James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955) was an American actor. He became one of the most influential figures inHollywood in the 1950s, and his impact on cinema and popular culture was profound, although his career lasted only five years. He appeared in just three major films:Rebel Without a Cause (1955), in which he portrayed a disillusioned and rebellious teenager,East of Eden (1955), which showcased his intense emotional range, andGiant (1956), a sprawling drama. These have been preserved in theUnited States National Film Registry by theLibrary of Congress for their "cultural, historical, or aesthetic significance". He was killed ina car accident at the age of 24 in 1955, leaving him a lasting symbol of rebellion, youthful defiance, and the restless spirit.
For his role inEast of Eden, Dean became the first actor to receive a posthumousAcademy Award nomination forBest Actor.[nb 1] The following year, he earned a second nomination for his performance inGiant, making him the only actor to receive two posthumous acting nominations. In 1999, he was honored by theAmerican Film Institute, being ranked as the 18th greatest male film star fromGolden Age Hollywood on their "AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars" list.Time magazine recognized Dean as one of the "All-Time Most Influential Fashion Icons".
Dean's film roles and style had a strong impact on Hollywood, capturing the spirit of 1950s youth and creating an enduring legacy that shapedAmerican pop culture and defined rebellious,countercultural attitudes for generations.
Early life and education
James Byron Dean was born on February 8, 1931, inMarion, Indiana,[4] the only child of Mildred Marie Wilson and Winton Dean. He stated that his mother was partly Native American and that his father descended from a "line of original settlers that could be traced back to theMayflower".[5] Six years after Winton left farming to become a dental technician, the family moved toSanta Monica, California. Dean first attended Brentwood Public School in theBrentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, then transferred to McKinley Elementary School.[6] The family remained in California for several years, and Dean was widely described as being very close to his mother. According to Michael DeAngelis, she was "the only person capable of understanding him".[7] In 1938, she developed acute stomach pain and rapidly lost weight; she died ofuterine cancer when Dean was nine years old.[8] Unable to care for his son, Winton sent him to live with his aunt and uncle, Ortense and Marcus Winslow, on their farm inFairmount, Indiana,[9] where he was raised in theirQuaker household.[10] Winton served inWorld War II and later remarried.[8][11]
During his adolescence, Dean sought guidance and companionship from a localMethodist pastor, the Rev. James DeWeerd, who appears to have influenced his later interests inbullfighting, car racing, and philosophy.[12][13] Hollywood columnist and Dean biographerJoe Hyams alleged that Dean was molested as a teenager by DeWeerd, writing that "It was the beginning of a homosexual relationship that would endure over many years".[14] Billy J. Harbin, a historian of American theater, cited Hyams when describing an intimate relationship between Dean and DeWeerd that began in Dean's senior year of high school and "endured for many years".[15] Biographer Paul Alexander wrote inBoulevard of Broken Dreams that Dean and DeWeerd "had a romantic relationship that regularly included sex",[16] presenting Dean as predominantly gay.[17] A New York Times book review, however, stated that "Mr. Alexander's well-meaning stab at clarity may titillate, but it adds no light..." and dismissed some of his claims as "arrant nonsense".[18]Kirkus Reviews similarly criticized the book as "riddled with errors" and containing "a great deal of unsubstantiated and highly speculative psychobiography".[19] In 2011,The Daily Beast reported that Dean once confided inElizabeth Taylor that he had been sexually abused by a minister approximately two years after his mother's death.[20]
Although Dean's academic performance was unremarkable, he was a popular student and excelled in basketball despite standing only five feet eight inches tall, his full adult height.[21] He played baseball and varsity basketball,[22] studied drama, and competed in public speaking through the Indiana High School Forensic Association.[23] After graduating from Fairmount High School in May 1949,[23] he returned to California to live with his father and stepmother, Ethel Case Dean.[11] He enrolled atSanta Monica College as a pre-law major, then transferred to theUniversity of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he changed his major to theater arts.[24] His attempt to reconcile with his father ended in what Dean described as "uncommunicative antagonism", driven by Winton's efforts to steer him toward a more conventional career.[25] Dean pledgedSigma Nu but was expelled after punching a fraternity brother.[26] While at UCLA, he was selected from a group of 350 actors to portray Malcolm inMacbeth and also began studying inJames Whitmore's acting workshop. In January 1951, he left UCLA to pursue acting full-time.[27][28] Reflecting on his career choice, Dean later said, "The decision to act was never prompted. My whole life has been spent in a dramatic display of expression."[29]
Acting career
Early career
Dean in 1953 (aged 22)
Dean made his television debut in 1950 in aPepsi commercial.[25][30][11] He left college to pursue acting full‑time and received his first speaking role asJohn the Apostle inHill Number One, an Easter television special dramatizing theResurrection of Jesus. According toRobert Tanitch, the program drew an audience of 42,000,000 viewers.[31] Dean then secured threewalk-on film roles: a soldier inFixed Bayonets! (1951), a boxing cornerman inSailor Beware (1952),[32] and a youth inHas Anybody Seen My Gal? (1952).[33] While struggling to find work inHollywood, he was employed as a parking lot attendant atCBS Studios.[34] During this period, he met Rogers Brackett, a radio director for an advertising agency, who offered him professional guidance, career support, and a place to live.[35] Brackett helped Dean obtain his first starring role on Broadway inSee the Jaguar.[4]
In July 1951, Dean appeared inAlias Jane Doe, a production overseen by Brackett.[36] In October 1951, encouraged by actorJames Whitmore and advised by Brackett, Dean moved to New York City. There, he briefly worked as a stunt tester for the game showBeat the Clock but was dismissed for allegedly completing the tasks too quickly.[37] He also appeared in episodes of several CBS television series, includingThe Web,Studio One, andLux Video Theatre, before gaining admission to theActors Studio, where he studiedmethod acting underLee Strasberg.[25] In 1952, he had a nonspeaking bit part as a pressman inDeadline – U.S.A., starringHumphrey Bogart.[38]
