was about. i hope this is the start of the third era of the rolling stones, bringing up the diamonds from the mine. >> osgood: still to come, art that's a real steal. okay, one more time. where do we stand? less travel? more video conferences? limit the cell phone minutes. that's not good enough. we're not leaving this room unless we can cut something else. can they really keep us here? what about all this stuff? what stuff? all this stuff. what does it cost to create all this? time, effort, people. how much? it could be millions. ♪ millions. 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[ male announcer ] we call it the american renewal. because ge capital understands what businesses need to grow. that's why today ge capital provides critical financing to more than 300,000 growing companies. ♪ >> osgood: what do these paintings have in common? they've all been stolen from a museum in paris earlier this month. our mark fim ipz is on the case. >> reporter: there's an art to stealing art but it's not what you think it is. whoever stole the picasso, the matisse and others from the paris museum of moden art, leaving only these frames behind, may have pulled off the biggest art heist ever, total value over $100 million. by simply sniping a lock and breaking a window. there was no high-tech alarm system to foil. it was broken awaiting a part. art theft can be mundane and not that clever. ask charlie hill, retired koch. ... retired cop. >> that's the dumb nut approach. >> reporter: hill should know. hill recovered the screen. >> yesterday the two most famous ones, they were stolen. >> reporter: on a dark february night in oslo in 1994 while the rest of norway was watching the winter olympic games in lillehammer, four men in what looked at times like a keystone cop operation climbed up a ladder and stole a version of the famous painting. they left a note saying thanks for the poor security. as an american working as a scotland yard detective, hill posed as the man from the getty, an art buyer from the l.a. gallery which cooperated with the british and norwegian sting operation that retrieved the art work and nabbed the crooks. you were posing as a buyer. >> mid atlantic accented dodgey art dealer. there are more than a few. >> reporter: hill will tell you the art thieves he's dealt with-- and there are more than a few of them too-- often don't live up to their billing. >> i think... you think of him as made of money and drugs and prostitution rings. all the sort of things he's made his money on. now he's into trophy art. that's what these guys are like. >> reporter: is it as profitable more dangerous? >> given the sentences these guys get and the fact that nobody will buy the stuff from them on the open market it's the dumbest thing they can do. >> reporter: stealing a work of art is a lot like buying a new car. as soon as you take it out of the show room it depreciates by as much as 90%. >> that's being recovered. >> reporter: this is one of the reasons. >> we have 180,000 stolen or missing items on the database. >> reporter: julian radcliff's business is keeping tabs on the world's stolen art. there's plenty of it. >> there are a thousand stolen picassos on the database. >> reporter: thousands of stolen picassos? a piece comes on to the market somewhere at an auction house or potential buyer can check it here to see if it's hot. >> those who steal the art won't put them up for public sale. they sell them to fences and low-grade dealers of dubious reputations who will then try and sell them privately either to unwitting collectors or to other dealers. they will avoid them going into the auction houses. but sooner or later, the people who bought them perhaps who didn't know they were stolen may offer them for sale in an art fair or in an auction house. we then have a very good chance of finding them. >> reporter: but the stolen art sometimes has another use. as a money laundering device. if criminals, say drug dealers, can't lose large sums of cash around for payments, they can move works of art. it becomes a kind of currency. >> it's a way of moving, as it were, relatively large value round the world at a time when.... >> reporter: in small packages. >> in portable packages when the banks are looking very carefully for any extraordinary movements of cash or of international money transactions. so it's easier, for example, to take a million dollar picture from country a to country b than it is to move a million dollars any other way. >> reporter: or the art is used as collateral form debts, occasionally its ransom back to the museum from which it was stolen. rarely is it what we imagine it to be. famous works stolen to order for shady people to hang in their private collections. >> the first thing to do is to put out of