James Dean

At 24 years old, James Dean has this physical status:

James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931-2005) was an American actor.

He is remembered as a cultural icon of teenage disillusionment and social alienation, as portrayed in the name of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause (1955), in which he appeared as troubled teenager Jim Stark.

Cal Trask (1955), and surly ranch hand Jett Rink in Giant (1956) were two other roles that defined his fame, respectively. Following his death in a car accident, Dean became the first actor to be nominated for Best Actor by the Academy Award, and he remains the only actor to receive two posthumous acting nominations.

In 1999, the American Film Institute named him 18th best male movie actor of Golden Age Hollywood in AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars list.

Early life and education

James Byron Dean was born in 1931 at the Seven Gables apartment in Marion, Indiana, the only child of Mildred Marie (Wilson) and Winton Dean. He also stated that his mother was partially Native American and that his father was related to a "line of original settlers that could be traced back to the Mayflower." Dean and his family migrated to Santa Monica, California, six years after his father had left farming to become a dental technician. He was enrolled at Brentwood Public School in Los Angeles, California, but he was transferred to McKinley Elementary School shortly afterward. Dean was extremely close to his mother for many years, and by all accounts, he was very close to his mother. She was "the only one capable of comprehending him," Michael DeAngelis said. She was greeted with acute stomach pain and began to lose weight in 1938. When Dean was nine years old, she died of uterine cancer. Dean's father, who was unable to care for his son, sent him to live with his aunt and uncle, Ortense and Marcus Winslow, in Fairmount, Indiana, where he was raised in their Quaker household. Dean's father was active in World War II and later remarried.

Dean, an adolescent, needed the assistance and friendship of a local Methodist pastor, the Rev. James DeWeerd, a scholar who seems to have had a strong influence on Dean, particularly on bullfighting, auto racing, and theater, is a young man with a definite influence on Dean. Dean had "an intimate relationship with his pastor, which began in his senior year of high school and lasted for many years," Billy J. Harbin says. In Paul Alexander's 1994 book Boulevard of Broken Dreams: The Life, Times, and Legend of James Dean, their suspected sexual relationship was suggested. Dean once confided in Elizabeth Taylor that he had been sexually assaulted by a minister about two years after his mother's death in 2011. According to other sources of Dean's life, he was either sexually assaulted by DeWeerd as a child or as a late teenager.

Dean's overall results in school were outstanding, and he was a popular student. He served on the baseball and varsity basketball teams, studied drama, and competed in public speaking through the Indiana High School Forensic Association. After graduating from Fairmount High School in May 1949, Max moved back to California with his dog Max to live with his father and stepmother. He enrolled in Santa Monica College (SMC) and majored in pre-law. He enrolled at UCLA for a semester and changed his major to drama, resulting in his father's alienation. He vowed the Sigma Nu fraternity, but he was never initiated. Dean was chosen from a crowd of 350 actors to play Malcolm in Macbeth while studying at UCLA. He also began to act in James Whitmore's workshop at about the same time. He dropped out of UCLA in January 1951 to pursue a full-time career as an actor.

Personal life

William Bast, a screenwriter, was one of Dean's closest friends, a fact that Dean's family acknowledged. Bast said he was Dean's roommate at UCLA and later in New York, and he knew Dean for the past five years of his life. Dean dated Beverly Wills, an actor with CBS, and Jeanette Lewis, a classmate, while at UCLA. Bast and Dean are often double-dated with them. Wills began dating Dean alone, then telling Bast, "Bill, we have something we need to tell you." Jimmy and I are the co-stars of Jimmy and me. We're in love, I mean. "72 They burstled after another man begged her to dance when they were at a function." 74 Bast, Dean's first biographer, won't disclose whether he and Dean had a sexual relationship before 2006. Bast's book Surviving James Dean revealed that he and Dean were actually engaged for one night while staying at a Borrego Springs hotel. Bast also wrote about the difficult conditions of their participation in his book.

"Just kind of magical." actress Liz Sheridan narrated her relationship with Dean in New York in 1996. It was the first love for both of us." In 2000, Sheridan published her book Dizzy & Jimmy: A Love Story.

Dean was introduced to actress Barbara Glenn by their mutual friend Martin Landau while living in New York. They were together for two years, with occasional breakdowns and getting back to basics. They were auctioned at $36,000 in 2011.

Early in Dean's career, the studio's public relations staff began delivering news about Dean's contacts with a variety of young actresses who were mostly drawn from Dean's Hollywood clientele, Dick Clayton. Dean was also grouped together with two other actors, Rock Hudson and Tab Hunter, who had yet to commit to a single woman in a film "eligible bachelor" who had not yet found the time to commit to a single woman, according to the studio's review.