Proud of his progress, Dean described the Actors Studio in a 1952 letter to his family as "the greatest school of the theater. It houses great people likeMarlon Brando,Julie Harris,Arthur Kennedy,Mildred Dunnock,Eli Wallach... Very few get into it ... It is the best thing that can happen to an actor. I am one of the youngest to belong."[39] At the Studio, he became close friends withCarroll Baker, with whom he later co‑starred inGiant (1956). Dean made only one solo presentation there. During the critique session that followed, Strasberg sharply criticized his performance of a scene adapted fromBarnaby Conrad's bullfighting novelMatador.[40] Dean stormed out and, although he continued attending classes, he never again submitted work for Strasberg's critiques.[41]
Dean received strong reviews for his 1954 stage performance as Bachir, a pandering homosexual North African houseboy, in an adaptation ofAndré Gide's 1902 novelThe Immoralist (1902). The acclaim led to a call from Hollywood directorElia Kazan.[42] During the production, according to actressGeraldine Page's daughterAngelica, Dean had an affair with her mother.[43]
In 1953, Kazan sought a substantive young actor to portray Cal Trask in screenwriterPaul Osborn's adaptation ofJohn Steinbeck's 1952 novelEast of Eden. Steinbeck's book follows the Trask and Hamilton families across three generations in California'sSalinas Valley, from the mid-19th century through the 1910s. The film, however, focused on the final portion of the narrative, centering on Cal. Although initially presented as aloof and emotionally troubled in contrast to his twin brother Aron, Cal is revealed to be more worldly, business‑minded, and perceptive than their pious and disapproving father, played byRaymond Massey, who is attempting to develop a vegetable refrigeration process. Cal becomes preoccupied with the mystery surrounding their supposedly dead mother and eventually discovers she is alive and working as a brothel‑keeping madam, portrayed byJo Van Fleet.[44]
Before casting Cal, Kazan said he wanted "a Brando type" for the role. Osborn suggested Dean, then a relatively unknown actor. Dean met with Steinbeck, who reportedly disliked him personally but believed he was ideal for the part. Dean was cast and, on April 8, 1954, left New York City for Los Angeles to begin filming.[45][46]
Much of Dean's performance was improvised,[47] including his dance in the bean field and his fetal‑like posture atop a train boxcar after searching for his mother in nearbyMonterey. The film's most famous improvised moment occurs when Cal's father rejects his gift of $5,000—money Cal earned by speculating in beans before the United States enteredWorld War I. Instead of running away as scripted, Dean instinctively embraced Massey in an anguished lunge, crying. Kazan kept both the gesture and Massey's genuine shock in the final cut. Dean's portrayal foreshadowed his later role as Jim Stark inRebel Without a Cause; both characters are angst‑ridden, misunderstood young men seeking approval from their fathers.[48]
After the film's release in March 1955, gossip columnistHedda Hopper wrote that Dean's performance had already generated significant discussion in Hollywood, with critics, producers, and directors attending advance screenings. She added, "I can't remember when any screen newcomer generated as much excitement in Hollywood as did James Dean in his first picture,East of Eden."[29]
For his performance, Dean received a posthumous nomination for Best Actor at the 1956 Academy Awards, the first official posthumous acting nomination in the Academy's history.[49] (Jeanne Eagels had been nominated for Best Actress in 1929,[50] under different selection rules).East of Eden was the only film starring Dean released during his lifetime.[51]
Dean followedEast of Eden with a starring role as Jim Stark inRebel Without a Cause (1955), a film that became enormously popular among teenagers. Film‑studies scholar Claudia Springer wrote that Dean, by dying young, "became a legendary figure of inarticulateteenage angst." Drama professor Kenneth Krauss similarly argued that Dean was the first postwar movie star to embody teenage angst.[52][53] AfterEast of Eden andRebel Without a Cause, Dean sought to avoid beingtypecast as a rebellious youth like Cal Trask or Jim Stark. He therefore accepted the role of Jett Rink, a Texan ranch hand who strikes oil and becomes wealthy, inGiant, a 1956 film released posthumously and based onEdna Ferber's novel of the same name.[54] The film spans several decades in the lives of Bick Benedict, a Texas rancher played byRock Hudson; his wife, Leslie, played byElizabeth Taylor; and Rink.[55][56] To portray an older version of his character in the film's later scenes, the make‑up department dyed Dean's hair gray and shaved portions of it to create a receding hairline.[57]
Giant proved to be Dean's final film. Near the end of the picture, Rink delivers a drunken speech at a banquet held in his honor, a sceneJohn Howlett described as Jett's "last supper".[58] Dean attempted to make the moment more realistic by becoming inebriated before filming, resulting in dialogue that was largely unintelligible. During editing, directorGeorge Stevens decided the scene had to be overdubbed byNick Adams, as Dean had died by that point. Adams had a small role in the film as "Chick", though the studio mistakenly creditedJack Grinnage as the actor who played the part.[59] Dean received his second posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his performance inGiant at the29th Academy Awards in 1957, honoring films released in 1956.[3] After completingGiant, Dean had been set to star asRocky Graziano in the dramaSomebody Up There Likes Me (1956), and, according to directorNicholas Ray, he was also expected to appear in a project titledHeroic Love.[60]
Personal life
ScreenwriterWilliam Bast was one of Dean's closest friends, a fact acknowledged by Dean's family.[61] According to Bast, he was Dean's roommate atUCLA and later in New York, and knew him throughout the last five years of his life.[62] While at UCLA, Dean datedBeverly Wills, an actress with CBS, and Jeanette Lewis, a classmate. Bast and Dean often double-dated with them. Wills began seeing Dean alone and later told Bast, "Bill, there's something we have to tell you. It's Jimmy and me. I mean, we're in love."[63] Their relationship ended after Dean "exploded" when another man asked her to dance at a social event.[64] Bast, who became Dean's first biographer,[65][66] did not confirm whether he and Dean had a sexual relationship until 2006. In his bookSurviving James Dean, Bast was more explicit about the nature of their relationship, describing a night they spent together at a hotel inBorrego Springs.[67]
In 1996, actressLiz Sheridan described her relationship with Dean in New York in 1952, calling it "...just kind of magical. It was the first love for both of us."[68] While living in New York, Dean was introduced to actress Barbara Glenn by their mutual friendMartin Landau.[69] Dean and Glenn dated for two years, frequently breaking up and reconciling.[70] In 2011, their love letters were sold at auction for $36,000.[71]
