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Hopper: A Journey into the American Dream
A rollicking biography of Dennis Hopper, the actor, activist, artist, and wild man who died in May 2010. As unconventional a biography as Dennis was a man, Hopper charts his roller coaster life and career, through the lens of the landscape of American popular culture.
The chopper-riding hippie outlaw in Easy Rider. The prophetic madman in the jungle in Apocalypse Now. The terrifying psychopath in Blue Velvet. The kid gone wrong in Rebel Without a Cause. The actor taken under the wing of James Dean, a friendship that set Hopper on his path to becoming a star. A quintessentially American dreamer longing to be the next Orson Welles. The hell-raising director who revolutionized Hollywood.
A rebel, an icon, an addict plagued by demons, and an art collector who bought one of the first Andy Warhol soup cans, the roller-coaster life and career of Dennis Hopper is one of the great American stories. His cinematic adventure kicks off in the Dust Bowl with a boy from Dodge City, Kansas who dreams of going to Hollywood. Hopper's extraordinary journey takes him to superhero highs and plummeting lows, from the days of 60s rebellion to the drug-addled 70s to starring in one of the greatest Hollywood comebacks of all time.
Capturing the magic of Hopper and the madness of his American Dream, Hopper is a wild ride through Dennis's many lives, as unconventional a biography as Dennis was a man. Written in a rebel spirit and packed with insights from his fellow actors, artists, and friends, Hopper tells the story of a half-century of rebellion waged at the edge of American pop culture.
The chopper-riding hippie outlaw in Easy Rider. The prophetic madman in the jungle in Apocalypse Now. The terrifying psychopath in Blue Velvet. The kid gone wrong in Rebel Without a Cause. The actor taken under the wing of James Dean, a friendship that set Hopper on his path to becoming a star. A quintessentially American dreamer longing to be the next Orson Welles. The hell-raising director who revolutionized Hollywood.
A rebel, an icon, an addict plagued by demons, and an art collector who bought one of the first Andy Warhol soup cans, the roller-coaster life and career of Dennis Hopper is one of the great American stories. His cinematic adventure kicks off in the Dust Bowl with a boy from Dodge City, Kansas who dreams of going to Hollywood. Hopper's extraordinary journey takes him to superhero highs and plummeting lows, from the days of 60s rebellion to the drug-addled 70s to starring in one of the greatest Hollywood comebacks of all time.
Capturing the magic of Hopper and the madness of his American Dream, Hopper is a wild ride through Dennis's many lives, as unconventional a biography as Dennis was a man. Written in a rebel spirit and packed with insights from his fellow actors, artists, and friends, Hopper tells the story of a half-century of rebellion waged at the edge of American pop culture.
- GenresBiographyNonfictionFilm
320 pages, Hardcover
First published March 3, 2013
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224 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
March 23, 2013
Terrible, pretentious, scattered biography of an actor, director, and cultural icon who deserved better. The author tries to go "gonzo," aping Tom Wolfe and Hunter Thompson, but failing. Almost unreadable.
July 27, 2019
This was a poorly written biography of one of the most interesting character actors ever - this book was all over the place and was a poor attempt to emulate the 'gonzo' writing of Hunter S Thompson - Denis Hopper deservers a better book about his life than this.
March 11, 2013
Tom Folsom's marketed-as-gonzo biography of actor/filmmaker/artist/art collector Dennis Hopper tries hard to imitate the fragmented, above-it-all prose styling of Nick Tosches' 1992 Dean Martin bio DINO. But Folsom's book has its genuinely insightful moments; the chapters on Hopper's mostly-unseen, disastrous THE LAST MOVIE (1971) are the highlight of HOPPER. But the definitive Dennis Hopper biography is yet to be written.
April 30, 2013
Spectacularly poorly-written. Bordering on incoherent at times.
July 2, 2014
I shouldn't even count this as I didn't finish it.
Nope. Terribly written and the attempt at trying to establish this writer as "gonzo" or "counter culture" is just pathetic.
Nope. Terribly written and the attempt at trying to establish this writer as "gonzo" or "counter culture" is just pathetic.
November 14, 2014
Completely incoherent writing makes this biography impossible to follow. I have no idea how this author was published.
