James Dean

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JAMES DEAN
INTRODUCTION

James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955) was an American actor. I chose to speak
about him because he is a cultural icon of the United States of America .From the research I have done,I found
out James Dean was and still is a symbol of teenage disillusionment and social estrangement, as expressed in
the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause (1955), in which he starred as troubled teenager Jim
Stark. The other two roles that defined his stardom were loner Cal Trask in East of Eden (1955) and surly ranch
hand Jett Rink in Giant (1956). Dean's enduring fame and popularity rest on his performances in only these
three films, in two of which he is in the leading role.

Dean's premature death in a car crash cemented his legendary status He became the first actor to
receive a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, and remains the only actor to have had two
posthumous acting nominations. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him the 18th best male movie star
on theirAFI's 100 Years...100 Stars list.

1

GENERAL INFORMATION
James Dean

Dean in Rebel Without a Cause
Born

James Byron Dean
February 8, 1931
Marion, Indiana, U.S.

Died

September 30, 1955 (aged 24)
Cholame, California, U.S.

Cause of death

Vehicular accident

Resting place

Park Cemetery, Fairmount, Indiana, U.S.

Other names

Jimmy Dean
Santa Monica College
University of California

Alma mater
Occupation

Actor

Years active

1950–1955
East of Eden
Rebel Without a Cause
Giant

Notable work(s)

Home town

Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Fairmount, Indiana, U.S.

Religion
Awards

Quaker
Golden Globe Awards (1956)
Special Achievement Award
Jussi Awards (1955)
Best Foreign Actor

Signature

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I.
1.

Life

Early life

James Dean was born at the Seven Gables apartment house at the corner of 4th Street and McClure
Street in Marion, Indiana, the son of Winton Dean (January 17, 1907 – February 21, 1995) and Mildred Wilson

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(September 15, 1910 – July 14, 1940). Six years after his father had left farming to become a dental technician,
Dean and his family moved 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, young Dean was very close to his mother. According
to Michael DeAngelis, she was "the only person capable of understanding him". In 1938, she was suddenly
struck with acute stomach pains and began to lose weight quickly. 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 sister Ortense and her husband,
Marcus Winslow, on a farm in Fairmount, Indiana, where he was raised in a Quaker household. Winton 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. DeWeerd seemed to have had a formative influence upon
Dean, especially upon his future interests in bullfighting, car racing, and theater. According to Billy J. Harbin,
Dean had "an intimate relationship with his pastor, which began in his senior year of high school and endured for
many years". Their alleged sexual relationship was earlier suggested in the 1994 book Boulevard of Broken

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Dreams: The Life, Times, and Legend of James Dean by Paul Alexander. In 2011, it was reported that he once
confided in Elizabeth Taylor that he was sexually abused by a minister approximately two years after his
mother's death. Other reports on Dean's life also suggest that he was either sexually abused by DeWeerd as a
child or had a sexual relationship with him as a late teenager.

James Dean and his family

In high school, Dean's overall performance was mediocre. However, he was considered to be a popular
student, having 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, Dean moved back to California with his dog, Max, to live with his father and stepmother. He enrolled
in Santa Monica College (SMC) and majored in pre-law. He transferred to UCLA for one semester, and changed
his major to drama, which resulted in estrangement from his father. He pledged theSigma Nu fraternity but was
never initiated. 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 career as an actor.

2.

Acting career

Dean's first television appearance was in a Pepsi Cola television commercial. He quit college to act fulltime and was cast in his first speaking part, as John the Beloved Disciple in Hill Number One, an Easter
television special dramatizing the resurrection of Jesus. Dean worked at the widely filmed Iverson Movie

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Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif during production of the program, for which a replica of the tomb of Jesus was built
on location at the ranch.

Dean in 1953

Dean subsequently obtained three walk-on roles in movies: as a soldier in Fixed Bayonets!, as
a boxing trainer in Sailor Beware, a Paramount comedy starring Dean Martinand Jerry Lewis, and as a youth
in Has Anybody Seen My Gal? While struggling to get jobs in Hollywood, Dean also worked as a parking lot
attendant at CBS Studios, during which 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.
In October 1951, following the encouragement of actor James Whitmore's and his mentor Rogers
Brackett's advice, 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
legendary Actors Studio to study method acting under Lee Strasberg. Proud of this accomplishment, Dean
referred to the 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. ... Very few get into it ... It is the best thing
that can happen to an actor. I am one of the youngest to belong."