Early in Dean's career, after he signed withWarner Brothers, the studio's public relations department began circulating stories about his supposed romances with various young actresses, most of whom were clients of his Hollywood agent,Dick Clayton. Studio press releases also grouped Dean with actorsRock Hudson andTab Hunter, presenting all three as "eligible bachelors" who had not yet found time to settle down: "They say their film rehearsals are in conflict with their marriage rehearsals."[7]
Dean's best-remembered relationship was with Italian actressPier Angeli. He met Angeli while she was filmingThe Silver Chalice (1954)[72] on an adjoining Warner lot, and the two exchanged pieces of jewelry as love tokens. In his 1992 biographyJames Dean: Little Boy Lost, Hollywood gossip columnistJoe Hyams, who said he knew Dean personally, devoted an entire chapter to their relationship. Fourteen years after it ended, Angeli described their time together:
We used to go together to the California coast and stay there secretly in a cottage on a beach far away from prying eyes. We'd spend much of our time on the beach, sitting there or fooling around, just like college kids. We would talk about ourselves and our problems, about the movies and acting, about life and life after death. We had a complete understanding of each other. We were likeRomeo and Juliet, together and inseparable. Sometimes on the beach we loved each other so much we just wanted to walk together into the sea holding hands because we knew then that we would always be together.[73]
Dean was quoted as saying of Angeli, "Everything about Pier is beautiful, especially her soul. She doesn't have to be all gussied up. She doesn't have to do or say anything. She's just wonderful as she is. She has a rare insight into life."[74]
Dean in 1955
Those who believed Dean and Angeli were deeply in love argued that several circumstances drove them apart. Angeli's mother disapproved of Dean because he was not Catholic and because she found his casual dress and behavior unacceptable by Italian standards. Warner Bros., where Dean worked, also discouraged him from marrying, and Dean himself told Angeli that he did not want to marry.[75]Richard Davalos, Dean'sEast of Eden co-star, later claimed that Dean did want to marry Angeli and was willing to have their children raised Catholic.[76] According to Hyams, Lew Bracker visited Dean's apartment after his death to collect personal effects for Dean's father, Winton. Bracker later returned to inventory the items and found a complete "Order for the Solemnization of Marriage" pamphlet with the name "Pier" lightly penciled in every space reserved for the bride's name.[77]
Bast believed the relationship was largely a publicity creation.[78] In his autobiography,A Life,East of Eden director Kazan dismissed the idea that Dean could have had much success with women, although he claimed to remember hearing Dean and Angeli loudly making love in Dean's dressing room.[79] Bast mocked this assertion, noting that Kazan—and no one else—would have had to hear such noises through solid walls across a heavily trafficked corridor.[80] Kazan was quoted by author Paul Donnelley as saying of Dean, "He always had uncertain relations with girlfriends."[81] Angeli spoke publicly about the relationship only once in later life, offering vivid descriptions of romantic meetings at the beach.[82] Writer Peter Winkler argued that these recollections read like "pathetic fantasies".[83] Bast similarly maintained that the two were using each other for publicity and that it would have been nearly impossible for them to have had sex on the beach, given that Angeli's mother rarely allowed her out of her sight for more than an hour.[84]
After completingEast of Eden, Dean took a brief trip to New York in October 1954.[75] While he was away, Angeli unexpectedly announced her engagement to Italian‑American singerVic Damone. The press expressed surprise, and Dean was irritated by the news. Angeli married Damone the following month. Gossip columnists later claimed that Dean watched the wedding from across the street on his motorcycle and revved the engine during the ceremony. Bast wrote that Dean had actually hired a stand‑in to ride a Harley‑Davidson to the church and that, when the couple emerged to be showered with rice, the double gunned the engine for dramatic effect before riding off in front of assembled photographers.[78] Angeli, who later divorced Damone and then her second husband, Italian film composerArmando Trovajoli, was said by friends in her final years to have claimed that Dean was the love of her life. She died of a barbiturate overdose in 1971 at the age of 39.[85] Dean also dated Swiss actressUrsula Andress.[86] "She was seen riding around Hollywood on the back of James's motorcycle," wrote biographerDarwin Porter. She was also seen with him in his sports cars and was with him on the day he bought the car in which he later died.[87]
After being cast as Jim Stark inRebel Without a Cause, Dean could afford to rent his own place and moved into a garage apartment on Sunset Plaza Drive.[88] During the film's production, the nearbyGoogie's Coffee Shop, across from theChateau Marmont on Sunset Strip, became his preferred late‑night hangout, along withSchwab's Pharmacy. He spent time there with a loose group of insomniacs and misfits known as the "night watch",[89] including actressMaila Nurmi, known for herVampira character on KABC-TV; Jack Simmons, a gay aspiring actor who idolized Dean; and John Gilmore,[90] an actor and Dean's motorcycle riding companion.[91]
Dean and his Porsche Super Speedster 23F at Palm Springs Races, March 1955
In 1954, Dean developed a serious interest inmotorsport. After filming forEast of Eden concluded, he bought aTriumph Tiger T110 motorcycle, and in March 1955—just asEast of Eden was being released—he purchased aPorsche 356 Super Speedster convertible.[92] Driving the Speedster and its 1,500 cc engine, he placed in several major racing events.[93] Shortly before filming began onRebel Without a Cause, he entered his first professional competition at the Palm Springs Road Races on March 26–27, 1955. Dean won the novice class and finished second in the main event. On May 1, 1955, he raced the Speedster at Minter Field inBakersfield, California, placing third.[94] He hoped to compete in theIndianapolis 500, but his schedule made participation impossible.[95]
Dean's final race took place inSanta Barbara on Memorial Day, May 30, 1955. A blownpiston forced him to withdraw from the event.[96] His brief racing career was then paused when director George Stevens barred him from racing during the production ofGiant.[97] Dean had completed his scenes, and the film had entered post‑production, when he decided to return to racing.
