Morrisey - James Dean

James Dean Is Not Dead
by Morrissey
This is the text of Morrissey's 1983 book published by Babylon Books. (ISBN: 0 907 188 06 0). Many thanks to Adam Ball ([email protected])

Chapter I: Seig Heil, Jimmy
'Send me anything Jimmy touched. If he touched a wall, send me a piece of the wallpaper.'

J

ames Dean would not have been recognised in his final role - that of a corpse slumped over the wheel of his wrecked Porsche Spyder. Hollywood's new apostle of beauty - reduced to an obscene mess, aged 24.

He had spent only sixteen months in Hollywood where he had made three films, one of which had been released at the time of his death. Three years after his death Warner Brothers were receiving thousands of letters per week addressed to James Dean. His films had such an intense affect upon teenage America that fan mail addressed to the corpse outnumbered that of any living Hollywood star. Twenty-five years after his death Dean is considered the symbolic figure of the 1950's. He who was perhaps so unlike period had come to represent it. James Dean would be the definitive 'rebel-hero' of the cinema, yet there had been others before him. John Garfield's embittered Depression-era characters evolved in the late 1930's (and he played the same role until his death in 1952). Garfield's rebel heroes would nearly always drop dead in Big Momma's big arms, just as James Cagney's cliche-ridden gangster toughs would meet their fate regularly on what must have proved to be the most popular church steps in Chicago. Cagney's characters, with a step ladder at hand for when it came to kissing the girl, were almost never believable. It seemed that both were feasibly in liaison with the much celebrated white-hatted hero. Rebellious as Garfield and Cagney were, it seemed that at the end of the day both were still dedicated to mom and flag, and would end up with the girl (preferably blond and brainless), or in a shroud. Either way they'd be reformed or punished for their impertinence. Brando, wrapped in black leather and propped on a motorcycle, became an acceptable rebel, but his career would include non-rebel roles (Johnny from The Wild One as Marc Anthony?). Bogart's tough cynicism personified the 'film noir' mood, the postwar archcriminal nervous, sad, balding and fifty. He would shoot first and ask questions later, a hop and a skip away from the caveman logic of John Wayne's superhumans. Wayne with his 'real men' obsessions, Boy's Own heroics, and a welter of witless chat, used suspect machismo - a mask for his hatred of women (debatable? Editor.) in his exclusively male world. He was not a rebel hero, but a war hero, re-shaping the universe with bluff, bravado, and Tarzan-of-the-Apes intellect. Dean, strong enough to be gentle, became a reaction against Wayne's maniacal toughness. The new alternative hero could make good tea, grow geraniums, and keep his house spotless without losing any of his obvious masculinity. Another reason why Dean became the screen's archetypal rebel-hero was perhaps because his own personality and lifestyle were not unlike that of those he portrayed. His spasms of animal frenzy (onscreen and off), his turbulent and ill-disciplined life, gained him the reputation of a modern misfit. Those that knew him well (and few did) claimed he was engulfed

in insecurities. His disturbing childhood was never over-dramatized. He most certainly had an obsession with death, and of it said: "It's the only thing left to respect." In Hollywood, where young actors were picked, plucked and packed away, Dean was determined to make it on his own terms. When cross-examined by tell-all gossips of his bisexuality, he told them: "Well I'm certainly not going through life with one hand tied behind my back!" It was rumoured far too frequently that he had worked his way up trousers down. Had Warners, on signing Dean, bought and destroyed the porn movies which showed their precious protege stripped for action? Still, the silent generation of the 50's adopted Dean as their prototype. When he died two German girls killed themselves saying that life without him was unbearable. A New York shopgirl claimed to be conversing with the dead star from the grave, and sold half-million copies of her book Jimmy Dean Returns. A London post office worker claimed to have seen Rebel Without a Cause 400 times and had changed his name by deed poll to James Byron Dean. Dean's family would be persecuted endlessly by irate fans begging to sleep in Jimmy's bed. There would, at times, be up to seventy cars parked outside their house. Fan magazines littered the newsstands from I Almost Married Jimmy Dean to Jimmy Dean's Christmas in Heaven. Souvenirs suddenly appeared everywhere including rings supposedly containing chips from his gravestone. The public, never satisfied until they're sickened, wanted more. Dean's wrecked Porsche was put on public display, and fans were invited, for a fee, to sit in the seat where he had died. For a little extra they were allowed to touch the dried blood on the steering wheel. Screw magazine, in a fitting gesture, proudly published pictures of the dead star naked. There were rumours that Dean had not even died in the accident, but was terribly disfigured and locked away in a monastery. Many believed the grave in his home town to be empty. As late as 1973, the National Examiner headlined an article: JAMES DEAN DID NOT DIE IN 'FATAL' AUTO ACCIDENT. Paralized And Mutilated, He's Hidden in a Sanitorium. In 1969, the New Yorker interviewed the founder member of America's James Dean Club, a 57 year old widow, Mrs. Therese Brandes, who said: "I always tell people that James Dean will be alive until I die." She died in the early 1970's. Dean lives on. Another generation has discovered him for the same reason. Into the 1980's and people are still interested. People still want to know. James Byron Dean. Born February 8th, 1931. Died September 30th, 1955.