your mind about captain nemo's room covered in these stolen master pieces or in dr. no or mr. big saying i want that rembrandt. i've seen it enough to know that you're looking for it in my private palace. no. too risky for them. somebody is going to tell them that been seen and that's the way it works. there's no honor among people like that. >> reporter: even with the current recession-caused crash in art prices, there are still big new-money collectors in russia and asia. artery mains tempting. not that long ago at this london auction, this picasso went for more than $8 million. this degas, $26.5 million and this monet, a staggering $80 million. with prices like these art work becomes a pretty attractive target especially when compared to other kinds of wealth. part of its value comes from its exposure. its exposure make it vulnerable. the art thieves though are going about it the regard way. there are subtler and easier ways to make an illicit killing in the art work. >> the fraudsters, the fakers, the guys that give me bogus at becauses and all of that sort of thing, that's where people make money in the art world as far as criminals are concerned. >> reporter: as for the second- story men who stole the monk? >> all they need to do is go back to school, get a bit of education and become a dealer and a dodgey one at that. >> reporter: maybe this figure isn't screaming at all. maybe it's laughing. >> osgood: next [ beeping ] ♪ my country ♪ 'tis of thee ♪ sweet land ♪ of liberty ♪ of thee i sing [ laughs ] ♪ oh, land ♪ where my fathers died ♪ land of the pilgrims' pride ♪ from every mountainside ♪ let freedom ring ♪ ♪ let freedom ring >> osgood: this memorial day weekend began with news that the united states had suffered its 1,000th direct from direct military action in afghanistan. in iraq, the u.s. death toll stands at 4,400. our national security that's one less than it might have been. >> reporter: no one ever came closer to becoming one of the fallen than brendan morocco. died three times. came back. >> reporter: died three times. flat pulse? >> yeah, flatout dead. >> reporter: it happened easter sunday 2009 in northern iraq. when an iranian made roadside bomb launched a red hot project tile into his vehicle. >> it went straight through my door, took both arms, my left leg off completely. and my right leg was still attached a little bit. it killed my gunner and best friend. >> reporter: what do you remember? >> i remember the flash, the sounds. ridiculously loud. i remember all the screaming in the truck try to go see who was hurt. i had no idea i was hurt because i didn't feel anything. after that, i remember waking up in the hospital. >> reporter: he woke up as the only soldier to have survived the loss of all four limbs. you got a nasty scar on your neck. >> yeah. it severed my carotid artery. that alone should have killed me. >> reporter: why didn't you bleed to death? >> the dart was molten, extremely hot. cauterized my wounds. i was barely bleeding from them. >> reporter: the same weapon that took all your body parts saved your life. >> completely. >> reporter: imagine, 22 years old. waking up to find you have no arms or legs. happy to trying to figure out if you're the guy world. of both i guess. >> reporter: the physical therapy room at walter reed is filled with young men who are more than 1,000 servicemen and women have lost an arm or a leg over the course of the wars in iraq and afghanistan. 20% of them have lost more than one. brendan was the first to come in here without any limbs but now there is a second. a marine from afghanistan who is not yet ready to appear on television. you can only hope he has the same frame of mind as brendan. >> i just want to keep progressing and keep going and keep doing more stuff. i just don't want to live a life that i just sit and do nothing with my life. >> reporter: that mean learning to walk again on prosthetic legs. >> i love walking. i love it. i'm not at the point where i can wear them all the time. i wish i was. >> reporter: do you think you'll get there? >> of course, yeah. no doubt about it. i will. >> reporter: brendan knows the answer to a question the rest of us will never have to face. which is harder: the lack of arms or the lack of legs? >> the lack of arms by far. >> reporter: by far. >> i mean i can't reach into a fridge and take out a drink. i can't, you know, open up a can of soda. there's just so much that you can do with your arms that you don't realize it until they're gone. >> reporter: without arms, you can't push your wheelchair. brendan has got someone to help with that. his financee, kate. amid all his pain and loss, walter incredible he's going to do some great things in his life. >> reporter: beginning with new arms and not artificial