Accident and aftermath
The intersection of State Route 46 and State Route 41 was renamed "James Dean Memorial Junction". However, the actual accident location is approximately 100 feet (0.019 mi) to the south due to road realignment.
Longing to return to the "liberating prospects" of motor racing, Dean traded in his Speedster for a new, more powerful 1955Porsche 550 Spyder and entered the upcoming Salinas Road Race scheduled for October 2, 1955.[94] Accompanying him on the drive to the track on September 30 were stunt coordinatorBill Hickman,Collier's photographerSanford Roth, andRolf Wütherich, the German Porsche factory mechanic who maintained Dean's Spyder, nicknamed "Little Bastard".[98][99] Wütherich, who had encouraged Dean to drive the car from Los Angeles to Salinas to break it in, rode with him in the Porsche. At 3:30 pm, Dean was ticketed for speeding, as was Hickman, who was following behind in another vehicle.[100]
On Friday, September 30,[101] while the group was traveling westbound onU.S. Route 466[102] (nowSR 46) nearCholame, California, at approximately 5:45 pm,[103] Donald Gene Turnupseed, a Cal Poly State University student,[104] was driving east. Turnupseed, heading north toward Fresno, attempted to turn left onto Highway 41[105] in front of the oncoming Porsche.[98][106] Dean, unable to stop in time, struck the passenger side of Turnupseed's Ford. The impact sent the Porsche skidding across the pavement and off the highway. Wütherich was thrown from the car, while Dean remained trapped and sustained fatal injuries, including a broken neck.[107] Turnupseed suffered only minor injuries.[108]
Several passersby witnessed the crash and stopped to help. Dean's biographer George Perry wrote that a woman with nursing experience attended to Dean and detected a weak pulse, though he also noted that "death appeared to have been instantaneous".[109] Dean was pronounceddead on arrival at the Paso Robles War Memorial Hospital at 6:20 pm.[110]
Although news of the crash was initially slow to reach newspapers in the eastern United States, details spread rapidly via radio and television. By October 2, his death had received extensive domestic and international coverage.[111][112] On Monday morning, October 3, deputy coroner John Stander signed the death certificate, stating that "24‑year‑old James Byron Dean, actor, never married, had met his death on 30 September 1955 at 5.45 pm, one mile east of Cholame at the junction of Highways 466 and 41 in San Luis Obispo County. Chief cause of death was a broken neck, with numerous other fractures and internal injuries."[113] Sheriff‑coroner Paul E. Merrick ordered an inquest, held in the Paso Robles City Council Chamber at 10 am the following Tuesday.[114]
Dean's funeral took place on October 8, 1955, at the Fairmount Friends Church inFairmount, Indiana. The coffin remained closed due to the severity of his injuries. Approximately 600 mourners attended the service, while an estimated 2,400 fans gathered outside during the procession.[111] He is buried at Park Cemetery in Fairmount.[115]
James Dean monument at Cholame, half a mile from the site of the fatal accident
On October 11, after deliberating for only twenty minutes, the inquest jury returned a verdict stating, "We find no indication that James Dean met death through any criminal act of another, and that he died of a fractured neck and other injuries received."[116] A stainless‑steel James Dean monument, built in Japan and brought to the crash site by Japanese businessman Seita Ohnishi in 1977,[117] now stands in front of the former Cholame post office.[118][119]
ActorAlec Guinness later claimed that, in a chance encounter with Dean at the Villa Capri a week before the crash, he had predicted the young actor's death in his newly purchased sports car. In his autobiography, Guinness wrote that when Dean proudly showed him the vehicle, he found it "sinister" and recalled saying, in a voice he barely recognized, "Please, never get in it." He then added, "It is now ten o'clock, Friday the 23rd of September, 1955. If you get in that car you will be found dead in it by this time next week." Dean reportedly laughed and replied, "Oh, shucks! Don't be so mean!"[120] AuthorJason Colavito argues that the story is "almost certainly Guinness's ex post facto fabrication," noting that at the time Guinness merely said Dean had told him that friends had begged him not to buy the car because they feared he would drive it too fast.[121]
Legacy
Cinema and television
In 1960, Dean received a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame.[122] In 1999, theAmerican Film Institute ranked him the 18th-greatest male legend ofGolden Age Hollywood in itsAFI's 100 Years...100 Stars list.[123] All three of Dean's films have been preserved in the United StatesNational Film Registry by theLibrary of Congress.[124] American teenagers of the mid-1950s, when Dean's major films were first released, strongly identified with him and the characters he portrayed, especially Jim Stark inRebel Without a Cause. The film depicts the dilemma of a teenager who feels misunderstood by both adults and peers. After Dean's death,Humphrey Bogart remarked on his emerging legend: "Dean died at just the right time. He left behind a legend. If he had lived, he'd never have been able to live up to his publicity."[125]
HistorianDavid Halberstam writes that the success ofEast of Eden was "stunning", and that it was perhaps director Kazan's best film. He calls Dean's performance a sensation and quotesPauline Kael, the influential film critic: "There is a new image in American films, [...] the young boy as beautiful, disturbed animal." Halberstam says even Kazan was surprised by Dean's impact, surpassing that of the young Marlon Brando. Years later Kazan said Dean had cast a spell over the youth of America. In Halberstam's estimation, the screenplay ofRebel Without a Cause is weak, and what power the movie has is in Dean's performance. He posits that the actor's "myth" is largely interwoven with his role as Jim Stark, "the prototype for the alienated youth blaming all injustice on parents and their generation."[126]
Terence Pettigrew writes that Dean's acting had an immediate effect on the youth of the mid‑1950s, influencing how young people dressed and behaved more than any other actor. Pettigrew describes how the youth revolution brought about by the post‑World War II economic boom in the United States reflected a universal desire among young people across all social levels for recognition of their individuality. Freed from the hardships of theGreat Depression and the war endured by earlier generations, teenagers sought their own identity. Dean embodied the alienation and confusion felt by both middle‑class college students and disaffected youth in lower‑income environments. The characters he played onscreen made him a potent symbol of their doubts and inarticulate desires, and his young audience recognised in him their own anger and distrust of the adult world.[127]