April 7, 2014
Not good.
September 14, 2023
Having read books by and about Peter Fonda and the whole "New Hollywood" era, I can say that Dennis Hopper is an even worse human being than I thought. However, he was an inspired genius as an actor and as a director. I would really like to see The Last Movie, which he directed in 1970 in Peru with a cast of crazies.
I realized I had read another book by the same author about "Crazy Joey Gallo." Thus, I really appreciate the author's writing style. Hopper's life may have even been closer to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas than Hunter S. Thompson's. If it were not for Hopper's eye for modern art which he collected early and often, he might have ended up in the gutter.
What I really did not like about him was his insistence that he wrote Easy Rider alone without any help from Terry Southern (they later found an early draft of the script among Southern's papers that even included the words, "We blew it!"). Hopper refused to give him a "point" from the film's revenue even when Southern was rock bottom and was pleading for his life. He died penniless.
Hopper also went to his grave convinced that Fonda cheated him on the film and had him turned away from his funeral in Taos, New Mexico (which sounded like quite the sendoff).
I realized I had read another book by the same author about "Crazy Joey Gallo." Thus, I really appreciate the author's writing style. Hopper's life may have even been closer to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas than Hunter S. Thompson's. If it were not for Hopper's eye for modern art which he collected early and often, he might have ended up in the gutter.
What I really did not like about him was his insistence that he wrote Easy Rider alone without any help from Terry Southern (they later found an early draft of the script among Southern's papers that even included the words, "We blew it!"). Hopper refused to give him a "point" from the film's revenue even when Southern was rock bottom and was pleading for his life. He died penniless.
Hopper also went to his grave convinced that Fonda cheated him on the film and had him turned away from his funeral in Taos, New Mexico (which sounded like quite the sendoff).
February 15, 2014
Hopper: A Journey Into the American Dream by Tom Folsom (IT Books 2013)(Biography) is the first biography of Dennis Hopper that I've run across, and I was excited to find it. After all, Dennis Hopper is an original Hollywood rebel and outlaw; the stories would have to be great. Alas! It was as though nobody from Hopper's camp cooperated with the author, because the stories are WEAK, brother. It could have and should have been so much more. My rating: 3/10, finished 1/13/14.
May 10, 2013
Quick read. Little disjointed - time hopping. Refers to some people by nicknames or "common info", instead of proper names, so I sometimes had no idea who was being discussed. But otherwise an interesting read.
January 19, 2020
I know that this biography was trying to do something different and maverick and "wow, man" because Dennis Hopper was the subject, but GEEZ. There is something to be said for comphrensible prose. This is a mess.
Celebrities blur in and out in one or two pages. Just how Vincent Price became Hopper's "mentor" is unclear -- but, then again, almost all of this book is unclear. Except for when Hopper first tried to give Natalie Wood head. We get to hear all about that.
The blurb claims that the author did hundreds of interviews for this book but only a sentence or two of a couple dozen survives. This bogus biography has no list of references -- even those "personal interview with the author on such-an-such a date" references. There also is no list of movies Hopper was in. Only a few of his movies are mentioned, with the bulk of the book devoted to "Easy Rider", "The Last Movie" and "Blue Velvet."
Hopper comes off here as a hopeless, paranoid maniac. I'm not sure if that's what the author intended. In fact, I'm not sure if this biography is based on fact, legend, outright fiction or a blend of all three. I do know it sucks.
Celebrities blur in and out in one or two pages. Just how Vincent Price became Hopper's "mentor" is unclear -- but, then again, almost all of this book is unclear. Except for when Hopper first tried to give Natalie Wood head. We get to hear all about that.
The blurb claims that the author did hundreds of interviews for this book but only a sentence or two of a couple dozen survives. This bogus biography has no list of references -- even those "personal interview with the author on such-an-such a date" references. There also is no list of movies Hopper was in. Only a few of his movies are mentioned, with the bulk of the book devoted to "Easy Rider", "The Last Movie" and "Blue Velvet."
Hopper comes off here as a hopeless, paranoid maniac. I'm not sure if that's what the author intended. In fact, I'm not sure if this biography is based on fact, legend, outright fiction or a blend of all three. I do know it sucks.