Chapter II: Is There Life Before Death?

I

t is perhaps the normality of Dean's background which in its uneventfulness, becomes most fascinating. There would be no intermission between swift transgression from boyhood to Hollywood.

That almost traditional Hollywood storyline - of pale country yokels, more than usually plain, accidentally transformed overnight into a sensational superstar, is hardly unlike James Dean's own story. But there is little, if anything at all, in Dean's beginnings which could be exaggerated. He was born at 2 a.m. on February 8th, 1931, at Green Gables, East Fourth Street, Marion, Indiana. He is the first and only child to Winton and Mildred Dean. The baby would be christened James after James Amick, a man of dentistry, the field in which Winton worked. Mildred to give the child the middle name Byron after the poet Lord Byron. This would be the first indication of her intention of making her child slightly more cultured than those around him in the farming town. James Byron Dean would be an artistic child. Because of this, he grew up sheltered and over-indulged. He would find himself set apart from other children and found great difficulty in making friends. Mildred bought her son a violin and sent him off for lessons regularly. She read him a great deal of poetry, and as they spent so much time together, the boy developed a particularly strong sense of attachment to his mother. Winton Dean on the other hand, seemed quite detached from his son. In 1936, Winton was transferred to Los Angeles, where he would continue his work as a dental technician. The family were uprooted. It was here, four years later, that Mildred was hospitalized and found to have terminal cancer, with only six to eight weeks to live. She died on July 14th, 1940 after terrible suffering. Winton Dean: "I told Jimmy straight one evening: 'Your mother's never coming home again', all he did was stare at me." Jimmy withdrew after his mother's death. It would have an overwhelming effect on the boy as his mother had been his only real companion. Much later he recalled: "My mother died when I was eight. The violin was buried too." From the time of his mother's death, Jimmy was 'adopted' by his grandparents, the Winslows, on their 440 acre farm in Fairmount. Winton Dean remained in Los Angeles, breaking a tie that would never be repaired. His funds had been exhausted after Mildred's death, and he would find himself drafted in 1942 into the Army Medical Corp. Meanwhile, Jimmy (who had really lost both parents) began life with the Winslows. He was by now a very introverted child, given to unnerving moods of complete silence. He was a complicated and obsessive child whose grades at school were too high. One day he burst into tears during a class. When asked by the teacher why he was upset he explained: "I miss my mother." Jimmy was given his first motorcycle in his early teens. He drove erratically about the farm, and soon found himself with three front teeth missing. His eyesight was so bad he could scarcely see ten inch in front of him. During his athletic and cycling stints, he broke fifteen pairs of glasses. At Fairmount High School Jimmy met and impressed two people who would play an important part in his life. Adeline Nall taught Speech and Drama at the school and noticed within Jimmy a special quality. She herself had wanted desperately to become an actress, and would have great influence over Dean. At sixteen he won first place in a Dramatic Speaking event for which he recited Dicken's The Madman so realistically that he frightened the judges. The win made him eligible to enter the National Speaking Tournament in Colorado. Adeline Nall was his companion on this trip becoming his private tutor. Her experience told her that Jimmy's speech was too long, and she

urged him to shorten it. Jimmy, perhaps for the first time, decided to act against her advice. As a result, he neither won nor gained a healthy position in the tournament. The judge explained, as had Adeline Nall, that his speech was far too long. Another influential person at this time was the Rev. James de Weerd (who would later finance Dean's first trip to New York). De Weerd was an unconventional preacher in his early thirties. Very often Jimmy would be his only guest. The two had a certain rapport, and, as with Adeline, de Weerd would remain close to Jimmy throughout his short life. James de Weerd: "He had no fear of death because he believed, as I do, that death is merely a control of mind over matter." Jimmy graduated in 1949. He was admitted to Santa Monica City College which would mean close contact with his father. Winton had by now re-married, and relations between them and Jimmy would remain as distant as ever. Jimmy's step-mother would never figure even remotely in his life. He would visit his father, but there would be very little conversation. In his new surroundings he was required to register with the Santa Monica Draft Board but he warned them: "You can't draft me - I'm homosexual." A school friend. Paul Weaver, would later recall: "Jimmy WAS different than most boys. He was different in those days because, as I remember, he was often alone. For example, if the baseball team were to practice, often you'd see kids coming together in a car or a pickup, but Jimmy would usually arrive alone. He wasn't the kind of boy, well, in those days a coach would put his arm around a boy, not, well maybe partly in affection, but partly just to get near to talk. And this was common , you know, in baseball. But I'm sure that I felt at the time that Jimmy was uncomfortable. He'd just feel a little bit uncomfortable with you being that close. I don't recall ever seeing him on dates with girls. I always recall Jimmy riding his motorcycle, and I don't ever remember seeing a girl on it." Whilst in California, Jimmy joined a Summer Stock Company working under the stagename of Byron Dean. In a production of Macbeth his portrayal of Malcolm impressed no one except a local talent spotter, Isabel Dresmer. Dresmer gave Dean a list of casting offices and told him to acquire some good photographs of himself. By this time, he and a fellow drama student Bill Bast had pooled their resources and rented an apartment together. Five years later, Bast would write a biography on Dean following his death. Jimmy was constantly down at heel and would very often borrow money from Bast's girlfriend Beverly Wills. He lived entirely on dry oatmeal, and would mix the cereal with jam for variation. Through art student James Bellulah, Dean landed a part in a two minute Pepsi commercial. In passing bottles of Pepsi to squealing children, he earned himself ten dollars and his first television appearance. The slot was enough for Jerry Fairbanks to contact Isabel Dresmer telling her that he wanted Dean for his television production of Hill Number One. As John the Baptist, Jimmy had only a handful of lines, and his acting was not very impressive. Still, he endeared pupils at the Immaculate Heart School enough for them to begin the first James Dean Appreciation Society. Despite the adulation, Dean lacked funds and a job. He found himself taking a position as a car attendant at CBS studios. It would be brief employment as he couldn't quite manage to look presentable in his uniform. Depressed, he joined street hustlers and young 'actors' who found success via studio couches. By now, Bast was supporting Dean and this strained what been Dean's only lasting relationship. Jimmy decided to leave the apartment and moved in with Ted Avery, an usher at CBS, whilst Avery's wife was on holiday. But his wife soon returned and ejected Dean without a moment's hesitation. Deans' poverty subsided slightly as he managed over the next few months to get bit parts in three movies. In Fixed Bayonets he managed one line: "It's a rear guard coming back!", which was eventually cut. As a sultry sailor in Sailor Beware his face filled the screen for a tenth of a second. In Has Anybody Seen My Gal? (a very successful witty comedy) he made an

