Hunter Stockton Thompson
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24
Books
Hunter S. Thompson was a writer and actor known for the film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas 1998 based on his book. He ran for sheriff of Aspen, Colorado in 1969 on the Freak Power ticket. After his suicide in 2005, his ashes were shot from a cannon at a ceremony attended by Johnny Depp and Sean Penn.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Hunter S. Thompson — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Hunter S. Thompson by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Hunter S. Thompson — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Born in Louisville, Kentucky on July 18, 1937, to Jack Robert Thompson and a mother who was a chronic alcoholic, Hunter S. Thompson had his first run-in with the law at age 9 when he and friends knocked a federal mailbox in front of a city bus. He attended Louisville Male High School but missed his graduation because he was in jail. He joined the Air Force as a condition of parole and later studied at Columbia University and Florida State University.
Thompson’s 1967 book Hell’s Angels documented a year riding with the motorcycle gang and established his gonzo style. His 1971 work Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, first published in Rolling Stone, was adapted into a 1998 film starring Johnny Depp. He covered the 1972 presidential campaign for Rolling Stone and clashed with Richard Nixon, who barred him from the White House. From 2000 to 2005, he wrote a weekly column Hey Rube for ESPN.com.
Thompson married Sondi Wright on May 19, 1963; they had a son, Juan, and divorced on August 13, 1980. His second wife Anita Thompson, 35 years younger, married him in 2003. He lived next to Don Johnson in Colorado and co-wrote a script that became the TV series Nash Bridges. A lifelong fan of the British soap Coronation Street, he also enjoyed shooting explosives. He died by suicide on February 20, 2005 in Aspen, Colorado.
The character Duke in Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury comic strip is based on Thompson. The comic series Transmetropolitan features a character Spider Jerusalem based on him. The band Avenged Sevenfold wrote the song Bat Country about him. He was the subject of the 2008 documentary Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. His most enduring legacy is as the father of gonzo journalism and the author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
The complete filmography of Hunter S. Thompson — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
Hunter S. Thompson's bibliography — every authored, edited, and co-written book, ranked by edition count.
A wall of memorable lines from Hunter S. Thompson — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
I Hate to Advocate Drugs, Alcohol, Violence, or Insanity to Anyone, but They’ve Always Worked for Me.
When I Attended a Press Conference for Jimmy Carter, I Signed More Autographs Than Carter Did. the Secret Service Agents Didn’t Know Who I Was. They Thought I Was an Astronaut.
The Last Train Out of Any Station Will Not Be Full of Nice Guys.
The World Is Still a Weird Place, Despite My Efforts to Make Clear and Perfect Sense of It.
By Any Accepted Standard, I Have Had More Than Nine Lives. I Counted Them up Once, and There Were Thirteen Times When I Should Have Died.
The TV Business Is Uglier Than Most Things. It Is Normally Perceived as Some Kind of Cruel and Shallow Money Trench Through the Heart of the Journalism Industry, a Long Plastic Hallway Where Thieves and Pimps Run Free and Good Men Die Like Dogs, for No Good Reason.
Some May Never Live, but the Crazy Never Die.
Call on God, but Row Away from the Rocks.
If I’d Written All the Truth I Knew for the Past Ten Years, About 600 People, Including Me, Would Be Rotting in Prison Cells from Rio to Seattle Today. Absolute Truth Is a Very Rare and Dangerous Commodity in the Context of Professional Journalism.
Freedom Is Something That Dies Unless It’s Used.
We Are Turning into a Nation of Whimpering Slaves to Fear: Fear of War, Fear of Poverty, Fear of Random Terrorism, Fear of Getting Down-sized or Fired Because of the Plunging Economy, Fear of Getting Evicted for Bad Debts, or Suddenly Getting Locked up in a Military Detention Camp on Vague Charges of Being a Terrorist Sympathizer.
Yesterday’s Weirdness Is Tomorrow’s Reason Why.
Civilization Ends at the Waterline. Beyond That, We All Enter the Food Chain, and Not Always Right at the Top.
Going to Trial with a Lawyer Who Considers Your Whole Lifestyle a Crime in Progress Is Not a Happy Prospect.
If You’re Going to Be Crazy, You Have to Get Paid for It or Else You’re Going to Be Locked Up.
I Have a Theory That the Truth Is Never Told Between 9-5 Business Hours.
Morality Is Temporary, Wisdom Is Permanent.
When the Going Gets Weird, the Weird Turn Pro.
It Never Got Weird Enough for Me.
No One Is Stealing Our Freedoms, We’re Dealing Them Away.
A Group Photo of the Top Ten Journalists in America on Any Given Day Would Be a Monument to Human Ugliness.
Where Will It End? How Low Do You Have to Stoop in This Country to Be the President?
Being Barred from the White House Is Like Being Banned from the Playboy Club. It Carries with It a Certain Distinction.
Life Is Full of Odd Moments; You Never Know When You’re Gonna Get Defiant.
It’s a Strange World. Some People Get Rich and Others Eat Shit and Die.
Paranoia Is Just Another Word for Ignorance.
The Only Difference Between the Sane and the Insane Is iN and yet Within This Word, the Sane Have the Power to Have the Insane Locked Up.