Dean's career picked up and he performed in further episodes of such early 1950s television shows
as Kraft Television Theatre, Robert Montgomery Presents, Danger, andGeneral 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 would later immortalize in Rebel Without a Cause. (This summer 1953 program was also notable for
featuring 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 North African houseboy, in an adaptation
of André Gide's book The Immoralist, led to calls from Hollywood.

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East of Eden

Dean in East of Eden (1955)

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. The lengthy
novel 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 even sagacious than their pious and constantly
disapproving father (played by Raymond Massey) 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.

Dean in East of Eden (1955)

Before casting Cal, Elia Kazan said that he wanted "a Brando" for the role and Osborn suggested the
relatively unknown young actor, James Dean. Dean met with Steinbeck who did not like the moody, complex

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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 is unscripted, [35] including his dance in the bean field and his
fetal-like posturing while riding on top of a train boxcar (after searching out his mother in nearby Monterey). The
most famous improvisation of the film occurs when Cal's father rejects his gift of $5,000, money Cal earned by
speculating in beans prior to 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 a father figure.
For the 1956 Academy Awards, Dean received a posthumous nomination for Best Actor in a Leading
Role for his performance in East of Eden, the first official posthumous acting nomination in Academy Awards
history. (Jeanne Eagels was unofficially nominated for Best Actress in 1929, when the rules for selection of the
winner were different.) East of Eden was the only film starring Dean that he would see released in his lifetime.



Rebel Without a Cause

Dean quickly followed up his role in Eden with a starring role as Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause, a
film that would prove to be hugely popular among teenagers. The film has been cited as an accurate
representation of teenage angst. It co-starred teen actors Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, and Dennis Hopper and was
directed by Nicholas Ray.

Rebel Without a Cause(1955)

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Giant

Giant, which was posthumously released in 1956, saw Dean play a supporting role to Elizabeth
Taylor and Rock Hudson. This was due to his desire to avoid being typecast as Jim Stark and Cal Trask. In the
film, he plays Jett Rink, a Texan ranch hand who strikes oil and becomes wealthy. His role was notable in that, in
order to portray an older version of his character in the film's later scenes, Dean dyed his hair gray and shaved
some of it off to give himself a receding hairline.

James Dean in Giant(1956)

Giant would prove to be Dean's last film. At the end of the film, Dean was supposed to make a drunken
speech at a banquet; this is nicknamed the 'Last Supper' because it was the last scene before his sudden death.
Dean mumbled so much due to his desire to make the scene more realistic by actually being inebriated for the
take that director George Stevens decided the scene had to be overdubbed by Nick Adams, who had a small
role in the film, because Dean had died before the film was edited.
Dean received his second posthumous Best Actor Academy Award nomination for his role in Giant at
the 29th Academy Awards in 1957 for films released in 1956.

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3.

Personal life

Screenwriter William Bast was one of Dean's closest friends, a fact acknowledged by Dean's
family. According to Dean's first biographer (1956), Bast was his roommate at UCLA and later in New York, and
knew Dean throughout the last five years of his life. Fifty years after Dean's death, he stated that their friendship
had included some sexual intimacy.
While at UCLA, Dean dated Beverly Wills, an actress with CBS, and Jeanette Lewis, a classmate. Bast
and Dean often double-dated with them. Wills began dating Dean alone, later telling Bast, "Bill, there's
something we have to tell you. It's Jimmy and me. I mean, we're in love. They broke up after Dean "exploded"
when another man asked her to dance while they were at a function: "Jimmy saw red. He grabbed the fellow by
the collar and threatened to blacken both of his eyes," she said. Dean had also remained in contact with his
girlfriend in New York, Barbara Glenn, whom he dated for two years. Their love letters sold at auction in 2011 for
$36,000.