ones. >> i have, you know, arms just like you. >> reporter: he's talking about arm transplants, a technique still in its infancy. former marine josh malone who received a hand transplant told cbs news's wyatt andrews what a difference it made. >> i can feel a lot of things. cold. >> reporter: brendan is talking about a quantum leap beyond that. which arm are you going to get this? >> both. both arms actually. >> reporter: so they can do an arm transplant above the elbow? >> they can, yeah. they've done one or two so far where i'm going. >> reporter: that's true. but there are endless complications including the anti-rejection drugs he would have to take for the rest of his life. which would increase the risk of a fatal infection. none of which discourages brendan. playing some wheelchair basketball once i get my arms. >> reporter: it's a long, long road which at times must seem it would be so easy to be bitter. >> a lot of guys are. >> reporter: you just don't seem to have that in you. >> i don't know what it is. but i'm very fortunate. very fortunate to not have that outlook. >> reporter: when you first see brendan, it's hard to think of him as very fortunate. after you talk with him, you understand exactly what he means. >> join in. >> osgood: coming up, like father, like son? warren and peter buffet. but just ahead, dennis hopper, larger than life legend. >> one thing i promised myself way. >> come on. get in. you get back in there. you get this train moving. go on. are these seats taken? >> it's sunday morning on cbs and here again is charles osgood. >> reporter: that's dennis hopper in the 1994 movie speed. movie goers of every generation were saddened by news of his death yet from cancer at the age of 74. this morning rita braver looks back on the visit she paid him not long ago. >> reporter: we met dennis hopper two years ago in the desert of new mexico. as we watched him do take after take of a scene for a tv series he was working on, it made us wonder, is it still fun for you? >> absolutely. i love it. >> you want to go back to that plantation joint? you go right ahead. >> reporter: he was clearly relishing the role of ben senders, a hard-living music producer in the tv series "crash," based on the academy- award winning movie. >> have you ever cocked a gun, >> i'm scared of a black man with a gun. >> reporter: predictably it was an over-the-top role for a man whose over-the-top life was the stuff of hollywood legend. still he reminded us.... >> i've been sober for 24 years. i haven't had any hard narcotics or alcohol in 24 years. but i had my moment that (laughing) that i was completely out of control. >> reporter: indeed "easy rider." the ground-breaking 1969 film that he co-starred in, co-wrote and directed was in large part hopper's personal reflection on a drug-fueled counterculture movement he was part of in the 1960s. did you have any realization that this film was going to be something that most people say changed film history? >> well, i wanted it to be that. i always thought of it as a time capsule that would show what it was like during the period of time that it was made. easy rider is my baby. i loved it. >> reporter: hopper is so identified with easy rider.... there. kill something. >> reporter: that it's easy to forget he was in more than 100 movies and scores of television shows. >> your family will be joining you soon. >> reporter: dennis hopper grew up far from hollywood in dodge city, kansas. his dad, a u.s. intelligence officer who later managed a post office. his mom, a state champion swimmer. but it was his grandmother who took him to the movies. >> i see the old cow boy movies. hop along cassidy and the singing cowboys. roy rogers and gene autry. i just wanted to know how i got out of dodge city. how do you get out of dodge? >> reporter: he did get out. when he was 13. his family moved to san diego where dennis started acting at the old globe theater. >> she's dead. >> reporter: by 17, he snagged his first hollywood job as a boy with epilepsy in an episode of the tv show. >> after it aired seven studios called me and wanted to put me under contract. >> reporter: he took a job with warner brothers and landed a small role in the james dean natalie wood classic "rebel without a cause." what was it like working on that amazing film? >> well, it it was great. incredible. having an affair with natalie. >> reporter: you were? >> yeah. >> reporter: wait, you were having an affair with natalie wood? >> yeah. >> reporter: that must have been fun. >> that was good, yeah. i was 18 years old. it was wonderful. let's see. watching james dean work was just a miracle. i had never seen anybody intro vies. in shakespeare you don't go jumping off the page and saying other people's words. >> reporter: what were