The film scholarTimothy Shary argues that Jim Stark, the role played by Dean inRebel Without a Cause, became the most influential teenage rebel in American cinema. He notes that while Warner Bros. aimed to capitalize on a trend of depicting tormented adolescents in films made by smaller studios, the movie created by Nicholas Ray and his team addressed genuine tensions in teenage life. These feelings were given voice and personified by Dean, leading to his veneration as an icon of cool. His image made the film an "indelible symbol of youth trying to discover themselves and declare their identity."[128]
The film criticDavid Thomson says James Dean was oneself, and that "one marveled in the way a savage might be awed by a mirror." For Thomson, Dean's potency was not as a rebel without a cause. He cites Dean's anguished cry when Sal Mineo is shot as the "very antithesis" of the film's title. In his view, Dean as shown on the screen projected sensitivity and vulnerability, but he never seemed callow—he appeared more experienced, older, and sadder than the grownups in his films. He appealed to young people because he understood that they knew some truths about the world, too. Thomson declares that Dean is not dated—new generations still fall under his sway. In a very short time he changed the milieu of American culture, and now Dean's intelligence and his sexual ambiguity are more obvious.[129]
Joe Hyams says that Dean was "one of the rare stars, likeRock Hudson andMontgomery Clift, whom both men and women find sexy."[130] According toMarjorie Garber, this quality is "the indefinable extra something that makes a star".[131] Dean biographer George Perry attributed Dean's exalted status to the public's need for someone to stand up for the disenfranchised young of the era,[132] and to the air ofandrogyny that he projected onscreen.[133]
François Truffaut, the filmmaker and critic who "likened Dean's style of performance to rock and roll" and praised his originality,[134] wrote an essay about Dean,James Dean is Dead. He writes:
James Dean's acting flies in the face of fifty years of filmmaking; each gesture, attitude, each mimicry is a slap at the psychological tradition. [...] Dean's acting is more animal than human, and that makes him unpredictable. What will his next gesture be? He may keep talking and turn his back to the camera as he finishes a scene; he may suddenly throw his head back or let it droop; he may raise his arms to heaven, stretch them forward, palms up to convince, down to reject. [...] He can laugh when another actor would cry—or the opposite. He killed psychology the day he appeared on the set. [...] Dean's power of seduction was so intense that he could have killed his parents every night on the screen with the blessing of the snobs and the general public alike. [...] It is easier to identify with James Dean than with Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, or Marlon Brando. Dean's personality is truer.[135]
Dean has been a touchstone of many television shows, films, books, and plays. The filmSeptember 30, 1955 (1977) depicts how various characters in a small Southern town in the US react to Dean's death.[136] The playCome Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, written by Ed Graczyk, depicts a reunion of Dean fans on the 20th anniversary of his death. It was staged by the directorRobert Altman in 1982 but was poorly received and closed after only 52 performances. While the play was still running on Broadway, Altman shot afilm adaptation that was released byCinecom Pictures in November 1982.[137]
On April 20, 2010, a long "lost" live episode of theGeneral Electric Theater called "The Dark, Dark Hours" featuring Dean in a performance withRonald Reagan was uncovered by NBC writerWayne Federman while working on a Ronald Reagan television retrospective.[138] The episode, originally broadcast on December 12, 1954,[139] drew international attention, and highlights were featured on numerous national media outlets including:CBS Evening News,NBC Nightly News, andGood Morning America. It was later revealed that some footage from the episode had first featured in the 2005 documentary,James Dean: Forever Young.[140]
As of January 2020, Dean's estate had its best showing onForbes' annual list of the top-earning dead celebrities in 2015, with an income that year of US$8.5 million.[141] On November 6, 2019, it was announced that Dean's likeness would be used, viaCGI, for aVietnam War film calledFinding Jack, based on the Gareth Crocker novel. Prior to being shelved,[142] the movie was to have been directed byAnton Ernst and Tati Golykh, and another actor would have voiced Dean's part.[143] Although the directors obtained the rights to use Dean's image from his family, the announcement was met with derision by people in the industry.[143][144]
Martin Sheen has been vocal throughout his career about being influenced by Dean.[145] Speaking of the impact Dean had on him personally, Sheen stated, "All of his movies had a profound effect on my life, in my work and all of my generation. He transcended cinema acting. It was no longer acting, it was human behavior."[146]
Johnny Depp credited Dean as the catalyst for his wanting to become an actor.[147]Nicolas Cage also said he wanted to go into acting because of Dean.[148] "I started acting because I wanted to be James Dean. I saw him inRebel Without a Cause,East of Eden. Nothing affected me—no rock song, no classical music—the way Dean affected me inEden. It blew my mind. I was like, 'That's what I want to do,'" Cage said.[149]Robert De Niro cited Dean as one of his acting inspirations in an interview.[150]Leonardo DiCaprio also cited Dean as one of his favorite and most influential actors.[151] When asked which performances stayed with him the most, DiCaprio responded, "I remember being incredibly moved by Jimmy Dean, inEast of Eden. There was something so raw and powerful about that performance. His vulnerability ... his confusion about his entire history, his identity, his desperation to be loved. That performance just broke my heart."[152]Salman Shah, commonly regarded as one of the most popular and influential figures in Bangladesh's film history,[153] is often compared to Dean, because of the similarities in their lives and careers. Shah had an ephemeral but prolific impact as an actor, was a major enthusiast of fashion and automobiles, died when he was 24—the same age as Dean—and has an enduring legacy.[154]
