Who directed the 1969 independent road film Easy Rider?

Dennis Hopper directed the 1969 independent road film Easy Rider.

Hopper also starred in the film as Billy, alongside Peter Fonda's Wyatt, or “Captain America.” The story follows the two bikers as they travel across the American Southwest and South after making money from a cocaine deal, encountering communities that expose the era's cultural and political tensions.

Easy Rider was written by Fonda, Hopper, and Terry Southern, while Fonda served as producer. That combination sometimes causes quiz confusion: Fonda was a producer and co-writer, but Hopper was the director. Jack Nicholson's supporting performance as George Hanson became one of the film's most celebrated elements.

Released by Columbia Pictures on July 14, 1969, the film became a landmark of American counterculture cinema. Its success helped encourage the New Hollywood movement, in which studios gave more creative freedom to distinctive directors working on comparatively modest budgets.