appearance as a difficult customer in an ice cream parlour. The latter would star Rock Hudson, whom Dean would late meet and upstage on the set of Giant. At this time there were fleeting radio parts for Dean, but nothing very outstanding. He still frequented the leather and chain bars, where he was immensely popular. After being hurled from the Avery household, he moved in with Rogers Brackett and a young CBS director, and thus the Hollywood cocktail circuit. His role at Brackett's lavish 'scene' parties is uncertain, but he told friends: "If I can't make it on my own talent, then I don't want to make it at all." He often confessed that he had 'done a little dancing', but found that it didn't pay. He also talked of 'meal-tickets', and perhaps Roger Brackett was one of them? Of Brackett, Dean told Isabel Dresmer: "He said we could have twin beds." Isabel Dresmer: "It was a case of marrying Joan Davis' daughter, or going off to live with a studio director." Beverly Wills was the daughter in question and there is little to suggest that she and Dean were very serious about each other. At a party given by Beverly, Jimmy popped an apple on his head and invited an archery champ who was amongst the guests to take aim, but Joan Davis stepped forward and curbed Dean's zest for excitement. It is known that at this time Dean read Henry Miller, Colette and Cocteau, or rather, that he carried their works about with him. Friends often presumed that the books remained unread by Dean, and it was also suggested the boy who was never seen without a dictionary under his arm had great difficulty in reading. Brackett had nicknamed Dean 'Hamlet' with some affection, but others had agreed on 'Human Ashtray' as Dean's fitting title. His psychotic animalism endeared as many as it appalled. Brackett advised Jimmy to go to New York where the theatre was alive. He acted upon the advice at once.

Dean: "Have you every had the feeling that it's not in your hands? Do you ever just know that you've got something to do and you have no control over it?"

Chapter III: Lonely Planet Boy
"There was a boy, his name was Jim. His friends were very good to him." Belloc

Dean: "New York overwhelmed me. For the first few weeks I only strayed a couple of blocks from my hotel off Times Square." Dean spent most of his money seeing movies. He moved into a room at the YMCA but lived in isolation, his only contact with people being at the drug store where he found a job as a counter-man. Rogers Brackett suggested that his friend persue TV director James Sheldon. Dean did so, and Sheldon passed the budding actor on to the Louis Schurr Agency. Here, he was interviewed by Jane Deacy who decided to take him on as a client. Deacy gave Dean great encouragement and found him the part of Bachir in Billy Rose's play The Immortalist, which told the story of a man who marries only to discover on his wedding night that he is homosexual. The man discovers this with the help of Bachir (Dean), an arab boy, who decides to seduce his older friend. Dean was singled out by critics for special praise. Elia Kazan saw The Immortalist and realised that Jimmy was ideal for the role of Cal in an adaptation of John Steinbeck's East of Eden which would be Kazan's next venture. Night and day Jimmy walked the city, never holding down a romance, but flitting in and out of people's lives. He had no need for 'love', and indeed saw no real need for the permanent affections of anyone. By now he was living in a set of rooms at the top of an old building on West 68th street. Here he spent many nights of solitude, listening to his jazz records, or reading his books. He never bought clothes, spending most of his money on records and books. He would never eat at expensive restaurants, but frequented Cromwell's coffee bar. Joe Massot, director: "Even if people didn't know who he was they'd turn and look at him walking down the street. I mean, no one walked like that in those days." Working on The Immortalist Dean had already gained himself a reputation as a troublesome actor. He caused many calculated sensations by turning up for rehearsals unshaven, wearing an old raincoat and jeans. He had by now met and become close friends with Dizzy Sheridan, a part-time usherette at the Paris cinema. More importantly, he met struggling actress Christine White at the Schurr offices. She had written a script which she intended to use for an audition to join the famous Actor's Studio. For the recitation she needed a male player, and Dean was more than willing to join her. At the audition, Christine remembered: "Jimmy was as blind as a bat without his glasses, but he wouldn't wear them when he was acting." As it went, Jimmy and Christine were the only two out of 150 applicants chosen to join the studio. At 21, he would be the youngest member of the company. The Actor's Studio had established itself in the late 1940's by Elia Kazan and Cheryl Crawford. Their aim with their players was to get poetry out of modern day life. The studio was now being run by Lee and Molly Strasberg. Lee Strasberg: "Everyone got this idea that he was as sloppily dressed don't-give-adamn kind of character. This is not so. To begin with, Dean was scarcely at the studio at all. he came in a few times and slouched in the front row. He never participated in anything." Once again, Dean moved home, and was now sharing an apartment with James Sheldon, the TV producer who had introduced him to the Schurr Agency. Jimmy auditioned for a part in the movie Battle Cry, but was not accepted and the part went to Tab Hunter and

