HUNTER S. THOMPSON
Hunter S. Thompson was born in Louisville, Kentucky, USA on 18 July and die on
20 February 2005 in Aspen, Colorado, USA (suicide by gunshot)
He is birth name was Hunter Stockton Thompson
The character of "Duke" in Garry Trudeau's "Doonesbury" comic strip is based on
him.
Lived next to Don Johnson
He wounded his assistant Deborah Fuller accidentally with a shotgun whilst
trying to scare a bear from his property in Aspen, Colorado, USA. 3 August 2000
- cleared of criminal charges of trying to wound his assistant. [27 July 2000]
Charged for possession of child pornography and sexually assulting former
pornography star Gail Palmer. An eleven hour search of his home in Woody Creek,
Colorado, turned up insufficient evidence to prosecute him on either of the
charges, and the DA dropped its case.
Along with Don Johnson, wrote the script for the two-hour TV movie "Bridges," a
story about an unstable, former alcoholic-drug addict cop who works in L.A. with
a diminuitive Latino partner and dates a mafia boss' daughter. Although rejected
by NBC, they bought the script and transformed it into the series "Nash Bridges"
(1996).
Married for nearly 18 years to Sandra Dawn Thompson, during which he wrote what
were considered his two greatest books "Hells Angels" and "Fear and Loathing in
Las Vegas". During the marriage, Sandy's habit of partaking on drug and alcohol
binges with her husband led to several miscarriages, and only one of her
pregnancies produced a healthy child, now grown Juan Thompson. Eventually, the
drugs put Hunter into a several years depressed state, fights broke out between
the two, and Sandy took several beatings, some times of which she fought back
and injured Hunter. When she told him she wanted a divorce, Hunter went
ballistic, destroying some of her possesions and burning the manuscripts she had
been writing. Sandy called the sheriff, a family friend, who sent a deputy up to
her house to escort her into town. The deputy, naive to the situation,
sheepishly asked Sandy if Thompson possesed any firearms, to which she
truthfully replied: "Yes, 22 of them, and every one is loaded".
Since October 2000, has been penning a weekly column, "Hey Rube", for ESPN.com's
Page 2.
Ran for Sheriff of Aspen, Colorado in 1969 on the Freak Power Party ticket, and
narrowly lost.
Graduate of Louisville (Ky.) Male High School, class of 1955. Missed his
graduation exercises because he was in jail. He later started calling himself
Dr. Thompson, after purchasing a doctorate in Divinity from a church by mail
order.
Appeared on a 1967 broadcast of "To Tell the Truth" (1956) when his book
detailing his experiences with the "Hell's Angels" was published.
Biography/bibliography in: "Contemporary Authors". New Revision Series, Vol.
133, pp. 410-417. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2005.
Once sold a Cadillac Eldorado to Lyle Lovett
Underground cartoonist turned comics and animation historian Scott Shaw! based a
recurring character in his works after Thompson: an anthropomorphic dog named
"Pointer X. Toxin".
His final wishes stipulated that his body be cremated and his ashes be shot out
of a cannon across his Colorado ranch. Journalist friend Troy Hooper said "He
was a big fan of bonfires and explosions and anything that went bang and I'm
sure he'd like to go bang as well." This finally happened on August 20, 2005,
along with a big celebration, attended by Sean Penn, Johnny Depp, Lyle Lovett,
and other close friends and family.
Grandson, son of his only child, Juan, was born 1998.
Wife, Anita, was 35 years younger than he was.
Shortly before his death he talked in his ESPN.com column about 'inventing' a
new sport: Shotgun Golf.
He was the basis for the character Spider Jerusalem in the comic series
"Transmetropolitan" by Warren Ellis and Darik Robertson
Has a song entitled "Bat Country" written after him by the band Avenged
Sevenfold.
Wanted his remains to be shot out of a 150 foot long canon. The canon had to be
built especially to fulfill this last wish.
Johnny Depp, who starred in two movie adaptations of Thompson's books (Fear and
Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) and The Rum Diary (2009) ), helped to fulfill his
last wish.
In order to improve his writing style, he once copied F. Scott Fitzgerald's The
Great Gatsby word for word, from start to finish.
rode a BSA A65 Lightning most notably whilst researching his seminal book Hell's
Angels. Towards the end of his period with the Hell's Angels, he wrote that he
was beaten up by them.
Was portrayed by Bill Murray in Where the Buffalo Roam (1980) and Johnny Depp in
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998).
Rode a BSA A65 Lightning most notably whilst researching his seminal book Hell's
Angels. Towards the end of his period with the Hell's Angels, he wrote that he
was beaten up by them.
