Jack regally rides pillion on Peter Fonda's chopper in Easy Rider. Even though his was a small role, Nicholson arguably stole the film from both Hopper and Fonda. Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/Columbia
Jack's one of my oldest friends. We play golf together all the time. He's one of the great conversationalists, a right-on guy and a loyal friend, and he's got that great, infectious smile.
Before Easy Rider we were at American International Pictures together. Jack wrote a screenplay - he's a terrific writer, too - for a picture called The Trip (1967), which Roger Corman directed. I played the drug connection and it was the first time that I directed second unit. Corman didn't pay us, but he would give us film and let us go out on weekends and shoot.
We were all dying to make a movie. We'd waited a long time and when the chance came to make Easy Rider, we wanted to give it our best shot. Whatever stories come out about that film, we couldn't have shot something in five weeks, travelling right across the United States, without being well organised. We did have some great times though, Jack and I. We dropped acid in Dallas together. We claimed we were both geniuses and died in front of DH Lawrence's shrine and stuff like that. But otherwise, it was a pretty smooth shoot.
Jack was a consummate actor then and he's made incredible choices since and performed them brilliantly. He has an infectious personality and I think it's a great loss that he's never gone on talk shows. Most of us have to go out and sell our movies, but the only time you see Jack on television is when he's at a Lakers basketball game. It's too bad, because he's got one of the greatest gifts of the gab of anyone I've ever met.
~ Read appreciations from Tim Burton, Danny DeVito and others at Observer Review.