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Early in Dean's career, after Dean signed his contract with Warner Brothers, the studio's public relations
department began generating stories about Dean's liaisons with a variety of young actresses who were mostly
drawn from the clientele of Dean's Hollywood agent, Dick Clayton. Studio press releases also grouped "Dean
together with two other actors, Rock Hudson and Tab Hunter, identifying each of the men as an 'eligible
bachelor' who has not yet found the time to commit to a single woman: 'They say their film rehearsals are in
conflict with their marriage rehearsals.
Dean's best-remembered relationship was with young Italian actress Pier Angeli, whom he met while
Angeli was shooting The Silver Chalice on an adjoining Warner lot, and with whom he exchanged items of
jewelry as love tokens. Angeli, during an interview fourteen years after their relationship ended, described their
times together:
We used to go together to the California coast and stay there secretly in a cottage on a beach far away
from prying eyes. We'd spend much of our time on the beach, sitting there or fooling around, just like college
kids. We would talk about ourselves and our problems, about the movies and acting, about life and life after
death. We had a complete understanding of each other. We were like Romeo and Juliet, together and
inseparable. Sometimes on the beach we loved each other so much we just wanted to walk together into the sea
holding hands because we knew then that we would always be together.
In his autobiography, East of Eden, director Elia Kazan dismissed the notion that Dean could possibly
have had any success with women, although he remembered hearing Dean and Angeli loudly making love in
Dean's dressing room. Kazan has been quoted saying about Dean, "He always had uncertain relations with
girlfriends."

Dean in 1955

Those that believed Dean and Angeli were deeply in love claim a number of forces led them apart.
Angeli's mother disapproved of Dean's casual dress and what were, for her at least, radical behavior traits: his Tshirt attire, late dates, fast cars, and the fact that he was not a Catholic. Her mother said that such behavior was
not acceptable in Italy. In addition, Warner Bros., where he worked, tried to talk him out of marrying and he

11

himself told Angeli that he didn't want to get married. Richard Davalos, Dean's East of Eden co-star, claimed that
Dean wanted to marry Angeli and was willing to allow their children to be brought up Catholic.
After finishing his role for East of Eden, he took a brief trip to New York in October 1954. While he was
away, Angeli unexpectedly announced her engagement to Italian-American singer Vic Damone. The press was
shocked and Dean expressed his irritation. Angeli married Damone the following month. Gossip columnists
reported that Dean watched the wedding from across the road on his motorcycle, even gunning the engine
during the ceremony, although Dean later denied doing anything so "dumb."
Some, like Bast and Paul Alexander, believe the relationship was a mere publicity stunt. Esme
Chandlee, the publicist at Angeli's home studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer who had kept news of her love affair
with Kirk Douglas under wraps, believed that Angeli had been more smitten with Kirk than Jimmy Dean.
Pier Angeli talked only once about the relationship in her later life in an interview, giving vivid
descriptions of romantic meetings at the beach. Dean biographer John Howlett said these read like wishful
fantasies,as Bast claims them to be. Hyams, in his 1992 biography of Dean, claims that he visited Dean just as
Angeli, then married to Damone, was leaving his home. Dean was crying and allegedly told Hyams she was
pregnant, with Hyams concluding that Dean believed the child might be his.
Angeli, who divorced Damone and then her second husband, the Italian film composer Armando
Trovajoli, was said by friends in the last years of her life to claim that Dean was the love of her life. She
committed suicide in 1971, at the age of 39.In 1997, the television movie Race with Destiny was produced, a
true-story account of the love affair between Dean and Pier Angeli. It was shot on location "where he lived and
loved" until his death.

Actress Liz Sheridan asserts that she and Dean had a short affair in New York in 1952. Speaking of the
alleged affair in 1996, she said that it was "just kind of magical. It was the first love for both of us." .Again Bast is