His favorite pastime was to load a barrel or oil drum with explosives and then
shoot it from a safe distance with one of his many handguns.
After covering the 1972 Democratic Convention in Miami for Rolling Stone
Magazine, Thompson went for an evening swim in the ocean to clear his head. A
light tropical storm blew up, Thompson got caught in a riptide, and he was swept
out to sea. He spent the rest of the night fighting to swim back to the beach,
finally crawling ashore at 9:00 A.M.
His son Juan graduated from college Magna Cum Laude.
At 15 he made an electric go-kart using the engine of a washing machine.
His mother was a chronic alcoholic.
With the aid of two friends he robbed a liquor store by starting a fight with
the clerks and then cleaning out the cash register in the confusion.
During his adolescence, he and two friends broke into and robbed the same
Lexington (Kentucky) gas station on three consecutive nights.
Critics have often contended that his writing style noticeably declined after
his wife, Sandy, divorced him.
Following high school graduation, he joined the Air Force as a condition of his
parole.
When he lived in Big Sur in the early 1960s, he rode his BSA Lightning so much
he was known as "The Wild One of Big Sur".
Pleaded no contest to a drunken driving charge in San Francisco in 1987.
When he lived in Big Sur in the early 1960s, his next door neighbor was Joan
Baez.
When he was living in Big Sur in the early 1960s, a group of religious fanatics
moved in next door. He got rid of them by nailing the head of a wild boar to
their front door, and by putting its entrails in their car.
One of the most widely quoted lines from tributes and obituaries to him was from
one written by Frank Kelly Rich, editor and publisher of Modern Drunkard
Magazine: "There was always a powerful comfort in knowing he was out there
somewhere in the night, roaring drunk, guzzling high-octane whiskey and railing
against a world amok with complacency and hypocrisy."
His lifelong antipathy for Richard Nixon was known by the former president, who
barred him from the White House.
Following Richard Nixon's appearance in New Hampshire during the 1968 campaign,
he offered Thompson a lift to the airport on the condition that the two of them
talk about nothing but football. Thompson accepted, mostly because he thought
Nixon knew nothing about the sport. He discovered that, in fact, Nixon was an
avid fan, clear down to which colleges the top players were from!.
Hunter S. Thompson was born in Louisville, Kentucky, USA on 18 July and die on
20 February 2005 in Aspen, Colorado, USA (suicide by gunshot)
He is birth name was Hunter Stockton Thompson
The character of "Duke" in Garry Trudeau's "Doonesbury" comic strip is based on
him.
Lived next to Don Johnson
He wounded his assistant Deborah Fuller accidentally with a shotgun whilst
trying to scare a bear from his property in Aspen, Colorado, USA. 3 August 2000
- cleared of criminal charges of trying to wound his assistant. [27 July 2000]
Charged for possession of child pornography and sexually assulting former
pornography star Gail Palmer. An eleven hour search of his home in Woody Creek,
Colorado, turned up insufficient evidence to prosecute him on either of the
charges, and the DA dropped its case.
Along with Don Johnson, wrote the script for the two-hour TV movie "Bridges," a
story about an unstable, former alcoholic-drug addict cop who works in L.A. with
a diminuitive Latino partner and dates a mafia boss' daughter. Although rejected
by NBC, they bought the script and transformed it into the series "Nash Bridges"
(1996).
Married for nearly 18 years to Sandra Dawn Thompson, during which he wrote what
were considered his two greatest books "Hells Angels" and "Fear and Loathing in
Las Vegas". During the marriage, Sandy's habit of partaking on drug and alcohol
binges with her husband led to several miscarriages, and only one of her
pregnancies produced a healthy child, now grown Juan Thompson. Eventually, the
drugs put Hunter into a several years depressed state, fights broke out between
the two, and Sandy took several beatings, some times of which she fought back
and injured Hunter. When she told him she wanted a divorce, Hunter went
ballistic, destroying some of her possesions and burning the manuscripts she had
been writing. Sandy called the sheriff, a family friend, who sent a deputy up to
her house to escort her into town. The deputy, naive to the situation,
sheepishly asked Sandy if Thompson possesed any firearms, to which she
truthfully replied: "Yes, 22 of them, and every one is loaded".
Since October 2000, has been penning a weekly column, "Hey Rube", for ESPN.com's
Page 2.
Ran for Sheriff of Aspen, Colorado in 1969 on the Freak Power Party ticket, and
narrowly lost.
