10 Things You Didn't Know About Hollywood

A month after Easy Rider, Dennis Hopper’s feature directing debut, opened in cinemas, Charles Manson instructed his followers to murder Sharon Tate and 4 others at 10050 Cielo Drive. The killings sent shockwaves through Hollywood, sparking rumours of a celebrity hit list that included Steve McQueen and Elizabeth Taylor.

When Manson was apprehended months later, he became a celebrity, as famous as anyone else in town, and announced he wanted Hopper to play him in a movie based on his life. Having been a good friend of one of the victims, Hopper didn’t even want to meet Manson, but eventually his curiosity got the better of him.

“I figured he wanted me ‘cause he’d seen Easy Rider,” Hopper said, “but he proceeded to tell me he’d seen me on a TV show, The Defenders, where I killed my father because he’d brutalized my mother.”

Hopper never did make the film, but Manson’s story eventually reached the screen in 1976 as Helter Skelter. He was played by Steve Railsback.