Youth culture and music
Numerous commentators have asserted that Dean had a singular influence on the development ofrock and roll music. According to David R. Shumway, a researcher in American culture and cultural theory atCarnegie Mellon University, Dean was the first notable figure of youthful rebellion and "a harbinger of youth-identity politics". The persona Dean projected in his movies, especiallyRebel Without a Cause, influencedElvis Presley[155] and many other musicians who followed,[156] including the American rockersEddie Cochran andGene Vincent.[157]
In their book,Live Fast, Die Young: The Wild Ride of Making Rebel Without a Cause, Lawrence Frascella andAl Weisel wrote, "Ironically, thoughRebel had no rock music on its soundtrack, the film's sensibility—and especially the defiant attitude and effortless cool of James Dean—would have a great impact on rock. The music media would often see Dean and rock as inextricably linked [...] The industry trade magazineMusic Connection went so far as to call Dean 'the first rock star.'"[157]
Bronze bust of Dean created by sculptor Kenneth Kendall at theGriffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California[158]
As rock and roll became a revolutionary force that affected the culture of countries around the world,[159] Dean acquired a mythic status that cemented his place as a rock and roll icon.[160] Dean himself listened to music ranging from African tribal music[161] to the modern classical music ofStravinsky as well as to contemporary singers such asFrank Sinatra[162] andBartók.[163] While the magnetism and charisma manifested by Dean onscreen appealed to people of all ages and sexes,[164] his persona of youthful rebellion provided a template for succeeding generations of youth to model themselves on.[118][165]
In his book,The Origins of Cool in Postwar America, Joel Dinerstein describes how Dean and Marlon Brando eroticized the rebel archetype in film,[166] and how Elvis Presley, following their lead, did the same in music. Dinerstein details the dynamics of this eroticization and its effect on teenage girls with few sexual outlets.[167] Presley said in a 1956 interview withLloyd Shearer forParade magazine, "I've made a study of Marlon Brando. And I've made a study of poor Jimmy Dean. I've made a study of myself, and I know why girls, at least the young 'uns, go for us. We're sullen, we're broodin', we're something of a menace. I don't understand it exactly, but that's what the girls like in men. I don't know anything about Hollywood, but I know you can't be sexy if you smile. You can't be a rebel if you grin."[168]
Dean and Presley have often been represented in academic literature and in journalism as embodying the frustration felt by young white Americans with the values of their parents,[169][170] and depicted as avatars of the youthful unrest endemic to rock and roll style and attitude. The rock historianGreil Marcus characterized them as symbols of tribal teenage identity, which provided an image that young people in the 1950s could relate to and imitate.[171][172] In the bookLonely Places, Dangerous Ground: Nicholas Ray in American Cinema, Paul Anthony Johnson wrote that Dean's acting inRebel Without a Cause provided a "performance model for Presley,Buddy Holly, andBob Dylan, all of whom borrowed elements of Dean's performance in their own carefully constructed star personas".[173] Frascella and Weisel wrote, "As rock music became the defining expression of youth in the 1960s, the influence ofRebel was conveyed to a new generation."[157]
Rock musicians as diverse as Buddy Holly,[174] Bob Dylan, andDavid Bowie regarded Dean as a formative influence.[175] The playwright and actorSam Shepard interviewed Dylan in 1986 and wrote a play based on their conversation, in which Dylan discusses the early influence of Dean on him personally.[176] A young Bob Dylan, still in hisfolk music period, consciously evoked Dean visually on the cover of his album,The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963),[177] and later onHighway 61 Revisited (1965),[178] cultivating an image that his biographerBob Spitz called "James Dean with a guitar".[179] Dean has long been invoked in the lyrics of rock songs, famously in songs such as "A Young Man Is Gone" by theBeach Boys (1963),[180] "James Dean" by theEagles (1974),[181] and "James Dean" by theGoo Goo Dolls (1989). He has also been referenced in songs by artists such asMorrissey,Jay Z,Lady Gaga,[182] andTaylor Swift.[183]
Sexuality
Dean is often considered a sexual icon because of his perceived experimental take on life, which included his ambivalent sexuality. TheGay Times Readers' Awards cited him as the greatest male gay icon of all time.[184] When questioned about hissexual orientation, Dean is reported to have said, "No, I am not a homosexual. But I'm also not going to go through life with one hand tied behind my back."[185]
The journalistJoe Hyams suggests that Dean was willing to have sex with men who could advance his career. He moved in with Rogers Brackett, an advertising executive who had connections in the entertainment industry and supposedly arranged meetings with them on Dean's behalf, leading to speculation that Dean was having sex "for trade".[186]William Bast referred to Dean as Rogers Brackett's "kept boy" and once found a grotesque depiction of a lizard with the head of Brackett in a sketchbook belonging to Dean.[187] Brackett was quoted saying about their relationship, "My primary interest in Jimmy was as an actor—his talent was so obvious. Secondarily, I loved him, and Jimmy loved me. If it was a father-son relationship, it was also somewhat incestuous."[188] James Bellah, the son ofAmerican Western authorJames Warner Bellah, was a friend of Dean's at UCLA, and later stated, "Dean was a user. I don't think he was homosexual. But if he could get something by performing an act ... Once ... at an agent's office, Dean told me that he had spent the summer as a 'professional house guest' onFire Island."[189]Mark Rydell stated, "I don't think he was essentially homosexual. I think that he had very big appetites, and I think he exercised them."[190]
Aside from Bast's account of his own relationship with Dean, Dean's fellow motorcyclist and "Night Watch" member,John Gilmore, claimed that he and Dean "experimented" with gay sex on multiple occasions in New York, describing their sexual encounters as "Bad boys playing bad boys while opening up thebisexual sides of ourselves."[191] Gilmore on another occasion said, "That's how it was, neither black nor white. Jimmy thought of himself as an explorer, making discoveries in life, things, and sex."[192]
