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James Dean (1931 - 1955)
His first film, East of Eden, based on the Steinbeck novel, introduced him to audiences in the role of Cal Trask, a reckless young man who struggles to redeem himself in his father's eyes and escape the "bad seed" nature inherited from his prostitute mother; the role earned Dean an Academy Award nomination. Rebel Without a Cause made him an instant star and a role model for the emerging youth culture of the time. Giant, with Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson, was his second Academy Award nominated film and his last movie. All three were completed within a year. Born in Marion, Indiana, on 8 February, James Byron Dean was raised by his aunt and uncle on their farm in nearby Fairmont. After gaining critical attention in a New York production of Gide's "The Immoralist," Dean went to Hollywood to pursue a career in films, beginning with an uncredited bit part in the Dean Martin / Jerry Lewis vehicle Sailor Beware and small roles on numerous television drama shows, including Kraft Television Theatre, You Are There, and Robert Montgomery Presents. He even worked in the production crew of the Beat The Clock game show, testing the safety of the various stunts contestants were expected to perform. East of Eden gave him his first popular and critical attention as a film actor, and advance press for Rebel and Giant had already secured a place for him as a star even before the movies were released. Rumors and reports about Dean's bisexuality
are numerous. As was common with gay and bisexual actors in Hollywood
at the time, the studio forwarded reports of numerous romances between
Dean and several starlets to the press, all of which were fictions.
Many actresses and women not affiliated with "the business" also claimed
to have had affairs and relationships with Dean over the years, but since
these all appeared after his death, their authenticity cannot be verified.
Like former roommate Nick
Adams, James Dean is said to have supported himself as a male prostitute
during his years as a struggling actor. Rebel co-star Sal
Mineo was said to be hopelessly in love with the dangerously handsome
Dean, much like his character, the tragic Plato. Dean is even quoted
as having proudly boasted to his friends that he had had oral sex with
"five of the biggest names in Hollywood." One of the darkest
stories about the actor is that he often frequented the gay bars in the
seamier areas of Los Angeles and there earned the nickname "Human Ashtray"
because of his masochistic fondness for having cigarettes extinguished
on his bare chest and belly. All these tales lend irony to
the cult following Dean has enjoyed among ultra-macho young men who often
possess highly homophobic ideas and feelings. In
Terence McNally's play, Corpus
Christi, a retelling of the Jesus story set in modern-day Texas,
Satan appears to seduce Joshua / Jesus in the form of James Dean. James Dean was killed in a head-on collision on 30 September, while driving to a race in Salinas, California. The fact that he had received a speeding ticket just two hours earlier fueled speculation that Dean had been speeding at the time of the accident. A reconstruction of the accident forty years later proved that Dean had been driving within the speed limit, at 55 m.p.h., and so was not at fault. Dean's passenger and mechanic, Rolf Wutherich, survived the accident, but later died in another car wreck in 1981. The other driver, Donald Turnupseed, also survived the accident, eventually dying of cancer in 1995. Dean was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. Embalmed in Los Angeles, Dean's body was flown to Fairmont and laid to rest there after a simple service. Only a small entourage of Hollywood figures attended, with the rest of the mourners consisting of family and childhood friends. Reports that Maila Nurmi, famous as
television horror movie host Vampira, had tried unsuccessfully to initiate
a romance with Dean led to claims by many fans, apparently confusing the
real Nurmi with her fictional alter ego, that she had placed a death curse
on Dean for spurning her. This eventually contributed to Nurmi's
show being canceled and her name blacklisted, leading to depression and
suicidal feelings for the actress before she met and befriended notorious
filmmaker Ed Wood
and found immortality in the so-bad-it's-good cult classic Plan 9 From
Outer Space. In a recent interview, Nurmi revealed that what
had really killed any hopes of romance between herself and Dean was her
gay chaffeur's obsession with the handsome film star, to the point that
he often attempted to force himself upon Dean. Noting a long-standing
rumor that on the night before Dean's funeral, the funeral parlor had been
broken into and the body "tampered" with, Nurmi confessed that her chauffeur,
who had accompanied her to Fairmont for the funeral, had declared to her
that he intended to "take from Jimmy Dean in death what had been denied
him in life." If true, this necrophiliac episode would be by far
the most extreme example of the obsession millions have had for James Dean
in the nearly five decades since his passing. We Remember Dean International James Dean on the Big Screen: East of Eden James Dean's Car From Rebel Without A Cause American Movie Classics: East of Eden Internet Movie Database: James Dean Internet Movie Database: Giant
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