you like as a young actor? >> very ambitious. >> reporter: and very stubborn. while making the 1958 film "from hell to texas," hopper refused to follow instructions from director henry hathaway during one scene. how many takes did you do, do you know? >> well, i worked from 7:00 in the morning until 11:00 at night. finally i started crying. i said, okay, just tell me what you want. he said i want you to do this. i did it. i walked out of the studio. that was it. >> reporter: in fact it seem to be the end of his film career. nobody would hire you. >> no. you don't have to pass a ball around. everybody in hollywood knew that hopper had flipped out. >> reporter: he concentrated on television and theater and another life-long passion: art. his los angeles home was filled with work he made over the years. >> i took that photograph and made it into an oil painting. >> reporter: throughout the '60s hopper photographed his friends in hollywood and in the art world. >> i bought andy warhol's first soup can painting for $75. i bought a "sinking sun" for $1100 out of roy's studio. that sold last year for $17 million,870,000. >> reporter: were you the seller? >> no, no unfortunately. my ex-wife got it in a divorce. >> reporter: hopper was repeatedly divorced. his ex-wives include the actress and model brook heyward and michelle phillips of the mamas and the papas. that was a short one. >> that was for eight days. >> reporter: eight days. >> we lived together for a year-and-a-half and were married for eight days. >> reporter: those were wild times for hopper. he finally got back to film in the mid '60s with sons of katie elder. hired by the same director who had banished him. this time hopper followed every instruction. >> he gives me every line reading, every turn, everything to do. and i do it. he comes up to me with a cigar in his mouth. he said that was beautiful. tears are coming down his eyes. that was just great, kid. that was great. you're so good. i said you see, henry, i told you i'm a much better actor now than i was eight years ago. he said you're not a better actor, kid. you're not better. you're just smarter. you're smarter. >> reporter: his career flourished. >> the man is clear in his mind but his soul is mad. >> reporter: but even when he was doing his best work, drugs and alcohol were taking over his life. >> my last five years of drinking, i was drinking half a gallon of rum with a fifth of rum on the side every day. with 28 beers and three grams of cocaine just to maintain. >> reporter: there's a story that you ended up sort of raving out in the jungle in mexico when you were making a film. true. >> reporter: you've been in this house or these houses the first one started when? what year sfwh. >> i guess 24 years ago. 25. >> reporter: when we talked with hopper in 2008, he told us that he had bought this l.a. home after a difficult detox. >> what has my drinking got to do with my knowledge about basketball. >> reporter: that was about the same time hopper managed to revive his career. even earning an oscar nomination playing an alcoholic basketball coach in hoosiers. in 1996, he married his fifth wife victoria duffy. when we visited, that marriage was still going strong. >> i thought he was cute. i thought he was smart and funny and interesting. and the rest went from there. >> reporter: but earlier this year, there were reports that hopper had filed for divorce. all told, leaves four children and two grandchildren. he also leaves a legacy worthy of a hollywood movie. filled with the unexpected. consider this. in 2008, dennis hopper had his own exhibit at the cinema-tech in paris, paying homage to him as an artist and collector as well as an actor. he even received the legion of honor, france's highest award from the minister of culture. >> one thing i promised myself was i wasn't going to cry. maybe that's not possible. >> reporter: which back then prompted us to ask him... are you surprised these days to find yourself such an upstanding soul? >> upstanding soul i'm not surprised about. that i'm still standing i'm surprised about. >> reporter: perhaps no one appreciated the long, strange life of dennis hopper more than dennis hopper himself. ♪ >> osgood: next, pictures that were anything but a snap. 