On the subject of Dean's sexuality,Rebel directorNicholas Ray is on record saying, "James Dean was not straight, he was not gay, he was bisexual. That seems to confuse people, or they just ignore the facts. Some—most—will say he was heterosexual, and there's some proof for that, apart from the usual dating of actresses his age. Others will say no, he was gay, and there's some proof for that, too, keeping in mind that it's always tougher to get that kind of proof. But Jimmy himself said more than once that he swung both ways, so why all the mystery or confusion?"[193][194]Martin Landau, a good friend of Dean's whom he met at theActors Studio, stated, "A lot of people say Jimmy was hell-bent on killing himself. Not true. A lot of gay guys make him out to be gay. Not true. When Jimmy and I were together, we'd talk about girls. Actors and girls. We were kids in our early 20s. That was what we aspired to."[195]Elizabeth Taylor, whom Dean had become friends with while working together onGiant, referred to Dean as gay during a speech at theGLAAD Media Awards in 2000.[196] When questioned about Dean's sexuality by the openly gay journalistKevin Sessums forPOZ magazine, Taylor responded, "He hadn't made up his mind. He was only 24 when he died. But he was certainly fascinated by women. He flirted around. He and I ... twinkled."[197]
Fashion
James Laver, the historian and critic of costume and fashion, says that in the 1950s a fashion market arose that catered to young people with large disposable incomes, and that there was a general relaxation of dress codes among them. He writes, "James Dean and Marlon Brando popularized jeans and the motorbike jacket and also transformed the T-shirt into a fashionable item of clothing."[198] According to the clothing designer Julian Robinson, "James Dean heralded the era of T-shirts, jeans and bomber jackets and a welcome blurring of class and wealth barriers."[199] Dean was frequently photographed wearing his signature outfit of jeans, a white T-shirt, and amotorcycle jacket, evoking an outsider and rebel image, especially reflected in the symbolic mystique of the motorcycle jacket.[200] According toEdgar Morin, with his wardrobe Dean expressed an attitude towards society of resistance against the social conventions of adults.[201] The philosopher Malcolm Barnard writes that denim jeans, formerly worn as rural work clothes, "revealed the form of the body rather than covering it". He says they became a symbol of youthful defiance of authority, according to social commentators, when James Dean and Marlon Brando wore them in 1950s films.[202]
Frascella and Weisel call the red jacket Dean wore inRebel "one of the most iconic pieces of clothing ever worn by a Hollywood star". They recount the differing stories told by persons involved in the film's production about the origin of the red jacket: Nicholas Ray is quoted as saying, "the first thing I did was pull a red jacket off the Red Cross man, dip it in black paint to take off the sheen and give it to Jimmy." The actorFrank Mazzola said he accompanied Dean on a shopping trip to Mattson's clothing store on Hollywood Boulevard, and "The red jacket was really an Athenian jacket that we bought cheaply at Mattson's. They were blue, so the guy at Warner Brothers dyed it red." The film's costume designer, Moss Mabry, said he made three of the jackets. Ray had originally told him the jacket should be khaki. He went to Ray's office to show him swatches of the fabric he'd chosen, and while he was waiting to see the director, "This guy walked in with a red jacket just trying to get a part. And I was fascinated. How good he looked in that red jacket. So I went back to the wardrobe department and cut off a swatch of red." Ray approved the samples and Mabry worked out the pattern for the jacket and cut it from abolt of red nylon.[203]
Claudia Springer assigns James Dean a central role in the development of the icon of the teen rebel in the 1950s and details how the studios and the media manipulated Dean's public image for their own ends. The advertising industry exploited the ambiguity of the rebel icon as an "endlessly malleable and durable marketing tool", and now James Dean "has become the consummate product of commercialism." According to Springer, his image and his name have sold hundreds of millions of items.[204][205]
Rebel was one of the first films to use product placement directed toward teenagers—sales of Ace combs soared after James Dean was shown using one to comb his hair in the movie.[206][207] In 1955, the celebrity photographerPhil Stern photographed Dean leaning back in a chair on the Los Angeles set ofGiant while wearing wide-legged khaki pants andJack Purcell tennis shoes. The famous image was exploited in the late 1980s with an advertising campaign byConverse, which had acquired the Jack Purcell shoe in 1972. Converse paid Stern more than $50,000 for using the photo.[208] Company officials said the campaign increased brand sales by 30 to 50 percent.[209]
James Dean has been recognized byTime magazine as one of the "All Time 100 Fashion Icons", highlighting his lasting impact on style and pop culture.[210]Montblanc honored Dean as part of its"Great Characters" collection which celebrates influential figures from various fields who have had a lasting impact on culture and society.[211]Harper's Bazaar ranked James Dean as the top choice in their 2024 list of "The 50 Hottest Men of All Time."[212]
James Dean Remembered (1974), a television film, highlights significant moments from Dean's career in film and television and features interviews withSammy Davis Jr.,Natalie Wood,Sal Mineo, andLeonard Rosenman.
Forever James Dean (1988), Warner Home Video (1995).
James Dean: The Final Day (1991) features interviews withWilliam Bast,Liz Sheridan, andMaila Nurmi. Dean's bisexuality is openly discussed. Episode ofNaked Hollywood television miniseries produced by The Oxford Film Company in association with theBBC, aired in the United States on theA&E Network.
James Dean: Race with Destiny (1997), starringCasper Van Dien as Dean.
James Dean – Outside the Lines (2002), episode ofBiography, an American television documentary includes interviews withRod Steiger,William Bast, andMartin Landau.
Living Famously: James Dean (2003, 2006), an Australian television biography, includes interviews withMartin Landau,Betsy Palmer,William Bast, and Bob Hinkle.
