When Dennis Hopper met Brooke Hayward on a Broadway stage in 1961, you wouldn’t have expected the two actors to connect, get married and help shape the cultural landscape of Los Angeles in the ’60s.
Hopper was a wild card, a Method actor who’d made his Hollywood debut in “Rebel Without a Cause,” and at 24 had already earned a reputation as a stubborn maverick determined to be an artist in every sense of the word.
Hayward was Hollywood royalty, the daughter of actress Margaret Sullavan and agent-producer Leland Hayward. At 23, the actress was a demure beauty who glided effortlessly through the rarified realms of the show business universe.