A

t 20, James Dean arrived in Manhattan for the first time.

consequently flopped. It also seemed that Dean was a flop with the Actor's Studio. Lee Strasberg noticed too many flaws in Jimmy's sole recitation that Jimmy, terribly insulted, marched out of the class never to participate again. Bill Bast was now living in New York, and he and Jimmy began seeing a lot of each other. With Bill, Dizzy Sheridan, and another 'insolvent outsider' Barbara Glenn (whom Dean nicknamed 'my neurotic little shit') it seemed that Jimmy had finally found his companions. But they befriended Dean on his terms. If they began to bore him, he wouldn't hesitate to drop them. One friend claimed: "If he didn't like you, Jimmy wouldn't even give you the pleasure of his anger. You could be in a phone booth with him and you wouldn't exist." When Dizzy, Bill and Jimmy hitched back to the Winslow farm in Fairmount (mainly to fill their stomachs), they found a cable addressed to Jimmy from Jane Deacy with some urgent and worthy news. It transpired that a part for Jimmy in the play See The Jaguar waited for the actor back in New York. The play opened on December 3rd, 1952 in New York, and swept Dean from the friends who had suffered with him in the lean days. Bill Bast: "I was stunned by the realisation that at no time during the performance (of 'See The Jaguar') had I been aware that I was watching my old friend James Dean." The play was condemned by the critics and closed after six performances, but it did lead Dean to a string of television appearances. All were unmemorable clothesline dramas with Dean as an over-balanced psychotic. He was by now in the front ranks of televisions young potentials, alongside Steve McQueen and Paul Newman. the Schurr office was deluged with fan mail. "You should read some of the letters I get," Dean told Bill Bast, "from old ladies watching television. They tell me about how they want me to wear tighter pants." Most of the shows went out live, and nothing remains of Dean from this period. At this point, he was offered the lead in an upcoming movie The Silver Chalice, but Jane Deacy held off the offer. Later the part was given to Paul Newman and proved to have few qualities. Dean tried for the part of Curly in Oklahoma, but his voice didn't measure up for the musical numbers. As if somehow anticipating what lay before him, Dean formed a friendship with photographer Roy Schatt, and insisted he take hundreds of photographs of him in varying poses. Schatt: "He was fun to hang around with, but he was always making romance with his own activities. He made romance out of the fact that he didn't eat or dress like other people. Sometimes I felt like he was writing a biography about himself. You know, and that moment was entitled, 'This is The Way Jimmy Prepared For His Role In . . . .' " For all the activity that surrounded him, Jimmy was mostly alone in those early days. He was an insomniac and spent many of his nights roaming the city like a stray animal. And still, his friends were all replaceable. Barbara Glenn: "Of course Jimmy had his reasons for doing what he did, but really, who needs that shit?" Kazan returned to Dean with the offer to audition for the part of Cal in East of Eden. He would have to take a screen test with Paul Newman. Newman heavily resented Dean because he always seemed slightly ahead of him. When Dean was finally given the part, Newman was outraged, which naturally delighted Dean. "I wanted that part so bad I could almost taste it," whinged Newman. Without delay Dean left for California to begin shooting for East of Eden, for which his friends thought him lucky, but Dean was quick to point out to them: "No one ever did anything for me. I don't owe anything to anyone."

