Nicholson had actually done quite a few films prior to Easy Rider but they were mostly Roger Corman B-movies. The real story of ER is how rich they all got from it. They shot it for peanuts and it made some ungodly amount of money for the time. Can't remember how much, maybe $30-40 million(?)
It was written by Peter Fonda and Hopper during a pretty dry period for them work-wise and produced by Bill Hayward, who was Hopper's BIL at the time. Hopper was married to Brooke Hayward, an incredibly beautiful woman whose dad was Leland Hayward, one of the biggest producers in the "golden age" of Hollywood and a larger-than-life figure. Everyone in Hollywood thought that Brooke had a free pass to be one of the biggest stars ever but she just didn't give a schit.
Bill Hayward's son Leland is one of my best and oldest friends. Sadly, (and ironically), Bill passed away last year after a bad MC crash on a Harley. He took his own life when it didn't seem worth living because of a pretty bad head injury. He's all over the DVD special feature documentary about making the film. It was before his bike accident and he's a great-looking older guy who looks like an old hipster. The little documentary is probably better, and more interesting than the film which really wasn't that great. It was revolutionary at the time because it was an auteur film from Hollywood, IOW it had a voice. It was told from the film makers' personal perspective. The story of making it is much better, especially the experiences they had down south as long-haired biker-looking guys in small towns and how they got the extras, etc...
Phil Spector is the coke dealer in the beginning of the film that they score from at the airport.