12

skeptical as to whether this was a true love affair and says Dean and Sheridan did not spend much time
together. Sheridan published her memoir, Dizzy & Jimmy: My Life with James Dean; A Love Story in 2000.
Dean also dated Swiss actress Ursula Andress. "She was seen riding around Hollywood on the back of
James's motorcycle," writes biographer Darwin Porter. She was also seen with Dean in his sports cars, and was
with him on the day he bought the car that he died in. At the time, Andress was also dating Marlon Brando.
Andress remembered her courtship with Dean: "He came by my house late. He came in room like wild animal,
and smell of everything I don't like," she said. "We go hear jazz music and he leave table. Say he go play drums.
He no come back. I don't like to be alone. I go home. He come by my home later and say he sorry." . She added
that Brando was "particularly interested in finding out from Ursula who the better lover was: James Dean or
himself. It drove him crazy."
Rumors that Dean avoided the draft by registering as a homosexual appear to be of doubtful
authenticity. Not only was he extremely near-sighted and required glasses, he was also a Quaker, either of
which was sufficient cause for him to be excused from service.

4.

Death



Auto racing hobby

Dean and his Porsche Speedster 23F at Palm Springs Races March 1955

In 1954, Dean became interested in developing an auto racing career. He purchased various vehicles
after filming for East of Eden had concluded, including a Triumph Tiger T110 and a Porsche 356. Just before
filming began on Rebel Without a Cause, he competed in his first professional event at the Palm Springs Road
Races, which was held in Palm Springs, California on March 26–27, 1955. Dean achieved first place in the
novice class, and second place at the main event. His racing continued in Bakersfield a month later, where he
finished first in his class and third overall. Dean hoped to compete in the Indianapolis 500, but his busy schedule
made this vision impossible.
Dean's final race occurred in Santa Barbara on Memorial Day, May 30, 1955. He was unable to finish the
competition due to a blown piston. His brief career was put on hold when Warner Brothers barred him from all
racing during the production of Giant. Dean had finished shooting his scenes and the movie was in postproduction when he decided to race again.

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Accident and aftermath

The location of Dean's death, renamed "James Dean Memorial Junction"

Longing to return to the "liberating prospects" of motor racing, Dean was scheduled to compete at a
racing event in Salinas, California on September 30, 1955. Accompanying the actor to the occasion was stunt
coordinator Bill Hickman, Collier's photographer Sanford Roth, and Rolf Wütherich, the German mechanic from
the Porsche factory who maintained Dean's Porsche 550 Spyder "Little Bastard" car. Wütherich, who had
encouraged Dean to drive the car from Los Angeles to Salinas to break it in, accompanied Dean in the Porsche.
At 3:30 pm, both Dean and Hickman, who was driving behind the Porsche, were ticketed for speeding .
As the group traveled to the event via U.S. Route 466, at approximately 5:15 pm a 1950 Ford
Tudor made a hesitant attempt to turn away from an intersection, placing him at the center of the road. Dean,
unable to stop in time, slammed into the driver's quadrant of the Ford Tudor, and zipped across the pavement
onto the side of the highway. The driver, Donald Turnupseed, exited his damaged vehicle with minor injuries.
Wütherich had catapulted from the severely mangled Porsche, while a trapped Dean sustained numerous fatal
injuries, including a broken neck. The accident was witnessed by a number of passersby who stopped to help. A
woman with nursing experience attended to Dean and detected a weak pulse, but "death appeared to have been
instantaneous". Dean was pronounced dead on arrival shortly after he arrived by ambulance at the Paso Robles
War Memorial Hospital at 6:20 pm.

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Dean’s car accident

Though initially slow to reach newspapers in the Eastern United States, details of Dean's death rapidly
spread via radio and television. By October 2, his death had received significant coverage from domestic and
foreign media outlets. Dean's funeral was held on October 8, 1955 at the Fairmount Friends Church in
Fairmount, Indiana. The coffin remained closed to conceal his mutilated corpse. An estimated 600 mourners
were in attendance, while another 2400 fans gathered outside of the building during the procession.
An inquest into Dean's death occurred three days later at the Paso Robles City Hall, where a coroner's
jury delivered a verdict that he was entirely at fault due to speeding, and that Turnupseed was innocent of any
criminal act. However, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times of October 1, 2005, a former California
Highway Patrol officer who had been called to the scene, Ron Nelson, said the "wreckage and the position of
Dean's body indicated his speed at the time of the accident was more like 55 mph." Despite many claims by
uninvolved parties that Dean's speed was excessive, no conclusive evidence has shown that this was true.

II.

