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Roll Credits In order of appearance:
JESUS Antonio Mendoza THE CONNECTION Phil Spector BODYGUARD Mac Mashourian RANCHER Warren Finnerty RANCHER'S WIFE Tita Colorado STRANGER ON HIGHWAY Luke Askew
COMMUNE: LISA Luana Anders SARAH Sabrina Scharf JOANNE Sandy Wyeth JACK Robert Walker MIME #1 Robert Ball MIME #2 Carmen Phillips MIME #3 Ellie Walker MIME #4 Michael Pataki
JAIL: GUARD George Fowler, jr. SHERIFF Keith Green
CAFE: CAT MAN Hayward Robillard DEPUTY Arnold Hess, jr. CUSTOMER #1 Buddy Causey, jr. CUSTOMER #2 Duffy LaFont CUSTOMER #3 Blase M. Dawson CUSTOMER #4 Paul Guedry, jr. GIRL #1 Suzie Ramagos GIRL #2 Elida Ann Hebert GIRL #3 Rose LeBlanc GIRL #4 Mary Kaye Hebert GIRL #5 Cynthia Grezaffi GIRL #6 Colette Purpera
HOUSE OF BLUE LIGHTS: MARY Toni Basil KAREN Karen Black MADAME Lea Marmer DANCING GIRL Cathe Cozzi HOOKER #1 Thea Salerno HOOKER #2 Anne McClain HOOKER #3 Beatriz Monteil HOOKER #4 Marcia Bowman
PICKUP TRUCK: David C. Billodeau Johnny David
Performer Title Composer Steppenwolf "The Pusher" Hoyt Axton Steppenwolf "Born to be Wild" Mars Bonfire The Byrds "Wasn't Born to Follow" Gerry Goffin and Carole King The Band "The Weight" Jamie Robbie Robertson The Holy Modal Rounders "If You Want to be a Bird" Antonia Duren Fraternity of Man "Don't Bogart Me" Elliott Ingber and Larry Wagner The Jimi Hendrix Experience "If Six was Nine" Jimi Hendrix Little Eva "Let's Turkey Trot" Gerry Goffin and Jack Keller The Electric Prunes "Kyrie Eleison" David Axelrod The Electric Flag, An American Music Band "Flash, Bam, Pow" Mike Bloomfield Roger McGuinn "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" Bob Dylan Roger McGuinn "Ballad of Easy Rider" Roger McGuinn
And just because they absolutely rock... Cinematogropher László Kovács Artistic Designer Jerry Kay Stunts Tex Hall
Released in the spring of 1969, Easy Rider won an award for best film by a new director at the Cannes Film Festival that year. Members of the cast including Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda admit that they actually smoked pot in the film (and a lot of it). Director Dennis Hopper considered using Rip Torn instead of Jack Nicholson as the drunken lawyer, George. Dennis remembers Rip pulling a knife on him in a bar as the reason for his not casting Rip. Rip remembered it as Hopper pulling a knife on him and sued for defamation of character. The courts decided in Rip's favor. Fonda and Hopper left the script somewhat open to accommodate for local flavor as they shot. They tried to use locals when appropriate.
Phil Spector makes a cameo appearance as "the connection" as a favour to Dennis. They used Phil's actual limo and body guard as well. Sabrina Scharf (Sarah at the commune) eventually served as a state legislator.
Dan Haggerty, aka "Grizzly Adams", had a cameo appearance in the film (on the left in the above picture). He also helped with the bikes. Peter Fonda's then wife and two children make cameo appearances as extras in the commune scene. Try to spot a very young Brigitte in her first big screen appearance. When George Hanson (Jack Nicholson) takes the first drink of the day he uses the famous "nic-nic" phrase which he had actually picked up in part from the man on staff in charge of starting the bikes. The patch holder would jump on the kicker pedal saying "nic-nic-nic-FIRE!" while trying to start the bikes. George makes a toast to D. H. Lawrence, who's grave Jack and Dennis had slept on the day before. At the end of "nic-nic" he says "Indians!". Again, Jack and Dennis had spent much of the previous day hanging out with local natives. When shooting the cafe scene in Morganza, Dennis Hopper selected for the cafe customers who the crew had spotted as a lynch mob. To help them come up with bad things to say about them, Dennis told them that they had just raped and killed a young girl outside of town so they would feel free to use the worst terms they knew. Also at the cafe, the local sheriff (the same one shown in the cafe scene) threatened to arrest the crew for using the black section of the restaurant. The crew had wandered in there and found people dancing, a better jukebox than in front and generally just had a better time back there. The crew arrived in New Orleans one month too late for Mardi Gras. People rounded up local friends to recreate the festival.
Do you recognize Mary (Toni Basil) from some place else? She made the charts in the early eighties with her song "Hey Mickey", famous for its cheerleader video. Dennis Hopper states that he used the Gospel of Thomas as the basis for the acid sequence. Towards the end of the acid sequence Peter Fonda addresses a statue as his mother. Dennis Hopper convinced him to discuss his real feelings towards his real mother. Peter's mother had committed suicide. Peter had not wanted to do this. When Bob Dylan had said that he didn't want them using his song "It's Alright Ma", Peter used his reluctance to do this scene as leverage to get Mr. Zimmerman to let them use his song. Before the release of the film, someone or some group stole three of the four bikes used in the film. They only left the Captain America used for the explosion scene. The bikes never turned up, probably receiving a thorough strip job and sold for parts. The only original remained in Dan Haggerty's possession until 1996 when it sold on auction. It now sits in the Alamo Car Museum in New Braunfels, Texas. They had planned to use the bikes for publicity purposes and then keep them as mementos of the film.
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