Pier Angeli, a young Italian actress, was one of Dean's most recalled friendships. On an adjoining Warner lot, he encountered Angeli, who exchanged jewelry for love tokens. During an interview fourteen years after their marriage ended, Angeli recalled their days together:

"Everything about Pier is beautiful, especially her soul," Dean was quoted as saying about Angeli. She doesn't have to be all gussied up. She doesn't have to do or say anything. She's just as beautiful as she is. She has a rare insight into life."

Those who believed Dean and Angeli were deeply in love reported that a number of factors led them apart. Dean's casual attire and what she considered to be ineffective behavior: his T-shirt clothing, late dates, fast cars, and the fact that he wasn't Catholic. Such conduct, she said, was not acceptable in Italy. In addition, Warner Bros., where he worked, attempted to discourage him from marrying, but Angeli told Angeli that he did not want to get married. 197 Richard Davalos, Dean of Eden, said that Dean wanted to marry Angeli and was ready to welcome their children to be brought up Catholic. Amongst Dean's personal effects after his death, a Solemnization of Marriage pamphlet with the name "Pier" lightly penciled in every place where the bride's name is left blank.

Some commentators, such as William Bast and Paul Alexander, believe the friendship was nothing more than a publicity stunt. Elia Kazan, the director of East of Eden, denied the suggestion that Dean had any success with women, although he recalls Dean and Angeli roaring in Dean's dressing room. Dean Kazan was quoted by author Paul Donnelley as having "uncertain connections with girlfriends." In an interview, Pier Angeli talked only about the relationship in her later life, giving vivid descriptions of romantic meetings at the beach. As Bast claims they are, Dean biographer John Howlett wrote these books as if they were wishful fantasies.

Dean took a brief trip to New York in October 1954 after finishing his role on East of Eden. 197 While away, Angeli unexpectedly revealed her engagement to Italian-American singer Vic Damone. Dean expressed his indignation as a journalist was shocked, and the media was shocked. The following month, Angeli married Damone. Dean watched the wedding from across the road, even gunning the engine during the event, according to Gossip columnists, although Dean later denied doing anything so "dumb." In his 1992 biography, Joe Hyams, says he visited Dean just as Angeli, who then married to Damone, was leaving his house. Dean was weeping and ostensibly told Hyams she was pregnant, with Hyams finding that Dean had mistook him for his child. Angeli, who divorced Damone and later her second husband, Armando Trovajoli, was recalled by her acquaintances in the last years of her life that Dean was the love of her life. In 1971, she died as a result of an overdose of barbiturates at the age of 39.

Ursula Andress, a Swiss actress, was also dated by Dean. Darwin Porter, a biographer, "She was seen riding around Hollywood on the back of James' bike." She was also seen with Dean in his sports cars and was with him on the day he bought the car that he died in.

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Acting career

In a Pepsi Cola commercial, Dean's first television appearance was in a commercial. He left college to act full time and appeared in his first speaking role as John the Apostle in Hill Number One, an Easter television series dramatizing the Resurrection of Jesus. During production of the program, Dean worked at the Chatsworth area of Los Angeles, for which a recreation of the tomb of Jesus was constructed on location at the ranch. Dean obtained three walk-on roles in films, including as a soldier in Fixed Bayonets. (1951), a boxing cornerman in Sailor Beware (1952), and a youth in Has Anybody Seen My Gal? (1952): A.K.A. (1952).

Dean served as a parking lot attendant at CBS Studios, where he met Rogers Brackett, a radio director for an advertising company, who gave him professional assistance and support in his chosen field, as well as a place to remain, as he continued to pursue Hollywood. Brackett opened doors for Dean and helped him land his first on Broadway in See the Jaguar, his first appearance.

Dean appeared on Alias Jane Doe, a Brackett product, in July 1951. Dean moved to New York City in October 1951, after the encouragement of actor James Whitmore and the guidance of his mentor Rogers Brackett. He started off as a stunt tester on Beat the Clock, but was dismissed later for reportedly doing the duties at a much quicker pace. He appeared in several CBS television series The Web, Studio One, and Lux Video Theatre before being accepted to the Actors Studio to study method acting under Lee Strasberg. In 1952, he appeared as a pressman in the film Deadline, which stars Humphrey Bogart.

In a 1952 letter to his family, Dean Proud of these accomplishments, he referred to Actors Studio as "the finest school of the theater." It hosts celebrities including Marlon Brando, Julie Harris, Arthur Kennedy, Mildred Dunnock, Eli Wallach, and others. Very few people are involved in it... It's the best thing that can happen to an actor. I am one of the youngest to attend. He was classmates and close friends with Carroll Baker, with whom he would later appear in Giant (1956).