Legacy and iconic status

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1.

Impact on culture and media

American teenagers of the mid-1950s, when James Dean's major films were made, identified with Dean
and the roles he played, especially that of Jim Stark in Rebel Without A Cause. The film depicts the dilemma of a
typical teenager of the time, who feels that no one, not even his peers, can understa nd him. Joe Hyams says
that Dean was "one of the rare stars, like Rock Hudson and Montgomery Clift, whom both men and women find
sexy". According to Marjorie Garber, this quality is "the undefinable extra something that makes a star." Dean's
iconic appeal has been attributed to the public's need for someone to stand up for the disenfranchised young of
the era, and to the air of androgyny that he projected onscreen. Dean's "loving tenderness towards the
besotted Sal Mineo in Rebel Without a Cause continues to touch and excite gay audiences by its honesty.
The Gay Times Readers' Awards cited him as the male gay icon of all time."

Dean is mentioned or featured in various songs. The American band Skid Row mentioned him in their
song "Forever": "While lightin' cigarettes, like James Dean." The chorus of David Essex's original "Rock On"
includes the refrain "Jimmy Dean. James Dean." Dean is mentioned in Rob Zarro's song Infamous Route 66:
"I'm seeing really cool things, pictures of Marilyn and James Dean." The Eagles song named after Deanexplores
his fast and dangerous lifestyle. John Mellencamp mentions James Dean in the lyrics of "Jack & Diane". Lana
del Rey repeatedly stated that she was into "James Dean kind of guys" and devoted one of her most acclaimed

16

songs "Blue Jeans" to a former boyfriend who reminded her of the actor. Phil Ochs has a song titled Jim Dean of
Indiana. In Hunter Hayes's song Storyline, a line in the first verse says "we got a fast car, a James Dean spirit,
and a Norma Jean heart". He is also mentioned by Madonna in her song 'Vogue': "Greta Garbo and Monroe,
Deitrich and DiMaggio, Marlon Brando, Jimmy Dean -- on the cover of a magazine." In addition, James Dean is
often noted within television shows, films, books and novels. In an episode of Degrassi: The Next Generation,
the character Liberty likens the rebellious, antisocial Sean Cameron to James Dean. On the sitcom Happy
Days, Fonzie has a picture of Dean in his closet next to his mirror. A picture of Dean also appears on Rizzo's wall
in the film Grease. On the American version of the TV series Queer as Folk, the main character Brian Kinney
mentions James Dean together with Kurt Cobain and Jimi Hendrix, saying, "They're all legends. They'll always
be young, and they will always be beautiful". In the alternative history book Homeward Bound by Harry
Turtledove, Dean is stated to have not died in a car crash and to have made several more films,
including Rescuing Private Ranfall, based on Saving Private Ryan. Dean is referenced in Lady Gaga's 2009
song "Speechless", off her album The Fame Monster, in the first verse: "I can't believe how you looked at me
with your James Dean glossy eyes". In Taylor Swift's song "Style" on her album 1989, the first line of the chorus
references Dean: "You got that James Dean daydream look in your eye." Sleeping with Sirens has a song "If I'm
James Dean, You're Audrey Hepburn"

Dean's estate still earns about $5,000,000 per year, according to Forbes Magazine.

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On April 20, 2010, a long "lost" live episode of the General Electric Theater called "The Dark, Dark
Hours" featuring James Dean in a performance with Ronald Reagan was uncovered by NBC writer Wayne
Federman while working on a Ronald Reagan television retrospective. The episode, originally broadcast
December 12, 1954, drew international attention and highlights were featured on numerous national media
outlets including: CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, and Good Morning America. It was later revealed that
some footage from the episode was first featured in the 2005 documentary, James Dean: Forever Young.

2.

