James Dean Son

James Dean Son
More than six decades after his untimely death, James Dean remains one of Hollywood’s most enduring and enigmatic icons.
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More than six decades after his untimely death, James Dean remains one of Hollywood’s most enduring and enigmatic icons.
It's been more than 60 years since his tragic death and still Hollywood is looking for “the next James Dean .” The young actor made only three movies in his career – East of Eden (1955) where he played the bad boy brother in the “Cain and Abel” retelling, his signature role as an angst-fueled teen in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), and Giant (1956) where he stepped into the cowboy boots of a nonconformist ranch hand. All of his movies became Hollywood classics, but he only saw one, East of Eden , completed.
He was only 24 years old on September 30, 1955, when he was driving down Route 466 in his Porsche 550 Spyder and a car collided with his, killing him almost instantly. The young star's life and career was cut short, but his premature death contributed to the legend he would become. Rebel Without a Cause and Giant were released posthumously, and Dean came to epitomize the sensitive, troubled rebel who fans still connect with today. Who was the man behind the brooding Hollywood sex symbol? Here are 7 revealing facts that might give you a clue.
Dean was born in Marion, Indiana on February 8, 1931. Dean's father Winton left farming to become a dentist and moved the family to Santa Monica, California. But when Dean’s mother died from cervical cancer when he was 9, the family broke apart. His father sent him back to Indiana to live on his aunt and uncle’s Quaker farm, and this was the beginning of an estrangement between father and son that would haunt them for the rest of their lives.
He was the symbol of sexy cool onscreen, but off-camera the 5’8," 135-pound star had some quirky and dirty (as in unwashed) habits. Dean supposedly didn’t care much about his public appearance and went for the disheveled look. At one formal luncheon, he showed up barefoot and in filthy jeans and was known to appear at rehearsals in pants held together with safety pins. He was also known for having pretty extreme mood swings, according to friends, who said he also had the habit of calling or visiting them late at night. “He’d be up one minute, down the next. He was uncomfortable in his own skin,” one of them said.
Just hours before his crash, James Dean takes a cigarette break at a gas station next to his beloved silver Porsche 550 Spyder that he named Little Bastard.
Dean respected another brooding actor of the day, Marlon Brando . While Dean was just emerging in Hollywood, the slightly older Brando had major success as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), his iconic role as a motorcycle gang leader in The Wild One (1953), and he won an Oscar for On the Waterfront (1954). Dean attempted to call Brando and see him socially, but Brando rebuffed his attempts at a friendship. “I gave him the name of a [psycho]-analyst, and he went. At least his work improved,” Brando said.
In his short career, Dean played fictional non-conformists who played by their own rules, but if he had lived he may have taken on the role of a real-life outlaw. He read and re-read the book The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid and frequently spoke of wanting to portray the Wild West gunslinger in a film.
Before he made it in the movies, Dean worked a lot on live television. A fan of improvising, he went off-script on one show and threw a few ad-libs at one of his co-stars, actor and future president Ronald Reagan , who was totally confused by Dean's acting method. Reagan wasn’t the only one who disliked Dean’s spontaneity. "Just make him say the lines as they’re written,” one actor said once.
Although Dean was briefly engaged to actress Pier Angeli, his sexuality has been a matter of debate. A number of biographers doubt his relationship with Angeli was a physical one. Some biographers believe he was bisexual; others characterize him as a homosexual who had one or two brief affairs with women. It was rumored that his first sexual experience occurred as a teenager when a local minister seduced him.
When he wasn’t acting or racing cars, Dean liked to practice magic tricks. A smoker, who was often photographed with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, Dean put a magical spin on his tobacco habit: he would put an unlit cigarette and a flaming match into his mouth and then pull out a burning cigarette. Another reason why Dean was smoking hot.
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Whether told in his own words or from a third person’s point of view, the life of James Dean is exhilarating, intriguing and tragic. From a small town in the Midwest to the Hollywood Hills of California, James Dean's story is one that you will never forget.
Drawn from the last few pages of John Steinbeck's mammoth novel, East of Eden is powerful, intense family drama, about rivalry between two sons for the love of their father. What makes director Elia Kazan's film so remarkable is the casting of virtual unknowns in the leading roles. As Abra, the girl who comes between the brothers, Julie Harris portrays a woman torn between the two; as the stern patriarch Adam Trask, Raymond Massey couldn't be bettered. Richard Davalos, as the 'sensitive' brother Aron also gave a fine performance. 'It's the actor who plays Cal who really bears watching,' critics raved...