Dean's career soared and he appeared in new episodes of such early 1950s television shows as Kraft Television Theatre, Robert Montgomery Presents, The United States Steel Hour, Danger, and GM Electric Theatre. In the episode "Glory in the Flower," Dean portrays the disaffected youth he would later portray in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). One of the first dramatic television shows to feature rock and roll was this summer 1953 film "Crazy Man, Crazy." In an adaptation of André Gide's book The Immoralist (1902), there were positive reviews about Dean's 1954 theatrical appearance as Bachir, a pandering homosexual North African houseboy, causing calls from Hollywood. Dean had an affair with actress Geraldine Page during the film of The Immoralist. "They were married for three and a half months, according to Angelica Page of their relationship. In some ways, my mother never fully understood Jimmy. It was not unusual for me to return to her dressing room through the years, certainly many years after Dean was gone, and to find pictures of him taped up on her mirror. Jimmy was never forgotten about him; never. "They were artistic soul mates," I suspect. Page remained friends with Dean until his death and collected a number of personal mementos from the show, including several drawings by him.

For screenwriter Paul Osborn's adaptation of John Steinbeck's 1952 film East of Eden, director Elia Kazan was looking for a credible actor to play Cal Trask's emotionally complex role. This book explores the Trask and Hamilton families over the course of three generations, focusing in particular on the lives of the latter two generations in Salinas Valley, California, from the mid-19th century to the 1910s.

The film script, in contrast to the book, concentrated on the last portion of the tale, mainly with Cal's character. Despite the fact that he initially seems more distant and emotional than his twin brother Aron, Cal is soon seen to be more feckish, company-savvy, and even sagacious than their pious and indifferent father (played by Raymond Massey) who is trying to invent a vegetable refrigeration process. Cal is bothered by the mystery surrounding their alleged deceased mother, discovers she is still alive and a brothel-keeping'madam'; actress Jo Van Fleet played the role.

Elia Kazan said he wanted "a Brando" for the role, but Osborn suggested Dean, a relatively unknown young actor. Dean met Steinbeck, who didn't like the moody, complicated young man personally, but thought he was perfect for the role. Dean was in the role and after arriving in New York City on April 8, 1954, he departed Los Angeles and began firing.

Several aspects of Dean's film were unscripted, including his dance in the bean field and his fetal-like posturing while riding on top of a train boxcar (after finding his mother in Monterey). The film's best-known improvised sequence occurs when Cal's father declines his donation of $5,000 in beans before the US became involved in World War I. Dean instinctively turned to Massey instead of running away from his father as the script dictated, and clutched him in a full embrace, weeping. In the film, Kazan retained this and Massey's shocked reaction.

Dean's role in the film foreshadowed his role as Jim Stark in Rebel Without A Cause. Both protagonists are angst-ridden protagonists and misunderstand misunderstood outcasts who are desperately seeking love from their fathers.

Dean was nominated posthumously for the 1956 Academy Awards as Best Actor in a Leading Role of 1955, the first official posthumous acting nomination in Academy Awards history, in honor of his appearance in East of Eden. (Because the criteria for selecting the winner were not the same when Jeanne Eagels was nominated for Best Actress in 1929.) Dean's only film starring him was East of Eden.

Dean jumped right into Eden with a starring role as Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), a film that would be extremely popular among teenagers. The film has been praised as a realistic representation of teenage angst. Following East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause, Dean wanted to prevent being stereotyped as a brash youth like Cal Trask or Jim Stark, so he played Jett Rink, a Texan ranch hand who fires oil and becomes wealthy in Giant, a posthumously released 1956 film. Bick Benedict, a Texas rancher, was played by Rock Hudson, his mother, Leslie Taylor, appeared in the film; and Rink portrays a number of decades in the lives of the rancher's life. Dean dyed his hair gray and shaved some of it off to get a receding hairstyle in the film's later scenes.

Giant will be Dean's last film. Dean was supposed to make a booze speech at a banquet at the end of the film; this is called the 'Last Supper' in honor of his sudden death. Dean mumbled so much that director George Stevens decided that the scene had to be overdubbed by Nick Adams, who had a small part in the film, because Dean died before the film was edited, in order to make it more realistic.

Dean received his second posthumous Best Actor Academy Award for his role in Giant at the 29th Academy Awards in 1957, which were the first two in 1956.

Dean was supposed to appear in Some Up There Likes Me (1956), and the director, Nicholas Ray, said he'd do a story called Heroic Love. Dean's death ended any involvement in the programs, but Some Down There Likes Me went on to achieve both commercial and critical success, winning two Oscars and grossing $3,360,000, with Paul Newman playing Graziano.

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