Life Should Not Be a Journey to the Grave with the Intention of Arriving Safely in a Pretty and Well-preserved Body, but Rather to Skid in Broadside in a Cloud of Smoke, Thoroughly Used Up, Totally Worn Out, and Loudly Proclaiming, ‘Wow! What a Ride!’.
I’m More Than Just a Serious Basketball Fan. I’m a Lifelong Addict.
Satire Becomes Impossible When Reality Is Too Twisted.
Little-known facts about Hunter S. Thompson — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
While covering the 1972 Democratic Convention in Miami for Rolling Stone, Thompson went for an evening swim to clear his head. A light tropical storm blew up, caught him in a riptide, and he fought to swim back to shore until 9:00 A.M.
To improve his writing style, Thompson once copied F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby word for word from start to finish.
After Richard Nixon’s appearance in New Hampshire during the 1968 presidential campaign, Nixon offered Thompson a lift to the airport on the condition they only talk about football. Thompson accepted because he thought Nixon knew nothing about the sport, but Nixon turned out to be an avid fan.
Thompson’s 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.
He lived next to Don Johnson.
In 1969, Thompson ran for Sheriff of Aspen, Colorado on the Freak Power Party ticket and narrowly lost.
Thompson and Don Johnson wrote a script for a 2-hour TV movie titled Bridges about an unstable cop battling alcoholism and drug addiction. NBC bought the script and turned it into the series Nash Bridges 1996.
His will stipulated that his body be cremated and his ashes shot out of a 150-foot cannon at his Colorado ranch. His wishes were fulfilled on August 20, 2005, during a celebration attended by Sean Penn, Johnny Depp, Lyle Lovett, and other close friends.
At age 15, Thompson made an electric go-kart using a washing machine motor.
During his adolescence, Thompson and two friends broke into and robbed the same Lexington, Kentucky gas station on three consecutive nights.
Shortly after Ernest Hemingway’s suicide in Ketcham, Idaho, Thompson wrote an article titled What Lured Hemingway to Ketcham, concluding that Hemingway became depressed because his favorite haunts had changed and his friends were dead.
His mother was a chronic alcoholic.
His second wife, Anita, was 35 years younger than him.
Thompson rode a BSA A65 Lightning, most notably while researching his book Hell’s Angels. He wrote that they beat him up toward the end of his time with them.
He graduated from Louisville Ky. Male High School, class of 1955, but missed his graduation ceremony because he was in jail. He joined the Air Force as a condition of parole. He later bought a doctorate in Divinity by mail order and started calling himself Dr. Thompson.
Richard Nixon knew of Thompson’s lifelong antipathy and barred him from the White House.
His grandson, son of his only child Juan, was born in 1998.
One of the most widely quoted lines from tributes to Thompson was from Frank Kelly Rich: 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.
The character Duke in Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury comic strip is based on him.
He once sold a Cadillac Eldorado to Lyle Lovett.
Thompson was a huge fan of the British TV soap Coronation Street and insisted his friend Ralph Steadman mail him VHS tapes of the show each month.
He had his first run-in with the law at age 9, when he and friends knocked a federal mailbox in front of a city bus.
Thompson and his first wife Sandra Dawn Thompson were married for almost 18 years. Her drug and alcohol habits led to several miscarriages; only one pregnancy produced a healthy baby, their son Juan. The drugs sent Hunter into a depression, and the couple fought often, sometimes physically.
The band Avenged Sevenfold wrote the song Bat Country about him.
He appeared on a 1967 broadcast of To Tell the Truth when his book about the Hell’s Angels was published.
He was critical of the Bush administration; once said if Nixon were running, I would happily vote for him instead.
He and two friends robbed a liquor store by starting a fight with the clerks and cleaning out the cash register in the confusion.
When he lived in Big Sur in the early 1960s, he got rid of religious fanatic neighbors by nailing a wild boar’s head to their front door and putting its entrails in their car.
Thompson wrote a weekly column Hey Rube for ESPN.com’s Page 2 from October 2000 to 2005. Shortly before his death, he wrote about inventing Shotgun Golf.
Critics have said his writing style declined noticeably after his first wife Sandy divorced him.
His son Juan graduated from college Magna Cum Laude.
On July 27, 2000, Thompson accidentally wounded his assistant Deborah Fuller with a shotgun while trying to scare a bear from his property in Aspen. He was cleared of criminal charges on August 3rd.
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.
His next door neighbor in Big Sur was Joan Baez.
He opposed the Iraq War in his later years.
In 1987 he pleaded no contest to a drunk driving charge in San Francisco.
Underground cartoonist Scott Shaw based a recurring character in his works after Thompson: an anthropomorphic dog named Pointer X. Toxin.
He was charged with possessing child pornography and sexually assaulting former porn star Gail Palmer, but an 11-hour search of his home turned up insufficient evidence and the DA dropped the case.
He was the basis for the character Spider Jerusalem in the comic series Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson.
Biography/bibliography in Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series, Vol. 133, pp. 410-417, Thomson Gale, 2005.
Biography in The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 538-541, Thomson Gale, 2007.
He bought a 110-acre piece of land in Woody Creek, a small mountain hamlet outside Aspen, for $75,000 in 1969. He called it Owl Farm and lived there for the rest of his life.
He didn’t actually live his infamous daily routine; it was greatly exaggerated as a joke played on the reporter interviewing him.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Hunter S. Thompson.
Celebrities similar to Hunter S. Thompson — same craft, ranked by reach.
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