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[ female announcer ] not good pizza. with lean cuisine you never have to compromise on pizza or anything else yummy, because you always get delicious and nutritious. you want hot and crispy? have hot and crispy. and cheese? bring it on. check the glossary in the back of the book. there's no "compromise" in there. and about that question on page 17... plaid is huge this year. lean cuisine. keep life delicious. ♪ a day once dawned ♪ ♪ and it was beautiful ♪ ♪ so, look, see the sights ♪ that you learned [ male announcer ] at&t covers 97% of all americans. get your grad or dad the exclusive samsung strive for just $19.99. only from at&t. >> osgood: how many people does it take to make a photograph? in the case of some unusual photographers, u.s. means us, lots of us. the big picture now from serena altschul. >> reporter: from a distance, it's just a picture of a flag. or an eagle. here's the liberty bell. but look again. >> only when you get closer do you realize that this image is actually formed by something. then you get even closer and you realize they're people. >> reporter: dr. robert lurch collects people pictures, photographs formed by posing large groups of people. truly a cast of thousands. >> this photograph, i believe, hold the record for the largest number of people in a picture. >> reporter: gallery owner frank marecsca. >> from the tip of the shield to the bottom of the stars, you might have 2,000 people. but if you're talking about the last row of stars, you would probably have 20,000 people. at least. >> reporter: that's because to maintain proper perspective, many more men had to be placed in the distance than up close. unbelieveably, it took 30,000 men for this human shield, created by arthur mole and john thomas in 1918. >> mole and thomas were the people that really sort of popularized this form of photography beginning at about world war i. >> reporter: these living pictures caught on. between the two world wars, other photographers like goldbeck took them too. most of the people in the mole and thomas photos are soldiers, military formations of american symbols. >> it was really pure patriotism, love of the country. >> reporter: mole and tom always lived outside chicago and started off shooting religious images with members of their church. later soldiers on military bases volunteered for the cause. 10,000 naval officers and men lined up for this photograph included in a book called painting with people. put together by mole's descendents. using a special cameras, they took pictures perched atop custom-built 80-foot towers. >> this was a pretty rickety structures. i don't know that i would want to climb 80 feet up in the air and put a camera up there. >> reporter: in this image of the statue of liberty, the huddled masses numbered 15,000 for her flame and torch just 17 for the base. the camera was a quarter of a mile away. >> the areas in the photograph that appear to be lighter which we use to define lines were military personnel without their hats on. >> reporter: uniforms of different colors were used to color the lighter dark details turning the soldiers into human mixals. >> it's really hard to believe that they exist. no photo shop. >> reporter: right. bt president woodrow wilson was said to have been so impressed with his image that he invited mole and thomas to the white house. >> usually these were shot in the summertime. you can see the white area of woodrow wilson's face here. all the lucky soldiers are all wearing their white t-shirts. the people who are making up the hair are in their woolen hot clothing. >> reporter: there are 8,000 men apart the part in woodrow wilson's hair. proof that one picture can be worth at least a,000 words. particularly if it's made up of many thousands of people. >> osgood: up next, the business of family. with warren and peter buffet. can i help you? i'm sandy and i heard you've been struggling with the quilt. i'm here to take you through my 1-step program to break the quilted habit. but i've always used quilted towels. quilted is towel speak for air. but viva puts 35% more towel between you and the mess. wow, 35% more? are you ready to take that 1-step to see what an unquilted viva towel can do? yes, i'm ready. beautiful. 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[ male announcer ] now with 0% apr for 60 months. it's a whole new volkswagen. and a whole new game. >> osgood: buffet and son isn't the name of a formal business partnership but does represent sort of a low-key financial arrangement you may find quite surprising. tracy smith will explain. >> reporter: if the annual berkshire hathaway shareholders meeting in omaha nebraska is wood stock for capitalists, then warren buffet is its rock star. the gecko, is he australian or british. >> australian. >> reporter: lethally entertaining an army of reporters and some 37,000 shareholders while promoting his passions for and investments in candy, coca-cola and his latest acquisition railroads. ♪ strumming on the old bang owe ♪ >> reporter: this year in the quest center exhibition hall along with the lizard, the m&ms and an entire library of buffet-inspired reading, another buffet, warren's son peter sat quietly signing his own book. about his own life's