ANOTHER DEAN HITS THE BIG LEAGUE NEW YORK TIMES March 13th, 1955 By HOWARD THOMPSON JAMES DEAN is the young man who snags the acting limelight in "East of Eden," which arrived at the Astor last week. Its opening has started a lively controversy over his histrionic kinship with Marlon Brando-and his professional competence. At any rate, 25-year-old Dean, a product of an Indiana farm, Hollywood, television and Broadway, has made an impression and now owns a Warner Brothers contract. Count his supporting chore in last season's "The Immortalist" as having threefold significance insofar as this rapid rise is concerned. It netted him the Donaldson and Perry awards and, indirectly, the attention of director Elia Kazan, then scouting leads for "Eden," and finally, his flourishing reputation for unvarnished individuality. In a recent chat at his agent's apartment, west of the Yorkville area, Dean gave ample evidence that he was prepared to maintain that individuality. He sat quietly, awaiting the first query. The slender frame and boyish features suggested a Booth Tarkington hero. The black corduroy shirt and trousers and a penetrating neutrality of expression, magnified by large, steel spectacles, did not. Had he caught "Eden" yet? "Sure, I saw it," came the soft, abstract reply. His verdict? "Not bad." "No, I didn't read the novel. The way I work, I'd much rather justify myself with the adaptation rather than the source. I felt I wouldn't have any trouble-too much anyway-with this characterization once we started because I think I understood the part. I knew, too, that if I had any problems over the boy's background, I could straighten it out with Kazan."

Background
Asked how he happened to turn to acting, Dean hoisted a jodhpur over one knee and lit a cigarette. "It was an accident, although I've been involved in some kind of theatrical function or other since I was a child-in school, music, athletics." He rose and began pacing the room. The words came slowly and carefully. "To me acting is the most logical way for people's neuroses to manifest themselves. To my way of thinking, and actor's course is set even before he's out of the cradle." An only child of non-professionals, Dean was raised by an aunt and uncle in Fairmount, Ind. "My father was a farmer, but he did have this remarkable adeptness with his hands," he said, flexing his own. "Whatever abilities I may have crystallized there in high school, when I was trying to prove something to myself-that could do it, I suppose. One of my teachers was a frustrated actress. Through her I entered and won a state oratorical dramatic contest, reciting a Dickens piece called 'The Madman.' What's it about? About this real gone cat," he chanted, "who knocks off several people. It also begins with a scream," he remembered casually. "I really woke up those judges." "All these things," he went on, "were good discipline and experience for me. After graduation, I went up to live with my father in Los Angeles-Mother had died when I was a kidand just for the hell of it, signed up for a pre-law course at U.C.L.A. That did call for a certain knowledge of histrionics. I even joined a fraternity on campus, but I busted a couple of guys in the nose and got myself kicked out. I wasn't happy in law, either. "Then I tried my luck in pictures, contacted an agent, got some small parts in things like 'Has Anybody Seen My Gal?,' a Korean war film, 'Fixed Bayonets,' and one TV play.

"I came here at the suggestion of Jimmy Whitmore, a fine actor and a good boy, a real New York boy, who wasn't too happy out at Metro." For what he learned at the Actors' Studio, while edging into prominence on television and in his Broadway bow, "See the Jaguar," Dean pointedly credits director Lee Strasberg, "an incredible man, a walking encyclopedia, with fantastic insight." Would he compare the stage and screen media? "As of now, I don't consider myself as specifically belonging to either. The cinema is a very truthful medium because the camera doesn't let you get away with anything. On stage, you can even loaf a little if you're so inclined. Technique, on the other hand, is more important. My aim, my real goal, is to achieve something I call camera-functioning on the stage.

Defense
"Not that I'm down on Hollywood. Take pictures like 'The Ox-Bow Incident,' most of the Lubitsch ones. Gadge (Kazan), of course, is one of the best. Then there's George Stevens, the greatest of them all. I'm supposed to do 'Giant' for him. This guy was born with the movies. So real, unassuming. You'll be talking to him, thinking he missed your point, and then-bang!-he has it." How did his Warners contract read? "Nine films over a six-year period." Story approval? "Contractually, no-emotionally, yes. They can always suspend me. money isn't one of my worries, not that I have any. "Don't get me wrong. I'm not one of the wise ones who try to put Hollywood down. It just happens that I fit to cadence and pace better here as far as living goes. New York is vital, above all fertile. They're a little harder to find, maybe, but out there in Hollywood, behind all that brick and mortar, there are human beings just as sensitive to fertility. The problem for this cat-myself-is not to get lost." Dean's smile spread as far as his lenses.

Chapter IV: Pity Me Because I Am Too Sensitive for This World and Everyone's Wrong Except Me
'Touch-me-not, my Mother's fixed me.' Ludus (New Hormones 1980)

