Easy Rider is a 1969 American road movie written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern, produced by Fonda and directed by Hopper. It tells the story of two bikers (played by Fonda and Hopper) who travel through the American Southwest and South. The success of Easy Rider helped spark the New Hollywood phase of film making during the early 1970s. The film was added to the Library of Congress National Registry in 1998.
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A landmark counterculture film, and a “touchstone for a generation” that “captured the national imagination”, Easy Rider explores the societal landscape, issues, and tensions in the United States during the 1960s, such as the rise and fall of the hippie movement, drug use, and communal lifestyle. In Easy Rider, real drugs were used in scenes showing the use of marijuana and other substances.
Dennis Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. He made his first television appearance in 1955, and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Giant (1956). Over the next ten years, Hopper appeared frequently on television in guest roles, and by the end of the 1960s had played supporting roles in several films.
He directed and starred in Easy Rider (1969), winning an award at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay) as co-writer. He had a featured role in Apocalypse Now (1979). He subsequently appeared in Rumble Fish (1983) and The Osterman Weekend (1983), and received critical recognition for his work in Blue Velvet and Hoosiers, with the latter film garnering him an Academy Award nomination for best Supporting Actor. He directed Colors (1988). Hopper starred in the 1990 Motion Picture Flashback which was inspired by the 1960s Love Movement. He also played the villain in Speed (1994). A total of six films starring Dennis Hopper have been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. Hopper died of prostate cancer on May 29, 2010, 12 days after his 74th birthday and two months after he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
