James Dean
James Byron Dean was an American actor. He became one of the most influential figures in Hollywood in the 1950s, and his impact on cinema and popular culture was profound, although his career lasted only five years. He appeared in just three major films: Rebel Without a Cause, in which he portrayed a disillusioned and rebellious teenager, East of Eden, which showcased his intense emotional range, and Giant, a sprawling drama. These have been preserved in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for their "cultural, historical, or aesthetic significance". He was killed in a car accident at the age of 24 in 1955, leaving him a lasting symbol of rebellion, youthful defiance, and the restless spirit.
Dean was the first actor to receive a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his role in East of Eden. The following year, he earned a second nomination for his performance in Giant, making him the only actor to receive two posthumous acting nominations. In 1999, he was honored by the American Film Institute, being ranked as the 18th greatest male film star from Golden Age Hollywood on their "AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars" list. Time magazine recognized Dean as one of the "All-Time Most Influential Fashion Icons."
Dean's film roles and style had a strong impact on Hollywood, capturing the spirit of 1950s youth and creating an enduring legacy that shaped American pop culture and defined rebellious, countercultural attitudes for generations.
Early life and education
Dean was born on February 8, 1931, in Marion, Indiana, the only child of Mildred Marie Wilson and Winton Dean. He claimed that his mother was partly Native American and that his father belonged to a "line of original settlers that could be traced back to the Mayflower". Six years after his father had left farming to become a dental technician, Dean moved with his family to Santa Monica, California. He was enrolled at Brentwood Public School in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles but transferred soon afterward to the McKinley Elementary School. The family spent several years there, and by all accounts, Dean was very close to his mother. According to Michael DeAngelis, she was "the only person capable of understanding him". In 1938, Dean's mother was suddenly struck with acute stomach pain and quickly began to lose weight. She died of uterine cancer when Dean was nine years old. Unable to care for his son, Dean's father sent him to live with his aunt and uncle, Ortense and Marcus Winslow, on their farm in Fairmount, Indiana, where he was raised in their Quaker household. Winton Dean served in World War II and later remarried.In his adolescence, Dean sought the counsel and friendship of a local Methodist pastor, the Rev. James DeWeerd, who seems to have had a formative influence on Dean, especially on his future interests in bullfighting, car racing, and philosophy. The Hollywood columnist and Dean biographer, Joe Hyams, presents an account alleging Dean's molestation as a teenager by his early mentor DeWeerd, writing that, "It was the beginning of a homosexual relationship that would endure over many years". Billy J. Harbin, a historian of the American theater, quotes Hyams when he writes that Dean had an intimate relationship with DeWeerd which began in his senior year of high school and "endured for many years". Biographer Paul Alexander writes in his book Boulevard of Broken Dreams that Dean and DeWeerd "had a romantic relationship that regularly included sex", and he presents Dean as predominantly gay. A New York Times book review, however, said "Mr. Alexander's well-meaning stab at clarity may titillate, but it adds no light..." and called some of the assertions he made in the book "arrant nonsense". Kirkus Reviews said, "The book is riddled with errors" and contains "a great deal of unsubstantiated and highly speculative psychobiography". In 2011, The Daily Beast reported that Dean once confided in Elizabeth Taylor that he was sexually abused by a minister approximately two years after his mother's death.
While Dean's academic performance in school was unexceptional, he was a popular student and excelled in basketball despite being only five feet eight inches tall, his full adult height. He played 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, he moved back to California to live with his father and stepmother, Ethel Case Dean. Dean enrolled in Santa Monica College and majored in pre-law. He transferred to University of California, Los Angeles for one semester and changed his major to theater arts. His attempt to reconcile with his father ended with an impasse of "uncommunicative antagonism" caused by Winton's efforts to direct him into a more traditional career. He pledged to the Sigma Nu fraternity but was expelled for punching one of his fraternity brothers. While at UCLA, Dean was picked from a group of 350 actors to portray Malcolm in Macbeth. At that time, he also began acting in James Whitmore's workshop. In January 1951, he dropped out of UCLA to pursue a full-time acting career. Of his pursuing an acting career, Dean later said, "The decision to act was never prompted. My whole life has been spent in a dramatic display of expression."