September 11, 2023
Tom Folsom brings a little bit of gonzo journalism to his biography of Dennis Hopper. It is almost a necessity in trying to capture the manic personality who became a cult figure in films, TV, art and outlaw motorcycle culture. There are other biographies of Hopper that go into greater depth and detail but this one tries the hardest to capture his essence. It doesn't entirely succeed and there are many unanswered questions, but it is still recommended as a thrill ride, no seat belts allowed.
November 6, 2025
Rest in Peace.
Weird life. Weird book.
Weird life. Weird book.
March 20, 2017
An exceptionally well-written journey into one of the most insane legends to ever outlive his expectancy. If you didn't know better, you'd think half of this is fiction. Nobody can be this crazy, and SURELY nobody can bounce back from it.
Dennis Hopper did.
Dennis Hopper did.
April 12, 2013
This chronicle of Dennis Hopper's life is exciting to read, in that the author captures the dizzy, coked, psychedelic mess of Hopper's mind. It is not a pretty picture, but well written.
Because he was an artist he could do whatever he wanted.
"We blew it."
We were Easy Riders, cool and hip and in touch with nature and creation. Not inhibited by any traditions of the past.
But behind the Hollywood facade were spoiled, violent, drug crazed members of the same Hollywood elite families that they rebelled against.
Instead of creating great art that celebrated life, people like Hopper got bogged down in their personal demons and anger and their own groupie like attraction to "rebels" like James Dean.
I fell for this back in the flower power years. We weren't bad, we did want fun and peace and love. But we were as snowed by the Rock and Roll and Hollywood images as the people we rejected.
"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness". If you want to relive those troubled years, this book is for you.
Because he was an artist he could do whatever he wanted.
"We blew it."
We were Easy Riders, cool and hip and in touch with nature and creation. Not inhibited by any traditions of the past.
But behind the Hollywood facade were spoiled, violent, drug crazed members of the same Hollywood elite families that they rebelled against.
Instead of creating great art that celebrated life, people like Hopper got bogged down in their personal demons and anger and their own groupie like attraction to "rebels" like James Dean.
I fell for this back in the flower power years. We weren't bad, we did want fun and peace and love. But we were as snowed by the Rock and Roll and Hollywood images as the people we rejected.
"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness". If you want to relive those troubled years, this book is for you.
April 1, 2013
A fantastic, if brief, glimpse into the life of Dennis Hopper. Folsom's gonzo prose is heavy on Dennis' early life, but a disconnect occurs later in Hopper's life around the time he sobered up. Other than Blue Velvet, little anecdotal mention is made of his career after Hoosiers, with a focus more on his art inspirations and collection. However, a great read into a Hollywood icon who mixed it up with Dean, Nicholson, Brando and more--an oft forgotten actor who made every part he played worth watching.
March 14, 2013
Tom Folsom portrays in great prose, worthy of the mad and extraordinary life lead by Dennis Hopper, the essence of the man for whom the term "out-there" seems tailor-made. Drugs, lovers, motorcycles, and the art he loved to collect and create are all examined and detailed in Folsom's clever take on this crazed genius. A memorable life; a memorable book.
September 2, 2013
I enjoyed this audiobook. I was young in the 60s and had read, seen, and/or heard the artists he hung out with. He was definitely an original. Like one of his acquaintances, I had thought he had gone insane and dropped out in the 80s. He actually had done some big projects in his later years. And was shrewd. And generous with his knowledge. A most interesting man.
April 6, 2013
Just finished this wild and sprawling tale of a demented cowboy from Kansas roped into the coke-addled world of Hollywood, only to find that he is no Anthony Hopkins. Fucking amazing, man. I really mean it, fucking amazing.
March 8, 2013
Review to follow...
March 30, 2013
Great biography on Dennis Hopper. Crazy life he had. An artist and visionaire with his virtues and mistakes. Recommended to anyone interested in his life, hollywood, movies or hippies!
March 17, 2013
The man was a hot mess - but a fascinating hot mess!
April 17, 2013
Not a conventional documentary. Written in a style that reminds one of Hopper. Very enjoyable.
August 15, 2015
Fascinating guy, boring biography. Amazed I finished it. 3* only because Hopper was a unique icon.
