Life is pretty good now he’s part of the establishment, even mocking his old image in a TV ad for a car that had him appearing snappily suited driving alongside a superimposed image of himself as the wild-haired biker of Easy Rider. He’s almost Hollywood royalty, revered, iconic, not necessarily because he has at last been accepted by the system he once so detested, ‘But because I survived it.’ In the words of his old friend Tom Mankiewicz. ‘Dennis took a lot of drugs. I’m so happy that he’s alive because he has no right to be alive. He has absolutely no right to be still alive.’
Henry Jaglom voices similar sentiments. ‘I am beyond amazed, relieved and gratified that he survived. And every time I see him I am impressed by the fight he made to overcome his difficulties and survive and continue to produce a stream of thoroughly creative and singular work.’
For George Hickenlooper Dennis sums up what Hollywood is all about, a place that epitomises the ultimate American dream. ‘Unlike Europe, where you’re born into status or not, in America you can create yourself from nothing and then if you rise to the top and then plummet in a fiery crash you can be reborn and rise again; you have unlimited chances and Dennis just epitomises that more than any other actor. That’s what makes him iconic too, he’s risen from the ashes so many times and just doesn’t give a shit what people think and that’s the sign of a true artist.’
It’s an amazing life story that would make for a pretty good film. The only problem is no one would believe it! Someone really should make the Dennis Hopper story one day. ‘But I’m not playing that,’ he said. ‘I already did it. It’s a bitch.’
Warren Beatty is simply a unique figure in Hollywood, one of the smartest cookies ever to grace the place, someone who has managed to stay at the very top of his game for decades. He’s been in a fair number of flops, but whenever his career seemed a tad shaky he’d just go off and star in and direct a wonderful movie and be safe for another half decade.
After Town and Country he didn’t appear to have the appetite for another comeback. Maybe because Warren’s greatest successes have come when he’s running the whole show, acting, directing, writing and producing. Now in his seventies, one wonders if he’s got the energy for all that. He was almost tempted out of retirement by Quentin Tarantino’s offer to play the role of Bill in Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004). He finally passed and, ever the acute filmmaker, told Tarantino to cast David Carradine.
I guess the longer he stays away from the cinema, the more his mythical status as a playboy will begin to eclipse his genuine cinematic achievements. As Robert Downey Jr once said, ‘Warren Beatty is really knowledgeable in a lot of areas, especially fucking.’ But his achievements as a filmmaker must not be overlooked: few were better in Hollywood at persuading, cajoling and charming the pants off studio bosses into financing movies nobody else wanted to make, radical films like Reds and Bonnie and Clyde. ‘He’s one of those people where when you run into them and you see them, you start grinning, because you just know you’re going to have a good time,’ says Tom Mankiewicz. ‘I’ve always liked Warren; liked him enormously, there’s a spirit in him.’
And as for Jack Nicholson, in spite of his colourful, sometimes freak show of a life, he just might possibly be the finest screen actor America has ever produced. ‘You learn a tremendous amount from the people with whom you work,’ says director George Miller. ‘But I doubt whether I’ve learned as much from anybody, both professionally and personally, as I have from Jack.’
Even though his roistering days are over, Jack’s basic philosophy hasn’t changed – ‘More good times’ – though, how he might go about implementing it understandably has. He might say to a date, ‘Look, I just can’t do the dance any more. If I do, you’ve got to be a really good dancer.’ Neither is he the social gadabout he once was, holding magnificent court in the nightspots and clubs of London, LA or Monte Carlo. Meryl Streep, much to Jack’s amusement, has called him ‘That lovable old wreck’. And far from being, as one scribe prophesied, on course to be a ninety-year-old who is a danger to the nursing profession, Jack has settled into a kind of humdrum domesticity. You could also say that he’s the last bad boy standing. After Marlon passed on, Dennis sobered up and Warren swapped bed-hopping for family bliss, Nicholson is king of Mulholland Drive, the old devil still capable of raising hell. Backstage at the Oscars in 2006 Jack propositioned Nicole Kidman, not realising she was engaged or that she was standing with her fiancée. He teasingly refused to divulge the comment, though seemed to relish the gasp it drew from Kidman. That’s maybe the secret as to why we love Jack, it’s because he’s lived his life so openly and unapologetically.
Maybe the best thing you can say about Jack is that despite all the fame, the adulation, the money, he’s not changed all that much from the aspiring actor of the sixties, desperately searching for his big break. ‘Jack is Jack,’ says Henry Jaglom, ‘was always Jack, will always be Jack. There is something unchangeably American and buoyant about his cynicism, a contradiction that he embodies as did some of the great movie stars of earlier eras – Bogart, Cagney, Tracy, Gable. He’s one for the ages. I knew it from the moment I met him and told him then, as he likes to quote me, “Just smile, Jack. That’s all you have to do. Just smile your biggest smile.” And boy does he.’