ast of Eden is the story of a son aching for the affection of a disapproving father. Jimmy as the son (Cal) and Raymond Massey as the father, found the Steinbeck characters creeping into their daily lives on the set. Julie Harris (playing Abra) would often bridge the gap between Massey and Dean. Harris: "Jimmy would say a lot of, would swear, I remember some of what he'd say 'fuck' , or something like that, and Raymond Massey would turn scarlet and finally had to say once: 'You mustn't talk like that, there are ladies present', which just egged Jimmy on more." In one scene with Massey, Dean was to read a passage from the Bible before supper. Instead of the expected 'The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want', Dean in a deliberate effort to enrage Massey, who was devoted to the Bible, recited: "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not suck cock." Massey's heart nearly stopped. He stormed from the set and refused to continue working with Dean, a decision he was forced to retract. On the set Dean tagged after Richard Davalos who played Cal's angelic brother Aron. Aron was perfection in his father's eyes, but his stainless nature had cunning tendencies. Davalos was not over-keen on Dean, and was unwilling to share an apartment with him when Kazan suggested they should. For most of the film, Cal is projected as little more than a confused boy, unable to understand his straightlaced father, yet identifying with his mother (Jo Van Fleet), a whorehouse madam. On the set, Dean was as troublesome and complicated as possible. He drank violently and abusively and Julie Harris was the only one with an understanding. Julie Harris: "The first time I met Jimmy at some party down in the Village. We were introduced and he looked at me kind of quizzically and he said: 'Well,, how do you like playing in The Moon is Blue?'. and I thought, what's he doing? Is he putting me on? And I said, 'I wasn't in The Moon is Blue, and he kind of looked at me and smiled. He didn't say much after that." In the film, Harris (as Abra) is Aron's girlfriend but is distracted by her fascination for the other brother, Cal. Abra realises that until Cal receives the approval he deserves from his self-righteous father, he shall always feel incomplete. Julie Harris: "I remember the last day of filming. It was terrible for me. You always feel that you're alone in these feelings, whatever you feel. You feel that nobody else can possibly feel that. The last scene was shot - I don't know what scene we were working on. It was the exterior of the house, I know that. And there was to be a party that night. It was awful for me that last day to think it had all gone away, that life we'd been leading for two and a half months. You wouldn't see anybody again. You wouldn't come there every day. You wouldn't look forward to it. And I remember looking around and thinking, I've got to say goodbye to Jimmy. And suddenly, all the set was just deserted, and everybody had just gone. And he had a dressing room, a portable dressing room, on the set, and I went up to the caravan and knocked on the door and I thought I heard something like a sob. I said, 'Jimmy', and then knocked again. So then I was sure it was a sob and I opened the door and he was just in tears, his eyes - and I said 'what's the matter', and he said, 'It's over, it's over', and he was just like a little boy. So lovely."

E

It was during the filming of East of Eden that Jimmy developed a mad passion for Pier Angeli, a sensitive young Italian actress. Pier went nowhere without her mother. As a schoolgirl of fifteen she had been raped by an American soldier, which had had a deep wounding effect upon her. So much so that when being kissed - apparently for the first time - in a scene of one of her movies, the repulsed actress fell to the ground with a thud and required buckets of smelling slats to be revived. However, Dean was mesmerized, and who wouldn't be? Saint Pier and her mother, almost a double act in Hollywood, were interlocked night and day. "Pier Angeli is a rare person", Dean told the press, "Unlike most Hollywood girls she is real and genuine. Her only trouble is that she gets confused by listening to too many advisors." The two managed some time together, and according to Dick Davalos, Dean confessed: "For better or worse I'm going to spend the rest of my days with her." After this he rang Jane Deacy and told her he wanted to get married. Pier was not quite so positive and raced to the altar at a moment's notice with celebrity Vic Damone. Dean, stumped, fell into a fit of depression. Jimmy later revealed that he had beaten Pier up a few nights before her wedding. However, Pier's marriage would not last, and neither would she. She lived for years in extreme poverty and depression. In 1970 she returned to Hollywood after a great lapse, hoping for a part in The Godfather, which she didn't get because (according to the director) Pier was 'too old'. Hardly encouraged by this, the failed actress began taking pills for 'stomach trouble'. One night she took too many. Minutes before her death in 1971, she coughed: "Jimmy was the love of my youth - perhaps my greatest love." East of Eden was launched to favourable reactions. At its premier, Marilyn Monroe handed out programmes, but not to Dean who had flown back to New York to avoid the general fanfare which surrounded the picture. "New York is vital, above all, fertile," he claimed. Or, depending on his mood: "Geographical location means nothing to me. A man can produce no matter where the hell he is." One scene in the film had been chopped (perhaps censored). A bedroom scene with the two brothers Cal and Aron bristled with sexuality. Davalos explained: "The test we did had homosexual overtones, but no one had ever said it before." It was remarked upon far too often that Dean's acting beared too great a resemblance to Brando's. It was no secret that Dean admired Brando immensely, but Kazan pointed out: "People compare them, but there was no similarity. Dean was a far sicker kid . . . ." After Dean's death, Brando himself commented: "Dean was never a friend of mine, but he had an idee fixé about me. Whatever I did, he did. He was always trying to get close to me. He used to call up. I'd listen to him talking to the answering service asking for me, leaving messages. but I never spoke up. I never called him back." Julie Harris was aware that Dean felt the same way about Montgomery Clift: "Jimmy used to call Montgomery Clift and say, I'm a great actor and you're my idol and I need to see you because I need to talk to you and I need to communicate', and Clift would change his phone number. Then after Jimmy was dead, Clift saw all three of his films, and every time he'd get drunk and cry and cry about the fact that he'd denied this young man the opportunity of seeing and talking to him." In the summing-up of Eden, Julie Harris received faint praise, Dick Davalos was entirely overlooked, and Raymond Massey struggled for a mention. All were clearly overshadowed by James Dean in the only film of his career that he would live to see released.

