Dennis Hopper

Taos, New Mexico, a peaceful town, is well-known for its stunning Sangre de Cristo Mountains and bustling cultural scene. A tree was once shot with a.357 Magnum because Dennis Hopper mistook it for a grizzly bear while living there for a long time.

Hopper had hallucinated after ingesting some LSD he'd won in a late-night poker game, according to historian Tom Folsom. The actor/director was accused by the local authorities of driving recklessly, failing to report an accident, and fleeing the scene. Coincidentally, Hopper was imprisoned at the same facility where his seminal counterculture film, Easy Rider, was shot after his arrest in 1975. Later, he admitted responsibility and made a fine payment.

Before discovering sobriety in the late 1980s, the infamous Hollywood rebel managed to survive decades of drug and alcohol abuse as well as multiple unhappy marriages. Along with playing "Billy" in Easy Rider, which he also directed and co-wrote with Terry Southern, Hopper has had a number of other well-known roles in the movies Apocalypse Now, Blue Velvet, Hoosiers, and True Romance. He was also a very active painter, sculptor, and photographer.

Hopper received a well-deserved star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame just before he passed away from prostate cancer in 2010.