journey as an emmy-award winning musician. >> thank you very much. >> reporter: his sister susie stopped by to help boost cd sales. >> and the christmas one which is my favorite christmas cd. i'm not saying that because it's my brother. >> walking to public school everyday. >> reporter: once you meet the buffet kids, the thought that occurs to you is the one peter gets asked so often. >> you're warren buffet's son. you're so normal. why shouldn't i be normal. >> reporter: perhaps there are a billion reasons but when you walk around the omaha neighborhood where the buffets grew up in the modest house their father bought in 1958 and still lives in, you begin to understand. >> it's kind of a an ideal i can mid western upbringing. it's great. >> reporter: when you say idyllic, does that anything to do with money. >> nothing to do with money. of course my dad wasn't as healthy then either. but we had no idea really even what he was doing. let alone that he was making a lot of money. >> reporter: as if on cue on the day we were there, omaha really is a small town after all, susie buffet drove by and stopped to concur. did you know what your dad did when you were growing up? >> well, i mean i knew he sat in the house reading. >> reporter: even more surprisingly although warren buffet has made and given away tens of billions of dollars, not even one billion or one million for that matter has gone to the buffet children for their personal use. >> i don't think just because they came out of the right womb that they're entitled to live a life of doing nothing. i followed a dictum basically of if you're very rich you should give your kids enough so they can do anything. but not enough so they can do nothing. >> very yoda like. >> reporter: what each of the three buffet children received on their 19th birthday were shares of berkshire hathaway stock. when peter got his 600 shares, he cashed them in for $90,000 and dropped out of stam forward university to pursue his passion for music. >> if i hadn't done anything, i'd have over $70 million now. that's the usual response. of course, the question is well don't you wish you had it. the answer is no. i mean i have a life.... >> reporter: come on! >> it's true. i have a life that's mine. >> reporter: i think in retrospect. >> you're speechless. >> reporter: i am speechless. (laughing). >> it's either your money or your life basically and i'll choose the life. >> reporter: the life peter buffet chose has been made not only into a book but a performance which he calls a concert and conversation. >> i was sad and upset about something. i knew yankee doodle so what i did is i went to the piano and i played yankee doodle in a minor key. it was after dinner and my dad was reading the paper. you know very diligently. i was wanting to get my point across. i went over there and i went (playing yankee doodle in a minor key) >> reporter: you remember that? >> i don't remember that. >> somehow i had a feeling you wouldn't. >> reporter: in the 1980s as a struggling musician, peter wrote some jingles for a little start-up cable concern called mtv. and then there were commercials. and movies. including the fire dance theme in dances with wolves. did you ever want peter or your other kids to go into the family business? >> not particularly. but if they decided they wanted to, that would have been fine. >> reporter: did you show any of that entrepreneur spirit when you were that age? >> not really. >> reporter: peter tried selling papers as his dad had famously done but it didn't last long. >> after, i don't know, a year or so i abandoned that. again he took it to these heights of paper route lore that i never quite reached. >> reporter: while peter has 15 records to his name, his fondest musical moment may have been the simplest one. a father-son duet, piano and ukelele last fall at the center for media in beverly hills. ♪ ain't she sweet? join in. >> the ukelele and the piano don't go over so well. almost everything drowns out a ukelele. that's the nature of it. but in my case that's not a bad thing. >> reporter: they may not share the same talents but they have something far more important in common. something warren pointed out to his son a few years ago and peter never forgot. >> he said, you know, pete, you and i really do the same thing. berkshire is my canvas. i paint a little bit everyday. you do the creative things with your music. >> reporter: what was like that to hear your dad say? >> huge. he was walking out the door. by the way. >> oh, wow. that's profound. >> reporter: they're close but not always in agreement. a few years ago nicole, one of peter's adopted daughters, made headlines when she complained that her grandfather wouldn't pay her bills. >> i thought she should fly on her own at some