Tom Folson: You Blew It, Man.
Tom Folson: You Blew It, Man.
August 7, 2021
Dennis Hopper. Where does one begin? Well, I’ll begin with my personal close encounter with the man. It was Derby Eve in 1993 or 1994 and I was riding in a glass elevator in what was then still the Galt House East Hotel tower in the heart of downtown Louisville overlooking the Ohio River. I was by myself. The lift stops at a floor and…..DING……the door opens. In walks Dennis Hopper, also alone and also wearing a suit. I’m in the back and he hovers very closely to the numbered floor buttons at the front by the door. He’s extremely fidgety and looking around and behind himself at me like I’m a CIA operative or something. My guess is he’s coked out of his head, and he is quickly sucking all the oxygen out of our joint confined space as we continue our journey downward. As we “settle” in, I wanted so badly to tell him how good he was in his brief role as Christian Slater’s father in Tony Scott’s recent film True Romance, which was scripted by a then still-unknown young man named Quentin Tarantino. The scene between him and Christopher Walken was pure acting magic, with a great script, and two old pros improv’ing and playing off each other like Borg vs. McEnroe. To this day, it still remains one of my all-time favorite scenes of all time, in ANY movie. So, I’m dying in the back of that elevator to blurt that out, but he is getting even more fidgety and beginning to break out into a profuse sweat as we continue our descent. In such situations sometimes, you’re Inner Radar just says loud and clear – “DON’T go there.” So, I didn’t. And I have had my share of brushes with semi-greatness and washed-up celebrities and/or musicians, and I’ve never said or done anything stupid and have actually managed to have some fairly lengthy conversations with a few. Do I regret not talking to Dennis Hopper? Yes & No. Yes, because I knew I would never share an elevator ride with him ever again in my life, and I was right of course and he is now dead. No, because I’m positive he was packing some heavy heat, such as a .44 magnum or some such powerful handgun, and I could have ended up as the headline on the front page of the next day’s Courier-Journal Newspaper, which would have been on Derby Day and people still did read the paper back then too. It also would have meant that one of the most talented actors of his generation and a truly crazy, insane artist would have then spent the rest of his life in prison for aggravated murder in a very small confined space under the influence of pure Colombian-cut cocaine and/or ecstasy or something.
Oh, and the book is pretty good.
It contains some info about his childhood in Dodge City, KS, his arrival in Hollywood and worshipful relationship with James Dean, some good dirt on a not-so-pure young Natalie Wood, did-he or didn’t-he with a much older Dorothy McGuire, a funny anecdote in which the young still-unproven actor tells THE tyrannical Harry Cohn (legendary studio boss of Columbia Pictures) to go fuck himself in his palatial office, his early run-ins with famous director Henry Hathaway while filming a few Westerns and getting advice from the Duke himself while shooting The Sons of Katie Elder, his hook-up with Peter Fonda and their ascendancy into A-list Hollywood Legend with their cinematic global phenomenon known as Easy Rider, his self-destructive descent into excess and madness while filming The Last Movie on location in Peru, his unforgettable drug-fueled performance in Apocalypse Now and numerous accounts during filming of his idol the fat Marlon Brando totally dismissing him and treating him like dog do-do (Hopper went native and slept out in the jungle in the Kurtz compound set while all the other actors went back to the crew hotel), up through his triumphant comeback in the 80’s & 90’s, and ending with his battle with cancer.
The book is not Pulitzer material, but I sure enjoyed the Ride, and what a RIDE it was!
Oh, and the book is pretty good.
It contains some info about his childhood in Dodge City, KS, his arrival in Hollywood and worshipful relationship with James Dean, some good dirt on a not-so-pure young Natalie Wood, did-he or didn’t-he with a much older Dorothy McGuire, a funny anecdote in which the young still-unproven actor tells THE tyrannical Harry Cohn (legendary studio boss of Columbia Pictures) to go fuck himself in his palatial office, his early run-ins with famous director Henry Hathaway while filming a few Westerns and getting advice from the Duke himself while shooting The Sons of Katie Elder, his hook-up with Peter Fonda and their ascendancy into A-list Hollywood Legend with their cinematic global phenomenon known as Easy Rider, his self-destructive descent into excess and madness while filming The Last Movie on location in Peru, his unforgettable drug-fueled performance in Apocalypse Now and numerous accounts during filming of his idol the fat Marlon Brando totally dismissing him and treating him like dog do-do (Hopper went native and slept out in the jungle in the Kurtz compound set while all the other actors went back to the crew hotel), up through his triumphant comeback in the 80’s & 90’s, and ending with his battle with cancer.