Chapter V: Cause and Consequence
'you're-tearing-me-apart'

rom the set of East of Eden Dean stepped to that of Rebel Without a Cause. Marlon 'The Slob' Brando was shovelled up for the leading role, but thankfully, the thirty year old was ditched in favour of Dean. Director Nick Ray (whose brightest work so far had been Sorry, Wrong Number) would later cite Dean as the most stimulating actor he'd worked with, and readily acknowledged him as the co-director of the film. Rebel Without a Cause (originally titled The Blind Run) was written by Dr. Robert Lidner as a factual case history of a teenage psychopath. The film was planned as a low-budget black and white 'downbeat' picture, but when the first few scenes had been shot, Warners were so impressed that they decided that the budget be raised and the film shot in colour. Again, the film told of a strained father and son relationship. Jim Stark (Dean) is a teenager fighting for the moral support of his hen-pecked, befuddled father (Jim Backus). The father, who appears fumbling in a frilly apron, fails to provide his sensitive son with the strong masculine image which the boy needs. The film covers the events of one day as Stark attends his first day at a new school. Here Stark is attracted by Judy (Natalie Wood), who belongs to a progressive and hostile gang who decide to make life uncomfortable for the newcomer. Judy herself has parental problems. Her father can no longer cope with his daughter's open displays of affection towards him. possibly shielding himself, he calls her a 'dirty tramp'. Having had her harmless embraces construed as wanton strumpetry, Judy will later join Jim in their search for tenderness and support. At the school, Judy finds herself drawn towards Jim. However, Judy's boyfriend Buzz (Corey Allen) is not quite so enamoured, and invites the outsider to a fateful 'chicken-run' that very night. Stark, out to defend his male credentials, accepts the offer, not knowing exactly what a 'chicken-run' is. He is advised by a wandering loner named Plato (Sal Mineo) that the event would involve both Buzz and Jim riding in cars toward a cliffedge, and the first to jump from the doomed car would be labelled 'chicken'. Plato also has been rejected by his parents, and as a result is weak, friendless and insecure. On his school locker he hangs a picture of Alan Ladd, a man of no height, whom he considers the prototypical male. In the chicken-run scene, Judy speculates with cool indifference, whilst Plato, every inch a nervous Nellie, fears for Jim Stark and can't bear to watch. The tenseness of this scene comes to a height as Buzz overruns the cliffedge and soars to his death, while Stark jumps free. The win rises Stark to heroism in Judy's eyes, but the rest of the gang, robbed of their leader, have something else in mind and hound both him and Judy. The two are lead by the omnipresent Plato to a deserted old mansion (the same house which was used in Sunset Boulevard, and rented from its owner J. P. Getty to Warners for 200 dollars a week). The three, deprived of accepting parents, create their own family in the old mansion. It is never certain whether Plato's role in the scenario is that of hapless child or romantic contender as his slave-like devotion to Jim is emphasized throughout. Plato's idolation for Jim is never more apparent than when Jim gives the boy his red jacket as a symbol of their friendship. Plato sees it as much more and slobbers uncontrollably over the garment as if it were lined with gold. Sal Mineo was sixteen, but looked much younger as he highlighted his underwhelming career with the strangely disturbed Plato. Off-camera, Mineo was not prepared to be impressed by the new paragon: "From what I'd seen of Jimmy on the set I didn't know what all the fuss was about. I didn't think he was very good. Then I saw the screening and, you know, he was great. He was sitting just behind me in the cinema and half a dozen times, when he was really terrific, I turned around to look at him. He was giving that grin of his, and almost blushing, looking down at the floor between his legs." Rebel would be Natalie Wood's 20th film, and her first 'adult' role. Of her co-star she observed: "He didn't comb his hair. He had a safety-pin holding his pants together. He was introspective and very shy."

F

Dean had tried desperately to have the part of the whinging Plato offered to his new friend Jack Simmons. Maila Nurmi (another newly-acquired friend), who hostessed her own horror TV show under the homely guise of Vampira, claimed that the part of Plato had been specially written for Simmons. There is little evidence to prove this. Whilst filming Rebel Dean began seeing a psychiatrist. But it was only on the race track with his motorcycle that he found his real therapy. Friends say that he took insane risks with his life. It was at this time that he bought his Porsche Spyder for an astounding 6,900 dollars, the car which, like his later legend, would swerve out of control. Journalists looked upon the grey Porsche as cunning and careful gimmickry, and that on buying the elite auto Dean was merely envisioning the next day's screaming tabloids who made an official report whenever the actor changed his shirt (which wasn't very often). Millions lived on a staple diet of Hedda Hopper, a columnist whose tittle-tattle was sacrosanct and ranked with Biblical admonitions. Hedda and others were paid for scandalizing Hollywood stars by exploring their private lives microscopically. James Dean fell victim to her pen many times. The honourable snoop disliked him throughout his three-picture career. It was not until his death that she revised her opinions and acclaimed him a great actor. Dean was spending most of his free time with Jack Simmons and Maila Nurmi. The three would meet nightly at midnight and discuss the days events. Maila dabbled in black magic, and distraught fans would later accuse her of somehow causing his death. There was time off for Dean to appear in what would be his last television play, The Unlighted Road. Unsurprisingly, his role was that of a disturbed teenage psychopath. The actual film was damaged in the early 60's, but not before an LP record of it was released with a photograph of a haggard Dean slapped on the cover. It had already been decided that Dean would play the part of Jett Rink in Giant. He left for Texas to begin work on the film immediately after the last scene in Rebel had been shot. Nick Ray recalled that last moment: "People had packed up and left the set. Jimmy and I were left alone on the lot at Warners; everyone but the gateman had gone home. We were wandering around under the lights making sure we hadn't left anything behind. We didn't really want to admit it was all over. I said, 'Let's go, we've got nothing more to do here.' " In the closing scene of the film, after Plato had been shot in error by the police at the planetarium, a man is seen crossing the lawn carrying a briefcase. The man is Nick Ray making his own appearance. Rebel Without a Cause would open at the Astor Theatre in New York on October 29th, 1955, a month after the death of its star.