point. >> reporter: you treated her the same way as you treated your own kids. i've given you this much. >> yeah. you're not entitled. just because your name is buffet you don't get a free ride in life. >> reporter: you like ice cream for breakfast? >> i do but i also like it for lunch and dinner. >> reporter: still the father- son relationship seems, can we say it, sweet. if i eat this three times a day i'll have a billion dollars? >> you'll meet a guy with a billion dollars. >> reporter: and just in case you're thinking the buffet children are waiting for their inheritance, keep this in mind. in 1996, warren buffet announced that he would give away virtually all of his fortune. about $37 billion by best estimates. each of the buffet kids got a billion dollars to give away. peter's charity, the novo foundation, is is dedicated to educating young women and girls in third world countries. i mean, you were probably the foremost authority in the world at assessing businesses, nurturing them, knowing when to invest in them. are there similarities between that and raising kids? >> i'm betting on people. the big difference is i can choose businesses i can buy. >> good point. >> you can't put them up for sale, kids, that is. you better make it work. nothing. you don't enjoy things the way you used to. you're sad. anxious. maybe you feel guilty. fatigued. then there's the aches and pains. cymbalta can help. cymbalta treats many symptoms of depression. tell your doctor right away if your depression worsens, you have unusual changes in behavior, or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta is not approved for children under 18. people taking maois or thioridazine or with uncontrolled glaucoma should not take cymbalta. taking it with nsaid pain relievers, aspirin, or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. severe liver problems, some fatal, were reported. signs include abdominal pain and yellowing of the skin or eyes. talk with your doctor about your medicines, including those for migraine, or if you have high fever, confusion and stiff muscles, to address a possible life-threatening condition. tell your doctor about alcohol use, liver disease, and before you reduce or stop taking cymbalta. dizziness or fainting may occur upon standing. side effects include nausea, dry mouth, and constipation. ask your doctor about cymbalta. go to cymbalta.com to learn about a free trial offer. depression hurts. cymbalta can help. [ male announcer ] we call it the american renewal. because ge capital understands what businesses need to grow. that's why today ge capital provides critical financing to more than 300,000 growing companies. ♪ >> osgood: bob schieffer and i are not among those americans who will not be taking any time off this summer. john dickerson is filling in for him today. good morning, john. what's in store on face the nation. >> good morning. the best effort to shut down this well has failed. we'll talk to a top bp executive about what is next. we'll talk to carol browner about what the administration can do. then we'll talk to bp critic congressman ed markey. >> osgood: thank you, john dickerson, we'll be watching. ahead now here on sunday morning.... >> 1884. john keller. >> osgood: the real meaning of memorial day. le, but when it's hard or hurts to go to the bathroom, there's dulcolax stool softener. dulcolax stool softener doesn't make you go... it just makes it easier to go. dulcolax stool softener. make yourself comfortable. as long as there's sun, you and your family can go have fun. because banana boat blocks up to 96% of harmful uva and uvb rays. so you can go, go, go, confident you're protected from sunburn and long-term skin damage. banana boat. we've got you covered. >> osgood: les we forget what memorial day is really all about, we offer this reminder from bill geist. >> reporter: new gravesite flags flutter row upon row as if vying for a little attention amidst a memorial day weekend swirl of beaches, boats and backyard barbecues. it's easy to forget that this holiday is meant to honor soldiers who died in our wars. >> thomas whitmore. >> reporter: but wayne van doren never forgets. he's been placing flags at the graves of veterans since he was a boy. >> this is my uncle. he started it about '46. >> reporter: he used to tag along when his uncle and father began putting out flags upon their return from world war ii. >> this is my dad. his navy picture. that's me. and my mom. >> reporter: how old are you in that picture? >> five. >> reporter: shortly thereafter you started planting flags. >> about a year or two years later. it's all in alphabetical order. >> reporter: wayne takes a painstakingly methodical approach to this family tradition. >> i go through the obituaries as they come out