James Dean

Winton Dean gave up farming for dental work and moved his family from Indiana to Santa Monica. His wife Mildred fell ill, wasted, and died of uterine cancer when their only child was nine. Winton could not keep him, so the boy went back to Indiana, to a farm at Fairmount and a Quaker household run by his aunt and uncle, Ortense and Marcus Winslow. He played varsity basketball at five foot eight, took drama, competed in state speech contests, and graduated in May 1949. Then pre-law at Santa Monica College, theatre arts at UCLA, Malcolm in Macbeth out of 350 who tried for it, and expulsion from his fraternity for hitting a brother. He left in January 1951.

A Pepsi commercial in 1950, John the Apostle in an Easter special, walk-ons in three pictures, and a job parking cars at CBS. He moved to New York in October 1951 and was fired from Beat the Clock for doing the stunts too fast. The Actors Studio took him, and he gave one solo presentation, a scene from a bullfighting novel. Lee Strasberg took it apart, and he never submitted work again. Broadway in See the Jaguar, then Bachir in The Immoralist in 1954, which brought Elia Kazan. He started East of Eden on April 8, 1954 and improvised through it — when Raymond Massey's character refused his money, Dean lunged at him and held on, and the shock on Massey's face is real. Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause and Jett Rink in Giant followed.

Racing was the other job. He bought a Triumph motorcycle in 1954 and a Porsche 356 Speedster in March 1955, won the novice class at Palm Springs in March, ran third at Bakersfield in May, and blew a piston at Santa Barbara on May 30. George Stevens banned him from racing while Giant was shooting. The moment it went into post-production he traded the Speedster for a 550 Spyder and entered the Salinas race set for October 2. On September 30 he drove it toward Salinas with Rolf Wütherich, the Porsche mechanic who had told him to break the car in on the road. He was ticketed for speeding. At about 5:45, near Cholame, Donald Turnupseed turned left across his path. Dean died of a broken neck. Turnupseed walked away. Only East of Eden had reached theatres. He was 24.

They buried him at Park Cemetery in Fairmount on October 8, 1955, with the coffin closed and about 2,400 people outside the church. He is the only actor with two posthumous acting nominations, for East of Eden and then for Giant. What he was actually like has never settled. Nicholas Ray said he was bisexual. Martin Landau said the gay reading was wrong. Elizabeth Taylor called him gay in 2000 and elsewhere said he had not made up his mind at 24. Alec Guinness's story that he predicted the crash a week early is judged by at least one historian an invention after the fact. In 2019 a production announced a computer-generated Dean for a war film. It was shelved.

James Dean's life against the full span of the corpus.

• See the Jaguar other
  His first Broadway part 1952
• The Immoralist other
  As Bachir, the notices that brought Elia Kazan to him 1954
• East of Eden film
  Cal Trask, largely improvised, and the only film released in his lifetime 1955
• Rebel Without a Cause film
  Jim Stark, released a month after he died 1955
• Giant film
  Jett Rink, with the drunken banquet speech dubbed by Nick Adams 1956

• February 8, 1931 aged 0 Born at Marion, Indiana, the only child of Winton and Mildred Dean
• 1940 aged ~9 His mother dies of uterine cancer and he is sent back to Indiana She had fallen ill two years earlier. He was nine, and was raised by his aunt and uncle at Fairmount.
• May 1949 aged 18 Graduates from Fairmount High School He had played varsity basketball and competed in state speech contests.
• January 1951 aged 19 Leaves UCLA to act full time He moved to New York that October.
• 1954 aged ~23 Plays Bachir in The Immoralist on Broadway The reviews brought Elia Kazan looking for a Cal Trask.
• April 8, 1954 aged 23 Begins filming East of Eden The lunge at Raymond Massey was not in the script and stayed in the cut.
• March 26, 1955 aged 24 Wins the novice class at the Palm Springs Road Races He took second in the main event the same weekend.
• September 30, 1955 aged 24 Killed near Cholame when a car turns left across his path He was driving a Porsche 550 Spyder to a race at Salinas. His passenger survived.
• October 8, 1955 aged 24 Buried at Fairmount with the coffin closed About 600 people were inside the church and 2,400 outside.

• Marlon Brando 1924–2004
  Actor whose method acting revolutionized film performance and influenced generations of actors. the model and the rival
• John Steinbeck 1902–1968
  Nobel Prize-winning novelist whose Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men chronicled American hardship. wrote the novel that made him
• Elvis Presley 1935–1977
  The King of Rock and Roll whose music and style revolutionized American popular culture. studied him
• Bob Dylan b. 1941
  Songwriter whose poetic lyrics transformed folk, rock, and the role of popular music in public life. borrowed the image
• Robert De Niro b. 1943
  Academy Award-winning actor whose method performances in Taxi Driver and Raging Bull defined a generation. named him an inspiration