Peter Fonda, wild and on wheels

Talk about a spooky coincidence.

Just hours before local movie maven Wendy Eidson announced that Oscar nominee Peter Fonda will be coming to San Luis Obispo next month, Ticket editor Justin Hoeger and I were talking about the lanky blonde actor's cameo in "Ghost Rider."

Fonda, you see, was the only bright spot in the otherwise dismal "Ghost Rider," starring Nicolas Cage as a demon-possessed vigilante on wheels. Fonda played Mephistopheles -- a role that seemed to fit his mystique as a rough-riding rebel.

Somehow, it's hard to imagine Peter Fonda without a motorcycle.

He played a Hell's Angel named Heavenly Blues in 1966's "The Wild Angels," and the "chief biker" in "The Cannonball Run."

As Captain America, the iconic anti-hero of "Easy Rider," he went on the ultimate roadtrip -- smuggling cocaine with Dennis Hopper, introducing Jack Nicholson to weed, and tripping on LSD with two hookers in a New Orleans graveyard.

Fonda even made an appearance in "Wild Hogs," last year's paen to middle-aged men and their love for burning rubber.

In 2000, the American Motorcyclist Association inducted Fonda into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame, praising him as a "motorcycling ambassador providing positive exposure for the sport."

When Fonda rolls into town on Saturday, March 15, I hope he's riding a stars-and-stripes-spangled hog.

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Peter Fonda will appear at the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival, which runs March 7 through March 16.
He's the recipient of this year’s King Vidor Career Achievement Award, which recognizes career achievement in filmmaking.
For more information about the SLO film festival, visit www.slofilmfest.org.

-- Sarah L.