Index
About Schmidt (film)
Adjani, Isabelle
Adler, Stella
African Queen, The (film)
Ali, Muhammad
Aliens (film)
Allen, Woody
Almendros, Nestor
Altman, Robert
Aly, Don
American Beauty (film)
American Dreamer, The (documentary)
American Friend, The (a thriller)
Andress, Ursula
Ann-Margret
Anspach, Susan
Antonioni, Michelangelo
Apocalypse Now (film)
Appaloosa, The (film)
Armstrong, Vic
Arquette, Patricia
As Good As It Gets (film)
Ashby, Hal
Auerbach, Red
Aulin, Ewa
Avildsen, John
Ayres, Gerald
Back Door to Hell (film)
Backtrack (Catchfire director’s cut)
Bacon, Francis
Bacon, Kevin
Bad City Blues (film)
Bankhead, Tallulah
Banner, Jill
Barbera, Joseph
barbiturates
Bardot, Brigitte
Barger, Sonny
Barrett, Rona
Barrie, Wendy
Barrymore, Drew
Barrymore, John
Basil, Toni
Basinger, Kim
Basquiat, Jean-Michel
Bastedo, Alexandra
Batea, Kathy
Batman (film)
Baywatch (TV series)
Beacham, Stephanie
Beatles, the
Beatty, Annette (née Bening)
Beatty, Ira
Beatty, Kathlyn (Warren’s daughter)
Beatty, Kathlyn (Warren’s mother)
Beatty, Warren
background and youth
relationship with Diane Ladd
relationship with Barbra Streisand
relationship with Joan Collins
relationship with Natalie Wood
philandering
relationship with Leslie Caron
relationship with Brigitte Bardot
politics
relationship with Julie Christie
relationship with Goldie Hawn
relationship with Melanie Phillips
relationship with Maureen Donaldson
relationship with Sylvia Kristel
relationship with Madonna
marries Annette Bening
Bedtime Story (film)
beer
Beetlejuice (film)
Belushi, John
Bennett, Tony
Bergman, Andrew
&
nbsp; Bergman, Ingrid
Bernhard, Sandra
Berry, Halle
Bertolucci, Bernardo
Bessant, Don
Bill, Tony
Billy Liar (film)
Black, Karen
Blank, Robert
Blood and Wine (film)
Blue Velvet (film)
Bluhdorn, Charles
Bogart, Humphrey
Bogdanovich, Peter
Boiling Point (film)
Bonanza (TV series)
Bonnie and Clyde (film)
Boone, Richard
Booth, Shirley
Border, The (film)
Boyle, Lara Flynn
Brando, Cheyenne
Brando, Christian
Brando, Dorothy (Dodie)
Brando, Frances
Brando, Jocelyn
Brando, Marlon
background and youth
army days
early sexual conquests
partying
drugs
womanising
marriage to Anna Kashfi
dislike of the paparazzi
battle with his weight
marriage to Movita Castaneda
marriage to Tarita Teriipaia
on Tahiti
drinking
civil rights
and Black Panthers
and native Americans
deaths of Drollet and Cheyenne
at Neverland
death and estate
Brando, Marlon, Snr
Brando, Miko
Brando, Tarita (née Teriipia)
brandy/cognac
Brecht, Bertolt
Brook, Dean
Brooks, Jim
Brooks, Richard
Brotherhood, The (film)
Broussard, Rebecca
Bruce, Lenny
Bryant, Baird
Bryant, Louise
Bucket List, The (film)
Buell, Bebe
Bugsy (film)
Bullitt (film)
Bulworth (film)
Burn! (aka Queimada!)
Burton, Richard
Burton, Tim
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (film)
Caan, James
Caddell, Patrick
Cadenet, Amanda de
Cagney, James
Caine, (Sir) Michael
Callas, Maria
Campbell, Glen
Campbell, Naomi
Candida (play)
Candy (film)
Capucine
Carnal Knowledge (film)
Caroline, Princess, of Monaco
Caron, Glenn Gordon
Caron, Leslie
Carousel (musical)
Carradine, David
Carson, Johnny
Carson, Kit
Casino Royale (film)
Castaneda, Movita
Castro, Fidel
Catchfire (film)
Chainsaw Massacre(film)
champagne
Champions, The (TV show)
Channing, Stockard
Chariots of Fire (film)
Charlie’s Angels (TV series)
Chase, The (film)
Chasers (film)
Cheadle, Don
Chelsom, Peter
Cher
Chinatown (film)
Christians, Mady
Christie, Julie
Christopher Columbus – The Discovery (film)
Chuck D
Citizen Kane (film)
Clash
Claybourne, Doug
Clift, Montgomery
Clinton, Bill
Clurman, Harold
cocaine
Cocteau, Jean
cognac
Cohn, Harry
Collins, Joan
Colombo, Joe
Colors (film)
Coming Home (film)
Conrad, Joseph
Cool Hand Luke (film)
Coppola, Francis Ford
Corey, Jeff
Corman, Roger
Cornfield, Hubert
Costello, Elvis
Costner, Kevin
