Dennis Hopper The wild ride of a Hollywood rebel

Dennis Hopper: The Wild Ride of a Hollywood Rebel is the first book to cover the entire life and career of flamboyant actor-director Dennis Hopper.

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.

Fans of Hopper, film buffs, baby boomers, and readers who are into celebrity scandals will enjoy this account of the man who hung out with James Dean and Elvis Presley, created the counterculture classic Easy Rider, and made an incredible comeback in Blue Velvet, overcoming years of alcoholism and drug addiction.

Reviews

Peter Winkler's worthy and well-researched biography pays due attention to Hopper's achievements

Irish Independent

this enjoyable, well-researched and clear-eyed biography doubles as a cultural history

Ian Pindar, The Guardian

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