| Revision as of 22:02, 15 August 2005 view sourceTed Wilkes (talk | contribs)18,934 editsmNo edit summary← Previous edit | Revision as of 22:05, 15 August 2005 view source Ted Wilkes (talk | contribs)18,934 edits →External links: Removing external link to private websiteNext edit → | ||
| Line 42: | Line 42: | ||
| * (Official Website) | * (Official Website) | ||
| *{{imdb name | id=0000015 | name=James Dean}} | *{{imdb name | id=0000015 | name=James Dean}} | ||
| * | |||
| {{lived | b=1931 | d=1955 | key=Dean, James}} | {{lived | b=1931 | d=1955 | key=Dean, James}} | ||
Revision as of 22:05, 15 August 2005
- This article is about the actor James Dean. You might also be looking for Jimmy Dean.
James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955) was a charismatic American film actor who epitomized youthful angst. Dean's status as a cultural icon is likely embodied in the title of his most cited work, Rebel Without a Cause.
Childhood and education
Born on a Marion, Indiana, family farm to Winton and Mildred Wilson Dean, he and his family moved to Santa Monica, California six years after Winton had left farming to become a dental technician. Dean was enrolled in Brentwood Public School until his mother died of cancer in 1940.
At age nine Dean was sent by his father to live with relatives on a farm near Fairmount, Indiana where his upbringing received a Quaker influence. In high school Dean played on the school basketball team and participated in forensics and drama. After graduating from Fairmont High School in 1949 Dean moved back to California to live with his father and stepmother.
He enrolled in Santa Monica College, pledged Sigma Nu fraternity and majored in pre-law. Dean transferred to the University of California Los Angeles and changed his major to drama, resulting in a parental fight that left him turned out of his father's house.
Known as "Jimmy," Dean began his career with a Coca-Cola television commercial followed by a stint as a stunt tester in the game show Beat the Clock. He quit college to focus on his budding career but struggled to get jobs in Hollywood and succeeded in paying his bills only by working as a parking lot attendant.
Following the advice of friends Dean moved to New York City to pursue a career in live stage acting, where he was accepted to study under Lee Strasberg in the storied Actors Studio. His career picked up and Dean did several episodes on early-1950s episodic television programs such as Kraft Television Theater, Studio One, Lux Video Theatre, Robert Montgomery Presents, Danger and General Electric Theater. His rave reviews in André Gide's The Immoralist led to calls from Hollywood and film stardom.
Film career and death
He appeared in several uncredited bit roles in forgettable films like Sailor Beware but gained recognition and success in 1955 with his first starring role, Cal Trask in East of Eden, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role (the first posthumous acting nomination in Academy Awards history). He followed this up in rapid succession with two more starring roles in Rebel Without a Cause and the 1956 release Giant, for which he was also nominated for an Academy Award.
Dean had become friends with fellow auto enthusiast and multi-millionaire Lance Reventlow, one of the last people to speak to Dean when they met on their way to an auto race in Salinas, California. A few hours later James Dean died in a road accident while driving his Porsche 550 Spyder near Cholame, California when a car driven by Donald Turnupseed made a left turn and crossed Dean's lane (this happened before the release of Giant). He is one of only five people to be nominated for Best Actor for his first feature role and the only person nominated twice posthumously. He is buried in Park Cemetery in Fairmount, Indiana.
Two films from 1955, Rebel Without a Cause and Blackboard Jungle, are most often cited as having symbolized the growing post-war rebellion of 1950s teenagers along with playing a part in the emergence of Rock and Roll as a lasting cultural phenomenon. Many young people of that and later generations modeled themselves after James Dean. His good looks, very brief career and lifestyle, plus the publicity surrounding his violent death at the age of twenty-four, transformed Dean into a cult figure and pop icon of apparently timeless fascination.
Years after his death, bit actor and aspiring writer John Gilmore, a member of Dean's "Night Watch" mortorcyle riders, wrote a book on James Dean claiming they had a homosexual encounter, sparking several otherwise unsupported rumors which have persisted mostly on the Internet.
Filmography
- Fixed Bayonets (1951)
- Sailor Beware (1952)
- Has Anybody Seen My Gal? (1952)
- Trouble Along the Way (1953)
- East of Eden (1955)
- Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
- Giant (1956)
External links
- James Dean (Official Website)
- James Dean at IMDb