Wheezy Rider: Four decades after his cult film, Dennis Hopper is back on a bike - Showbiz - Evening Standard
       

Wheezy Rider: Four decades after his cult film, Dennis Hopper is back on a bike

He's famous as the rugged, Harley-Davidson-riding dropout in the cult 1969 film Easy Rider - but perched on a motorcycle and sidecar for his latest movie, Dennis Hopper looks more like an auditionee for Wallace and Gromit than a hero of the Sixties counterculture.

Hopper has been coaxed back on to a motorcycle by director Quentin Tarantino for his movie Hell Ride.

Scroll down for more...

Heydey: Dennis Hopper became famous for his role in Easy Rider in 1969

The 71-year-old actor, nicknamed Dennis the Menace during his days as a hellraiser, appears alongside ex-footballer Vinnie Jones as two members of a Devil-worshipping biker cult called the 666ers.

Hell Ride stars biker-movie veteran Larry Bishop as Pistolero, who goes after Hopper and Jones because he blames them for the death of his girlfriend.

Hopper can be seen in these pictures astride a classic Indian Four motorcycle, a pre-Second World War machine highly prized by serious motorbike enthusiasts.

The actor became famous for his role as Billy in Easy Rider, which is credited with revolutionising Hollywood in the Sixties.

Scroll down for more...

Now: Dennis Hopper in Quentin Tarantino's Hell Ride

Hopper directed the movie, which also starred Peter Fonda as his biker buddy Wyatt and Jack Nicholson as alcoholic lawyer George Hanson.

The movie follows the men on a road trip across the US and features LSD trips, "free love" and a violent encounter with rednecks.

Easy Rider matched Hopper's wild lifestyle. He has been divorced four times, arrested on drugs charges and admits he was an alcoholic.

The bike ridden by Dennis Hopper in Hell Ride is a vintage Indian Chief with a sidecar.

Scroll down for more...

Perched on a motorcycle and side car in Hell Ride, Hopper is likened to Wallace and Gromit

. The Chief was built from 1922 to 1953.

. Its engine capacity is 1300cc.

. The standard model has a top speed of 85mph but with modifications can reach 100mph. It has a power of about 40HP.

. The Indian motorbike company went out of business in 1953, but a Californian company began making a new model in 2001.

Comments

Don't Miss
The Glamour Awards - stars turn on the style

Glamour Awards

Stars turn on the style
Duchess of Cambridge is pretty in pink at her first Buckingham Palace garden party

Garden party

Duchess of Cambridge is pretty in pink
FIRST review of Ridley Scott's latest sci-fi blockbuster Prometheus

First review

Is Ridley Scott's Prometheus any good?
Fair-weather goths

Fair-weather goths

The sultry shades of summer darks are coming out of the shadows
London gets ready for the Diamond Jubilee - in pictures

Diamond Jubilee

London gets ready - in pictures
Dog save the Queen: Corgis surge in popularity

Dog save the Queen

Corgis surge in popularity
'He’s a better ex than he was a husband', says Boris Johnson's ex wife

A better ex than husband

We talk to Boris Johnson's ex wife
TV Baftas - in pictures

Best of the Baftas

Stars on the red, white and blue carpet
You big softie: Has Giles Coren put down his poison pen?

You big softie

Has Giles Coren put down his poison pen?
Pop star Paloma Faith, former Labour minister and Tory blogger back gay marriage video

Gay marriage

Pop star, former Labour minister and Tory blogger back gay marriage video