Debated sexual orientation

Today, Dean is often considered an icon because of his "experimental" take on life, which included his
ambivalent sexuality.There have been several claims that Dean had sexual relationships with both men and
women. When questioned about his sexual orientation, he is reported to have said, "No, I am not a homosexual.
But I'm also not going to go through life with one hand tied behind my back."
By the 21st century, Dean was considered by many to have been, in fact, gay. In 2005, Germaine
Greer wrote, "Looking back over half a century to the meteoric career of James Dean, the one thing that now
seems obvious is that the boy was as queer as a coot." She based her opinion partly on the then-new revelations
of William Bast, one of Dean's closest friends.
Bast, Dean's first biographer with James Dean: A Biography (1956),subsequently published a revealing
update of his first book, in which, after years of successfully dodging the question as to whether he and Dean
were sexually involved,he finally stated that they experimented. In this second book, Surviving James
Dean (2006), Bast describes the difficult circumstances of their involvement and also deals frankly with some of
Dean's other reported gay relationships, notably the actor's friendship with Rogers Brackett, the influential
producer of radio dramas who encouraged Dean in his career and provided him with useful professional
contacts. Bast also documents knowledge Dean had of gay bars and customs.

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Robert Aldrich and Garry Wotherspoon include an entry on James Dean in their book on gay and lesbian
history, while journalist Joe Hyams suggests that any gay activity Dean might have been involved in appears to
have been strictly "for trade", as a means of advancing his career. Val Holley notes that, according to Hollywood
biographer Lawrence J. Quirk, gay Hollywood columnist Mike Connolly "would put the make on the most
prominent young actors, including Robert Francis, Guy Madison, Anthony Perkins, Nick Adams and James
Dean. However, the "trade only" notion is debated by Bast and other Dean biographers. Aside from Bast's
account of his own relationship with Dean, Dean's fellow biker and "Night Watch" member John Gilmore claims
he and Dean "experimented" with gay acts on one occasion in New York, and it is difficult to see how Dean, then
already in his twenties, would have viewed this as a "trade" means of advancing his career.
Screenwriter Gavin Lambert, himself gay and part of the Hollywood gay circles of the 1950s and 1960s,
described Dean as being gay. Rebel director Nicholas Ray is on record as saying that Dean was gay, while
author John Howlett believes that Dean was "certainly bisexual".George Perry's biography reduces these
reported aspects of Dean's sexuality to "experimentation".

CONCLUSION
Therefore,James Dean was a heartthrob of women and rebellious idol of men. In America,he is
considered to be the first and most glamorized rebel who invoked change in the postwar period. The effects
of his messages served a majos purpose of single-handedly causing a major rift between the youth of
Americaand their parents,which was unheard of before the War.
Almost overnight,the effects of Dean’s movies sent shock waves through the country as perceptions
of what it meant to be cool were suddenly altered. Everyone was wearing what he was wearing and they
were walking as he was walking. People even played the parts they saw Dean play. They searched for
answers they thought he was searching for. Some found a kinship they had never known before.
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Suddenly,teenagers underwent transformation of mind-blowing proportions. In emulation of his
movies,jeans,T-shirts,leather jackets,hairstyles and fast cars,all became the popular trends of the day. The
new measuring stick for men’s success with the women depended in how close the came to Dean’s
heartthrob image. His posters and movies plastered the walls of teenage girls who still longed for their
knight in shining armor. Dean was successful in reshaping the image of what the ‘knight’ was supposed to
represent. To this day,Dean is still an icon of the rebel image,even if his rebellion brought him the death. His
last stop before his fateful car crash continues as a ‘virtual shrine to the late star’.
From my point of view, James Dean was a spokeman for an entire generation. He changed the way
people lives and was a great actor. He was simply a genius. James Dean was that rare young thing,a
young and great actor and the troubled eloquence with which he puts over the problems of misunderstood
youth led to him being accepted by young audiences as a sort of symbol for their generation.
James Dean is a cultural icon of the United States of America. I think he was and still is a symbol of
teenage disillusionment and social estrangement .He defined your generation. He defined even my
generation. He defined it all. If you look at him, there's no way you could say he didn't impact your life in
some way. He started Generation X. It started every generation. All the bad boys. It brought out different
levels!

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adam W.J. Kensson: Modern Novels vs. Old Novels,London,2000
Edward Rutherfurd: The Novel, New York,2003
Walter Muir Whitehill: A Topographical History, Boston,1968
Ron Chernow: A life, Washington,1998
A.Noble: James Dean(They died too young),Hardcover,1996
Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia
Google search engine

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