Acting career
Early career
In 1950, Dean made his television debut in a Pepsi commercial. He quit college to act full-time and was cast in his first speaking part, as John the Apostle in Hill Number One, an Easter television special dramatizing the Resurrection of Jesus. According to Robert Tanitch, the program had 42,000,000 viewers. Dean subsequently obtained three walk-on roles in movies: as a soldier in Fixed Bayonets!, a boxing cornerman in Sailor Beware, and a youth in Has Anybody Seen My Gal?. While struggling to gain roles in Hollywood, Dean also worked as a parking lot attendant at CBS Studios. During that time, he met Rogers Brackett, a radio director for an advertising agency, who offered him professional help and guidance in his chosen career, as well as a place to stay. Brackett opened doors of opportunity for Dean and helped him land his first starring role on Broadway in the play See the Jaguar.In July 1951, Dean appeared on Alias Jane Doe, which was produced by Brackett. In October 1951, following the encouragement of actor James Whitmore and the advice of his mentor Rogers Brackett, Dean moved to New York City. There, he worked as a stunt tester for the game show Beat the Clock, but was subsequently fired for allegedly performing the tasks too quickly. He also appeared in episodes of several CBS television series, The Web, Studio One, and Lux Video Theatre, before gaining admission to the Actors Studio to study method acting under Lee Strasberg. In 1952, he had a nonspeaking bit part as a pressman in the movie Deadline – U.S.A., starring Humphrey Bogart.
Proud of these accomplishments, Dean referred to the Actors Studio in a 1952 letter to his family as "the greatest school of the theater. It houses great people like Marlon Brando, Julie Harris, Arthur Kennedy, Mildred Dunnock, Eli Wallach... Very few get into it... It is the best thing that can happen to an actor. I am one of the youngest to belong." There, he was classmates and close friends with Carroll Baker, alongside whom he later starred in Giant. Dean made only one solo presentation at the Actors Studio. In the critique session that followed, Lee Strasberg harshly criticized Dean's performance of a scene he had adapted from a novel about bullfighting called Matador, written by Barnaby Conrad. Dean stormed out of the session. Afterwards, he still attended classes at the Actors Studio, but never again submitted himself to Strasberg's critiques. Dean's career picked up, and he performed in further episodes of such early 1950s television shows as Kraft Television Theatre, Robert Montgomery Presents, The United States Steel Hour, Danger, and General Electric Theater. One early role, for the CBS series Omnibus in the episode "Glory in the Flower," saw Dean portraying the type of disaffected youth he later portrayed in Rebel Without a Cause. This summer 1953 program featured the song "Crazy Man, Crazy," one of the first dramatic TV programs to feature rock and roll.
Positive reviews for Dean's 1954 theatrical role as Bachir, a pandering homosexual North African houseboy, in an adaptation of André Gide's book The Immoralist, led to a call from the Hollywood director, Elia Kazan. During the production of The Immoralist, according to actress Geraldine Page's daughter Angelica, Dean had an affair with her mother.
''East of Eden''
In 1953, director Elia Kazan was looking for a substantive actor to play the emotionally complex role of Cal Trask for screenwriter Paul Osborn's adaptation of John Steinbeck's 1952 novel East of Eden. This book deals with the story of the Trask and Hamilton families over the course of three generations, focusing especially on the lives of the latter two generations in Salinas Valley, California, from the mid-19th century through the 1910s. In contrast to the book, the film script focused on the last portion of the story, predominantly with the character of Cal. Though he initially seems more aloof and emotionally troubled than his twin brother Aron, Cal is soon seen to be more worldly, business savvy, and sensible compared to their pious and constantly disapproving father, who seeks to invent a vegetable refrigeration process. Cal is bothered by the mystery of their supposedly dead mother and discovers she is still alive and a brothel-keeping 'madam'; the part was played by actress Jo Van Fleet.Before casting Cal, Elia Kazan said he wanted "a Brando type" for the role, and Osborn suggested Dean, a relatively unknown young actor. Dean met with Steinbeck, who did not like the moody, complex young man personally but thought him to be perfect for the part. Dean was cast in the role and, on April 8, 1954, left New York City and headed for Los Angeles to begin shooting.
Much of Dean's performance in the film was unscripted, including his dance in the bean field and his fetal-like posturing while riding on top of a train boxcar. The best-known improvised sequence of the film occurs when Cal's father rejects his gift of $5,000, money Cal earned by speculating in beans before the US became involved in World War I. Instead of running away from his father as the script called for, Dean instinctively turned to Massey and, in a gesture of extreme emotion, lunged forward and grabbed him in a full embrace, crying. Kazan kept this and Massey's shocked reaction in the film. Dean's performance in the film foreshadowed his role as Jim Stark in Rebel Without A Cause. Both characters are angst-ridden protagonists and misunderstood outcasts, desperately craving approval from their fathers.
Even before the film's release Dean's performance was attracting attention and discussion in Hollywood circles, with film critics, producers and directors flocking to see the film in screenings before its theatrical release. Upon the film's release in March 1955, gossip columnist Hedda Hopper wrote: "I can't remember when any screen newcomer generated as much excitement in Hollywood as did James Dean in his first picture, East of Eden."
In recognition of his performance in East of Eden, 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.. East of Eden was the only film starring Dean released in his lifetime.