Coward, (Sir) Noël
Cox, Alex
Cox, Wally
Crash (TV series)
Crawford, Joan
Crosby, Stills and Nash
Crossing Guard, The (film)
Cruise, Tom
Cruz, Penelope
Cry Baby Killer (film)
Cukor, George
Curtis, Tony
Dalí, Salvador
Damon, Matt
Darling (film)
Darrach, Brad
Davis, Bette
Days of Thunder (film)
De Bont, Jan
De Nero, Robert
Dean, James
Deer Hunter, The (film)
Deneuve, Catherine
Departed, The (film)
Depp, Johnny
Derek, John
Dern, Bruce
Dern, Laura
Desirée (film)
Desperately Seeking Susan (film)
DeVito, Danny
DiCaprio, Leonardo
Dick Tracy (film)
Dickinson, Angie
Dickinson, Janice
Dietrich, Marlene
Diller, Barry
Dillon, Matt
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (film)
Dmytryk, Edward
Dollars (film; aka The Heist)
Donaldson, Maureen
Donner, Clive
Donner, Richard
Doors, the
Douglas, Kirk
Douglas, Michael
Downey, Robert, Jr
Dr Dre
Dr Strangelove
Dr Zhivago (film)
Drive, He Said (film)
driving, reckless
Drollet, Dag
drugs
Dry White Season, A (film)
Duffy, Victoria
Dunaway, Faye
Duran Duran
Duvall, Robert
Duvall, Shelley
Dylan, Bob
Eagle Has Two Heads, The (play)
Earp, Wyatt
East of Eden (film)
Eastman, Carole
Eastman, Linda (later Mrs Paul McCartney)
Eastwood, Clint
Easy Rider (film)
Eberdt, Art
Ebert, Roger
Egyptian, The (film)
Eisner, Michael
Ekland, Britt
Elegy (film)
Eleniak, Erika
Elizabeth, Princess, of Yugoslavia
Emmanuelle (film)
Ensign Pulver (film)
Estevez, Emilio
Evans, Joshua
Evans, Robert
Fairchild, Morgan
Fassbinder, Rainer Werner
Fawcett-Majors, Farrah
Feinstein, Barry
Feldman, Charles
Ferrara, Abel
Ferry, Bryan
Few Good Men, A (film)
Fields, Freddie
Finney, Albert
Fiore, Carlo
fires, accidental
Fishburne, Laurence
Fisher, Carrie
Five Easy Pieces (film)
Fleiss, Heidi
Flight to Fury (film)
Flynn, Errol
Flynn, Lara
Fonda, Henry
Fonda, Jane
Fonda, Peter
Ford, Harrison
Foreman, John
Forman, Milos
Formula, The (film)
Fortune, The (film)
Foster, David
Foster, Gary
Foster, Jodie
Fraker, William A.
Frankenheimer, John
Frawley, James
Frederickson, Gray
Freebie and the Bean (film)
Freeman, Morgan
Freeman, Y. Frank
Freshman, The (film)
/> From Hell to Texas (film)
Fugitive Kind, The (film)
Furcillo-Rose, Don
Furie, Sidney J.
Furst, Anton
Gable, Clark
Gabor, Zsa Zsa
Ganz, Bruno
Gardner, Ava
Garey, Norman
Garfield, John
Garfunkel, Art
Garner, Jim
Giant (film)
Gibson, John
Gilmore, John
Gittes, Harry
Gittes, Jake
Glen, John
Glory Stompers, The (film)
Goddard, Caleb
Godfather, The (film)
Godfather, The (novel)
Goin’ South (film)
Gone with the Wind (film)
Good Life, The (film)
Goodfellas (film)
Gothard, Michael
Gourin, Jenine
Graduate, The (film)
Grant, Cary
Grant, Lee
Grant, Sandra
Great Gatsby, The (film)
Griffiths, Trevor
Guber, Peter
Guns n’ Roses
Gunsmoke (TV series)
Guys and Dolls (film)
Gyllenhaal, Stephen
Hackman, Gene
Hall, Arsenio
Hall, Jerry
Hall, (Sir) Peter
hallucinogenics
Halprin, Daria
Hang ’Em High (film)
Hanks, Tom
Hanna, William
Harrington, Curtis
Harris, Ed
Harris, Julie
Hart, Gary
Hartford, Huntington
hashish
Hathaway, Henry
Hawn, Goldie
Hayward, Bill
Hayward, Brooke
Hayward, Leland
Head (film)
Headly, Glenne
Heart of Darkness, The (novel)
Hearts of Darkness (documentary)
Heaven Can Wait (film)
Hefner, Hugh
Hell Ride (film)
Hellman, Lillian
Hellman, Monte
Hello Dolly (film)
Hells Angels on Wheels (film)
Hendrix, Jimi
Henry, Buck
heroin
Herrmann, Edward
Hershey, Barbara
Hickenlooper, George
Hickman, Dwayne
Hill, George Roy
Hilton, Paris
Hitchcock, Alfred
Hitler, Adolf
Hoffman, Dustin
Hollmann, Honey
Hollmann, Winnie
Hollywood Squares (TV game show)
Hooper, Tobe
Hoosiers (film)
Hopper, David
Hopper, Dennis
background and youth
drugs
drinking
partying
early sexual conquests
relationship with Natalie Wood
passion for art
photography
marriage to Brooke Hayward
meets Charles Manson
marriage to Michelle Phillips
Robert Sellers Page 39