Just under a month before Rebel Without A Cause premiered in New York, James Dean had been killed in a tragic auto accident at the age of 24. It's impossible to watch Rebel without a deep sense of regret, of loss. His performance as Jim Stark - "the bad boy from a good family" - as the ads described it - is a masterful achievement, fulfilling the promise shown in his previous film, East of Eden. Dean plays the angst-ridden son of henpecked Jim Backus (Frank Stark) and Ann Doran. He forms a substitute 'family' with girlfriend Natalie Wood (Judy) and timid Sal Mineo (Plato) after a tragic incident - an automobile test-of-nerves dare known as the "chickie run" - has brought them together. Rebel is more than a monument to its star, it's a movie for all time.
Jimmy had been signed by Warner Brothers to play the role of Jett Rink in Giant, based on Edna Ferber's best-selling Texas saga. The script described Jett Rink as 'a violent young ranch hand, half juvenile delinquent, half genius, who wants to make a million (He makes a hundred million)...Tough, always angry, restless, bewildered and reckless with animal charm and a tycoon's magnetism." The script required him to age from 19 to 46. Directed by George Stevens, the cast featured Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson as Leslie and Bick Benedict; and included Dennis Hopper and Sal Mineo, who also appeared in Rebel Without A Cause.
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James Dean: The life story you may not know
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1940s: To California and back to Indiana
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1940s: A high school athlete and pole vault champion
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Mondadori Portfolio // Getty Images
1949: Attending college in California
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1950: Doing stunts for ‘Beat the Clock’
1950-51: Pepsi ads and an Easter television special
Early 1950s: Living and acting in New York City
1955: A starring role and an Oscar nod
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John Kobal Foundation // Getty Images
1955: Clashing with co-star Raymond Massey
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1955: Banned from competing in road races
1955: Dean’s passenger is injured but survives
1955: A funeral attended by thousands
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1955: A nine-picture contract left behind
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1956: Dean's absence from filming with Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor
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1960: A star on Hollywood Boulevard
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No one has ever been as cool as James Dean. The young actor epitomized a sense of restlessness, rebellion, and alienation that has never been replicated. Dean made his mark in a remarkably short period of time, dying at only 24 years old in a car crash.
He made just three major movies—as the unloved son in the family drama “East of Eden,” a defiant teen in “Rebel Without a Cause,” and a tough Texas ranch hand in “Giant”—and exploded into Hollywood stardom. He had a sullen sensuality, a swagger, a sense of daring, an aura of trouble, and a thoughtfulness about him. With his trademark T-shirt, jeans, and leather motorcycle jacket, his sense of style seems eternal.
“Being an actor is the loneliest thing in the world,” he once said. “You are all alone with your concentration and imagination, and that's all you have. Being a good actor isn't easy. Being a man is even harder. I want to be both before I'm done."
Stacker compiled 25 facts about the life of James Dean that you may not know, drawing from media accounts, movie archives, historical accounts, and fan websites.
James Byron Dean was born on Feb. 8, 1931, in Marion, Indiana, where he spent his childhood on a farm. His mother was Mildred Marie (maiden name Wilson), and his father, Winton Dean, was a farmer who later became a dental technician.
Dean’s family moved to California , where his mother died of cancer when he was 9 years old. He went back to Indiana, where he was raised by his aunt and uncle, who were Quakers.
Dean’s front two teeth were fake, thanks to a childhood accident in Indiana. He knocked them out while swinging on a trapeze in a barn at his aunt and uncle’s home. He later would say he lost them in a motorcycle accident.
Dean was a star athlete at his high school in Indiana. He played basketball and baseball, and he also ran track. He set the county’s pole vault record before graduating in 1949.
At Fairmount High School in Indiana, Dean was involved in theater as well as sports. He won a statewide contest for “Dramatic Declamation” reading a piece written by Charles Dickens. He delivered the benediction at his graduation ceremony.
Dean moved back to California after graduating high school. He enrolled at Santa Monica College in 1949, studying pre-law to satisfy his father. But he took acting classes and workshops at UCLA, where he played Malcolm in "Macbeth.”
In California, Dean had a job as a game show "stunt tester" for the television contest show “Beat the Clock.” He was supposed to test out stunts that members of the studio audience would be asked to perform. He proved to be so good at performing the stunts that his results were not useful for predicting the skills of the audience, and he was let go .
In 1950, Dean appeared as an extra twice in Pepsi-Cola commercials. The producer of the ads also asked him to play the role of St. John the Apostle in a television Easter special, “Hill Number One,” which aired in 1951.