daily. i'll cut them out. the next day or the day after i'll go to the site where that man was buried and mark it on our map so we can keep track of him. >> reporter: these are all veterans. >> where we highlighted them and pencil them in. >> reporter: he checks with veterans organization and county records to update his lists and maps. why is it important to be that meticulous about it? >> i just felt that it was important that everybody on the list was accounted for. i think everybody should be recognized for what they've given. they've earned it. >> reporter: on a sunny spring day this past week.... >> that will be plenty to get us back to here. >> reporter: wayne and his son mark set out to begin planting 1227 flags at six cemeteries near their home in clyde, ohio. >> harold keith. >> world war ii. got him. >> sanford, civil war. >> yes. what do you think that iss mark? can you read it. some of the head stones are getting very, very old and the letters are wearing off. so to keep track of them, i've magic markered the names. william fuller, 1884. john keller. >> reporter: they call out each name as they go. >> david parker. spanish-american war. >> phineas stevens. cynthia dowd. >> world war ii. >> steve kegan. >> we speak their name outloud and we speak the name outloud because that name is is probably not been spoken for many years. >> good to see you. good to see you too. >> reporter: another of wayne's sons, john and his daughters arrived to help. >> thanks for showing up. we need the help. do you want to do section 6 with one of your boys. >> reporter: in all wayne three sons, six grandchildren, and his sister all join in the ritual. >> forest bar. >> reporter: it takes three generations of van dorens to take on the large mcpherson cemetery. almost a thousand flags. >> good job. >> reporter: they range from generals.... >> that's general mcpherson himself. >> reporter: to privates. soldiers from the revolutionary war to middle east conflicts. >> that's the medal of honor flag. plus he gets a u.s. flag. >> reporter: medal of honor winners. to unknown soldiers. >> there's a lot of these veterans that get forgotten. so i like to carry on. it gives me a great feeling of satisfaction and pride, accomplishment. >> reporter: do you feel like it's your duty. >> no, it's a privilege. thomas jackson. >> reporter: poet carl sandberg told us that grass covers all. all signs of battles and all memories of fallen soldiers. >> george myers. >> reporter: he never met the van doren family. ♪ what if one little pop ♪ could open a world of wonder ? ♪ ♪ so sensory ♪ so satisfying ♪ the discovery ♪ never seems to stop ♪ ♪ it's the magic friskies ♪ ♪ makes happen ♪ every day ♪ in so many ways ♪ friskies ♪ feed the senses ♪ friskies host: could switching to geico 15% or more on car insurance? @ host: does elmer fudd have trouble with the letter r? elmer: shhhh, be very quiet; i'm hunting wabbits. director (o/c): ok cut!!!! uh...it's i'm hunting "rabbits," elmer. let's try that again. elmer: shhhh, i'm hunting wabbits. director (o/c): cuuuuut! rabbits. elmer: wabbits director (o/c): rabbits. elmer: wabbits. director (o/c): rabbits with an "r." elmer: aw...this diwector's starting to wub me the wong way. vo: geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more. as they do at the beginning ? only air optix® contact lens materials have tricomfort™ technology. they let up to five times more oxygen through the lens than traditional soft contact lenses... ...are designed to retain moisture for comfort all day long... and have superior deposit resistance for cleaner lenses. air optix®, the lens you can survive a long day in. go to airoptix.com for a free one-month trial offer. >> osgood: we leave you this sunday morning before memorial day in antietam maryland why union and confederate soldiers fought the bloodiest one-day battle of the civil war. we wish all of you a happy holiday weekend and hope you'll join us again next sunday morning. captioning made possible by johnson & johnson, where quality products for the american family have been a tradition for generations i stand before you today... to apologize. the system has failed you. i have failed you. i have failed to help you share your talent with the world when the world needs talent more than ever. yet, it's being wasted every day... by an educational system steeped in tradition and old ideas. well, it's time for a new tradition. it's time to realize talent isn't just in schools like this one, it's everywhere. it's time to use technology to rewrite the rules of education, to learn how you learn so we can teach you better. it's time the university adapted to you, rather than you adapting to it. it's time--time--time for a different--different kind of university. it's your time.