Graduate of Louisville (Ky.) Male High School, class of 1955. Missed his
graduation exercises because he was in jail. He later started calling himself
Dr. Thompson, after purchasing a doctorate in Divinity from a church by mail
order.
Appeared on a 1967 broadcast of "To Tell the Truth" (1956) when his book
detailing his experiences with the "Hell's Angels" was published.
Biography/bibliography in: "Contemporary Authors". New Revision Series, Vol.
133, pp. 410-417. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2005.
Once sold a Cadillac Eldorado to Lyle Lovett
Underground cartoonist turned comics and animation historian Scott Shaw! based a
recurring character in his works after Thompson: an anthropomorphic dog named
"Pointer X. Toxin".
His final wishes stipulated that his body be cremated and his ashes be shot out
of a cannon across his Colorado ranch. Journalist friend Troy Hooper said "He
was a big fan of bonfires and explosions and anything that went bang and I'm
sure he'd like to go bang as well." This finally happened on August 20, 2005,
along with a big celebration, attended by Sean Penn, Johnny Depp, Lyle Lovett,
and other close friends and family.
Grandson, son of his only child, Juan, was born 1998.
Wife, Anita, was 35 years younger than he was.
Shortly before his death he talked in his ESPN.com column about 'inventing' a
new sport: Shotgun Golf.
He was the basis for the character Spider Jerusalem in the comic series
"Transmetropolitan" by Warren Ellis and Darik Robertson
Has a song entitled "Bat Country" written after him by the band Avenged
Sevenfold.
Wanted his remains to be shot out of a 150 foot long canon. The canon had to be
built especially to fulfill this last wish.
Johnny Depp, who starred in two movie adaptations of Thompson's books (Fear and
Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) and The Rum Diary (2009) ), helped to fulfill his
last wish.
In order to improve his writing style, he once copied F. Scott Fitzgerald's The
Great Gatsby word for word, from start to finish.
rode a BSA A65 Lightning most notably whilst researching his seminal book Hell's
Angels. Towards the end of his period with the Hell's Angels, he wrote that he
was beaten up by them.
Was portrayed by Bill Murray in Where the Buffalo Roam (1980) and Johnny Depp in
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998).
Rode a BSA A65 Lightning most notably whilst researching his seminal book Hell's
Angels. Towards the end of his period with the Hell's Angels, he wrote that he
was beaten up by them.
His favorite pastime was to load a barrel or oil drum with explosives and then
shoot it from a safe distance with one of his many handguns.
After covering the 1972 Democratic Convention in Miami for Rolling Stone
Magazine, Thompson went for an evening swim in the ocean to clear his head. A
light tropical storm blew up, Thompson got caught in a riptide, and he was swept
out to sea. He spent the rest of the night fighting to swim back to the beach,
finally crawling ashore at 9:00 A.M.
His son Juan graduated from college Magna Cum Laude.
At 15 he made an electric go-kart using the engine of a washing machine.
His mother was a chronic alcoholic.
With the aid of two friends he robbed a liquor store by starting a fight with
the clerks and then cleaning out the cash register in the confusion.
During his adolescence, he and two friends broke into and robbed the same
Lexington (Kentucky) gas station on three consecutive nights.
Critics have often contended that his writing style noticeably declined after
his wife, Sandy, divorced him.
Following high school graduation, he joined the Air Force as a condition of his
parole.
When he lived in Big Sur in the early 1960s, he rode his BSA Lightning so much
he was known as "The Wild One of Big Sur".
Pleaded no contest to a drunken driving charge in San Francisco in 1987.
When he lived in Big Sur in the early 1960s, his next door neighbor was Joan
Baez.
When he was living in Big Sur in the early 1960s, a group of religious fanatics
moved in next door. He got rid of them by nailing the head of a wild boar to
their front door, and by putting its entrails in their car.
One of the most widely quoted lines from tributes and obituaries to him was from
one written by Frank Kelly Rich, editor and publisher of Modern Drunkard
Magazine: "There was always a powerful comfort in knowing he was out there
somewhere in the night, roaring drunk, guzzling high-octane whiskey and railing
against a world amok with complacency and hypocrisy."
His lifelong antipathy for Richard Nixon was known by the former president, who
barred him from the White House.
Following Richard Nixon's appearance in New Hampshire during the 1968 campaign,
he offered Thompson a lift to the airport on the condition that the two of them
talk about nothing but football. Thompson accepted, mostly because he thought
Nixon knew nothing about the sport. He discovered that, in fact, Nixon was an
avid fan, clear down to which colleges the top players were from!.