Dean moved to New York City , where he studied at the Actor's Studio run by method acting teacher Lee Strasberg. The actor landed a few roles in New York theater productions and then in Hollywood, where he had a small role as a sailor in the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedy “Sailor Beware,” as a soldier in the Korean War in “Fixed Bayonets!” and as a teen in “Has Anybody Seen My Gal” with Rock Hudson.
Director Elia Kazan decided on Dean , an unknown, to play Cal Trask in “ East of Eden ,” adapted from the 1952 novel of the same name written by author John Steinbeck. Dean proved to be a star and was nominated for an Oscar for his performance.
In screen tests for Dean’s breakout movie “East of Eden” in 1955, Paul Newman had also been a contender for the movie, but director Elia Kazan ultimately decided Newman was too old. Also under consideration to play the two brothers central to the film were Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift who were, again, rejected as too old. Landing the roles were Dean, 23, and Richard Davalos, 19.
In his 1988 autobiography , director Elia Kazan wrote about how much Raymond Massey disliked Dean, who played his son in “East of Eden.” Massey was extremely religious and Dean would provoke him, and the young actor often did not know his lines. The director wrote he used the tension between the two for dramatic effect when making the movie.
During the filming of “East of Eden,” director Elia Kazan was concerned about Dean’s unruly behavior. Kazan had Dean shared an apartment with his co-star Richard Davalos. When that failed to rein him in, Kazan had Dean live in a dressing room on the Warners Bros. lot and moved into an adjacent room.
Dean fell in love with Italian actor Pier Angeli, whom he met while visiting Paul Newman on a movie set. Reportedly, Angeli’s mother did not want the two to marry because Dean was not Catholic, and the actor married Vic Damone. Many of Dean’s publicized love affairs were inventions of Warner Bros.
A switchblade used by Dean in a “Rebel Without a Cause” knife fight scene was sold at an auction in 2015 for $12,000. In the fight scene, Dean and actor Corey Allen used actual switchblades, and they wore chainmail vests under their clothes for protection.
Dean started competing in road races, using his movie earnings to buy a Porsche and a motorcycle. When he was filming “Giant,” his contract specifically stated he could not race until it was finished.
Dean was driving his Porsche 550 Spyder on U.S. Highway 466 in California with a friend, heading to a car race on Sept. 30, 1955, when he was killed in a head-on collision with a 1950 Ford Tudor, driven by Donald Turnupseed, a 23-year-old student. Dean had been cited by police for speeding earlier that day.
Dean suffered a broken neck in the fatal crash , and he died almost instantly. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Paso Robles War Memorial Hospital.
Rolf Weütherich, a German auto mechanic and race car driver, was Dean’s passenger in the fateful 1955 collision. He suffered multiple injuries. He later suffered from depression and ultimately died in a car accident in 1981.
The funeral for Dean was held at the Fairmount Friends Church in Fairmount, Indiana, where a reported 2,400 fans gathered outside. He was buried at Park Cemetery in Fairmount, not far from his aunt and uncle’s farm. His headstone has been stolen twice.
Dean had signed a nine-picture, six-year contract for $1 million with Warner Bros. His next projects were to have been an NBC television version of the play “The Corn is Green" and a Rocky Graziano biopic film titled “Somebody Up There Likes Me.”
During the making of “Giant,” Dean did not get along well with Rock Hudson, who played a wealthy rancher. But the young star became close friends with Elizabeth Taylor, who gave him a Siamese kitten named Marcus. After Dean’s death, Taylor was absent from the set and hospitalized for depression.
With the loss of Dean, Warner Bros. signed Newman for the role in “Somebody Up There Likes Me.” Newman also filled Dean’s planned role as Billy the Kid in the 1958 movie “The Left Handed Gun.”
Dean was the first actor ever to be nominated, posthumously, for his role in the 1955 movie “East of Eden.” He was also nominated after his death for his role in the 1956 movie “Giant.”
Dean was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960. The California highway near Cholame where Dean was killed has since been rerouted, and the actual site of the crash is now an open field. In Fairmount, Indiana, about an hour’s drive north of Indianapolis, a museum houses many of the star’s effects, including his schoolwork, clothing, movie props, and two of his motorcycles.

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Reportedly, Pier and James Dean were very much in love and wanted to marry, but her mother was against the union because of Dean's behavior and because he wasn't Catholic, and helped arrange Pier's marriage to Vic Damone . Three years before she died, the National Enquirer magazine published an interview in which Pier would have said that Dean was the only man she had ever really loved.

Twin sister of actress Marisa Pavan .

Screen, stage, and television actress.

Dated James Dean while he was filming East of Eden (1955).

Had one son with Vic Damone , Perry Rocco Luigi Farinola Damone, who was born in Los Angeles on August 21, 1955. He worked as a radio DJ and owned an entertainers representation in Phoenix, Arizona. He died on December 9, 2014 of lymp
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