Dennis Hopper: The Wild Ride of a Hollywood Rebel

by Peter L. Winkler

A true American rebel, Dennis Hopper's amazing life was a roller-coaster series of triumphs and failures. Hopper acted in more than 115 movies, directed seven himself, and passionately pursued an artist's life as a photographer, creator and art collector. This book explores Hopper's life from his lonely childhood in Kansas, to his drug-fuelled days and nights in Hollywood and his spiritual home in Taos, New Mexico. From Hopper's early days in Hollywood, where he had an affair with 16-year-old Natalie Wood and took acting lessons from James Dean, his '60s head trips and the making of Easy Rider, his lost years in Taos, to his recovery and political right-turn in the '80s, this book unsparingly documents his journey from self-destructive bad boy to iconic survivor of the counterculture. It also delves into Hopper's tumultuous personal life, including his dramatic attempt to divorce his last wife while he battled terminal cancer. This is the first book to cover the entire life and career of the man who hung out with James Dean, Elvis Presley, and Jack Nicholson, co-starred in and directed Easy Rider, and returned to form in Blue Velvet, overcoming years of alcoholism and drug addiction. This is a must-have for Hopper's fans, film buffs, and readers hooked on celebrity scandals.