James Dean – Kleiner Prinz, Little Bastard akaJames Dean – Little Prince, Little Bastard (2005), German television biography, includes interviews withWilliam Bast, Marcus Winslow Jr., andRobert Heller.
James Dean: Forever Young (2005), narrated byMartin Sheen.
^Jeanne Eagles was nominated posthumously forBest Actress for her role inThe Letter at the2nd Academy Awards in 1930, though hers, like all the nominations at the 2nd Academy Awards, was unofficial, being among several actresses "under consideration" by a board of judges.[1] This makes Dean the first actor in the history of the Academy Awards to be nominated posthumously.[2][3]
^Skolsky, Sydney (2016)."Demon Dean". In Winkler, Peter L. (ed.).The Real James Dean: Intimate Memories from Those Who Knew Him Best. Chicago Review Press. p. 236.ISBN978-1-61373-474-2.
^Winkler, Peter L. (2016)."There Was A Boy". In Winkler, Peter L. (ed.).The Real James Dean: Intimate Memories from Those Who Knew Him Best. Chicago Review Press. p. 57.ISBN978-1-61373-474-2.
^Bast, William (2006).Surviving James Dean. Barricade Books. p. 197.ISBN978-1-56980-298-4.Some might wonder about Kazan's claim in his memoir that he heard them "boffing" in Jimmy's dressing room from his office across the hall. Pardon my skepticism, but I figure he must have had remarkable ears capable of hearing "boffers" through the solid wall of his own office, across a wide carpeted corridor, then through Jimmy's own similarly solid dressing-room wall.
^Gilmore, John (2016)."Blindside". In Winkler, Peter L. (ed.).The Real James Dean: Intimate Memories from Those Who Knew Him Best. Chicago Review Press. pp. 137–138.ISBN978-1-61373-474-2.
^Middlecamp, David (September 30, 2005)."Photos From the Vault".SanLuisObispo.com. Archived fromthe original on October 6, 2013. RetrievedOctober 6, 2013.
^Wilson, Scott.Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Locations 11495-11496). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.
^Guinness, Alec (2016)."Along Came a Spyder". In Winkler, Peter L. (ed.).The Real James Dean: Intimate Memories from Those Who Knew Him Best. Chicago Review Press. pp. 313–314.ISBN978-1-61373-474-2.
^Truffaut, François (1997)."James Dean is Dead". In Ebert, Roger (ed.).Roger Ebert From Tolstoy To Tarantino, The Finest Writing From A Century Of Film( 1996). New York, N.Y.: W.W. Norton and Company. pp. 123–125.ISBN0-393-04-000-3.
^Peretti, Burton W. (1998).Jazz in American Culture. Ivan R. Dee. p. 128.ISBN978-1-4617-1304-3.One of them, Elvis Presley, brilliantly blended black blues and gospel with the white actor James Dean's movie persona.
^Song, Yuwu (2015)."James Dean (1931–1955)". In Gina Misiroglu (ed.).American Countercultures: An Encyclopedia of Nonconformists, Alternative Lifestyles, and Radical Ideas in U.S. History. Routledge. p. 200.ISBN978-1-317-47729-7.
^Owram, Doug (1997).Born at the Right Time: A History of the Baby-boom Generation. University of Toronto Press. p. 196.ISBN978-0-8020-8086-8.The sense of alienation from society and distrust of authority that was inherent in the leather jacket of James Dean or the blue jeans of Elvis Presley was incorporated into the modern sensibility of youth
^Howes, Keith (2005)."James Dean". In Aldrich, Robert; Wotherspoon, Garry (eds.).Who's Who in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History Vol.2: From World War II to the Present Day. Routledge. p. 268.ISBN978-1-134-58313-3.
^Morin, Edgar (1960).The Stars: An Account of the Star-System in Motion Pictures. Grove Press, Inc. pp. 124–125.James Dean has also defined what one might call the panoply of adolescence, a wardrobe in which is expressed a whole attitude towards society: blue jeans, heavy sweaters, leather jacket, no tie, unbuttoned shirt, deliberate sloppiness are so many ostensible signs (having the value of political badges) of a resistance against the social conventions of a world of adults.
^Umphlett, Wiley Lee (2006).From Television to the Internet: Postmodern Visions of American Media Culture in the Twentieth Century. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. p. 396.ISBN978-0-8386-4080-7.That so-called "aberrant" sex had become a promotional feature of the book market was exemplified by author Paul Alexander's intimation that James Dean was homosexual inBoulevard of Broken Dreams. But in Hollywood mythology and the eyes of the mediated vision, Dean, even in death, remained the perennial media-made image of the 1950s' rebellious youth.
Gilmore, John (2016)."Blindside". In Winkler, Peter L. (ed.).The Real James Dean: Intimate Memories from Those Who Knew Him Best. Chicago Review Press.ISBN978-1-61373-474-2.
Hopper, Hedda (2014). "Teen Idol: Hedda Hopper Interviews James Dean | Source: Chicago Tribune — New York News, March 27, 1955". In Ross, Steven J. (ed.).Movies and American Society. John Wiley & Sons. p. 244.ISBN978-0-470-67364-5.
Middlecamp, David (September 30, 2005)."Photos From the Vault".SanLuisObispo.com. Archived fromthe original on October 6, 2013. RetrievedOctober 6, 2013.
Beath, Warren, with Wheeldon, Paula; James Dean in Death: A Popular Encyclopedia of a Celebrity Phenomenon, McFarland & Co., Inc., 2005.ISBN0-7864-2000-6
Heinrichs, Steve; Marinello, Marco; Perrin, Jim; Raskin, Lee; Stoddard, Charles A; Zigg, Donald; Porsche Speedster TYP540: Quintessential Sports Car, 2004, Big Lake Media, Inc.ISBN0-9746468-0-6
.jpg)
.jpg)
%2c_Hollywood_Boulevard%2c_James_Dean_--_2012_--_4997.jpg)
.jpg)