The book is not Pulitzer material, but I sure enjoyed the Ride, and what a RIDE it was!
August 29, 2017
*SPOILER ALERT*
74 years of a crazy life condensed down into 286 pages. The author warns readers up front that if they're looking for a dry, detailed filmography, they've come to the wrong place. True that. Tom Folsom writes a loosey-goosey, fast-paced bio about one the more interesting film stars ever. And yet, somehow, the book still drags; so caught up in drugs and drama, some fundamental element seems to be missing from the story. Like...interviews with ex-wives, children, anyone other than Dean Stockwell ("...watching golf out of the corner of his eye...").
This book was "unauthorized," so credit to Folsom for tracking down the quotes and interviews that he was able to, but some of these really go nowhere: like the description of Hopper's fishing trip with John Lurie. What was the point of that sequence? And why so much ink devoted to Hopper's second directorial attempt: The Last Movie?
This biography is like an impressionist painting: lots of quick splotches. Maybe my brain just doesn't work that way. For example, the author says of Dennis Hopper's time as an in-patient in a drug and alcohol facility: "This was rehab when it was really fucking rehab." (p. 225) What is that supposed to mean? Rehab just ain't what it used to be? In what ways? Another time the author refers to police arresting DH as "pigs." Again, why? It wasn't a quote, it was the author's word.
So, points for giving readers an overview of the crazy world of Dennis Hopper, but this book leaves a lot of meat on the bone.
Somewhat recommended.
74 years of a crazy life condensed down into 286 pages. The author warns readers up front that if they're looking for a dry, detailed filmography, they've come to the wrong place. True that. Tom Folsom writes a loosey-goosey, fast-paced bio about one the more interesting film stars ever. And yet, somehow, the book still drags; so caught up in drugs and drama, some fundamental element seems to be missing from the story. Like...interviews with ex-wives, children, anyone other than Dean Stockwell ("...watching golf out of the corner of his eye...").
This book was "unauthorized," so credit to Folsom for tracking down the quotes and interviews that he was able to, but some of these really go nowhere: like the description of Hopper's fishing trip with John Lurie. What was the point of that sequence? And why so much ink devoted to Hopper's second directorial attempt: The Last Movie?
This biography is like an impressionist painting: lots of quick splotches. Maybe my brain just doesn't work that way. For example, the author says of Dennis Hopper's time as an in-patient in a drug and alcohol facility: "This was rehab when it was really fucking rehab." (p. 225) What is that supposed to mean? Rehab just ain't what it used to be? In what ways? Another time the author refers to police arresting DH as "pigs." Again, why? It wasn't a quote, it was the author's word.
So, points for giving readers an overview of the crazy world of Dennis Hopper, but this book leaves a lot of meat on the bone.
Somewhat recommended.
February 9, 2018
I was expecting this to be a counterculture nostalgia lark of a read, but it kept surprising me. It didn't turn out to be another story of genius self-destructing on cocaine. It's about creative genius surviving in corporate Hollywood. What is real success anyway? The American Dream refuses to die . . . And it helps that Tom Folsom is a helluva writer. The book reads like a novel. Could be easily adapted into a screenplay. Hmm . . .
January 22, 2020
There were no sources/bibliography in the book so I hesitate to believe a lot of the stories. I did buy a copy of Hopper’s Life Magazine cover off of ebay to read. He deserves a better biography but I guess it’s hard to give such a mythic person a really good one.
September 17, 2021
Hopper war ein interessanter und abgedrehter Typ und so gibt es hier einigen Wahnsinn zu lesen. Leider werden dabei viele Stationen schnell nebenbei abgehandelt, obwohl es da sicher mehr Potenzial für abgefahrene Storys gegeben hätte.
April 15, 2020
Dennis Hopper could never be boring.
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