Chapter VI: Planned Obsolescence?
'Death is not a God' Wilde

lan Ladd and Richard Burton were on the short list for the part of Jett Rink in Giant. the part was given to Dean when Jane Deacy could ask twenty thousand dollars for a single TV appearance and get it. Ironically, his part in Giant was much smaller than in either previous films. And he would not get top billing. This was reserved for a well-corseted Rock Hudson, not miscast as a bigoted brute on a vast Texan cattle ranch. Amongst the cattle, Liz Taylor - all bust and behind, but very much the Queen of Hollywood. Proving that she was still the epitome of romance, the goddess gave birth seconds before the cameras rolled. Adapted from Edna Ferber's 447 page novel, Giant would be one of Warner's biggest financial successes. It is a grand, sweeping western of epic proportions, in which Dean as Jett Rink is a ranch hand on the Reata Ranch. He is disliked for his surly attitudes by land owner Bick Benedict (Hudson), who runs the ranch with his sister Luz (Mercedes McCambridge). When Luz dies and leaves a small patch of land to Rink, Bick is furious and tries to buy him out. But Rink stays, discovers oil on his land, and becomes a multi-millionaire. It was easy for Hudson to show intense animosity towards Dean. Hudson was always ready to pronounce sentence: "I didn't like Dean particularly. He was hard to be around. He hated George Stevens (the director), didn't think he was a good director, and he was always sulky and had no manners." Hudson's distaste was possibly prompted by the common opinion that Dean had insolently upstaged the thirty-year-old actor in their scenes together. Although allocated only a handful of scenes, unquestionably Dean stole the film. Liz Taylor (as Bick's new bride Leslie) was given a semi-royal reception on the Giant lot. She wore the highest heels in Hollywood, and to criticise her was almost a public offence. But Dean refused to play the polite admirer. She approached him in the friendliest manner, to which he stared at her over the rim of his glasses, mumbled something to himself, and strode off as though he hadn't seen her. She was terribly offended, yet thought she understood him, and his initial rebuff would not create any animosity between them. Liz Taylor: "One felt that he was a boy one had to take care of, but even that was probably his joke. I don't think he needed anybody or anything - except his acting." Towards the end of filming, Taylor would give Dean a gift of a kitten, for which he symbolized his appreciation by passing the creature on to a temporary friend, Jeanette Mille. Director George Stevens was not happy with Dean's now famous unpredictable antics during rehearsals. Dean gave rise to too many mistakes which the director found difficult to take. "I sometimes underestimated him," said Stevens, "and sometimes he overestimated the effects he thought he was getting. 'It's tough on you', he'd seem to imply, 'but I've just got to do it this way'. From the director's angle, this isn't the most delightful sort of fellow to work with." In editing Giant, Stevens became so dissatisfied with Dean's disjointed reading of Rink's last speech that he brought in another actor to dub the final cut. But Liz Taylor saw something else: "When I was not on camera, I would watch George watching Jimmy. George would smile, but he didn't ever let Jimmy know he was fond of him." Much later, Stevens would be less disturbed by the actor: "I can see him now, blinking behind his glasses after having been guilty of some preposterous bit of behaviour, and revealing by his very cast of defiance that he felt some sense of unworthiness." But Dean's stroppy behaviour aggravated many of the technicians working on Giant who would refuse to speak to him. "Maybe I ought to go to the moon," Dean snapped one day. "We'll help you pack," came one of the camera men. Their reaction would hurt Dean more than he would ever confess.

A

As Jordan Benedict, Dennis Hopper would be Dean's only real companion on the set. Hopper had been a member of Buzz's gang in Rebel, and he would never lose his admiration for Dean. Dennis Hopper: "Jimmy and I found we were a bit neurotic and had to justify our neurosis by creating, getting the pain out and sharing it." Hopper would even approve of Dean's performance during a press reception for the Giant cast, for which the sultry star arrived unshaven, unsmiling, and unwilling to pose for any photographs. The Hollywood columnists would not judge with any mercy. James Dean was a sad spectacle, yet irritatingly fascinating. During the filming, Dean dated 20 year-old Swiss star Ursula Andress. Maila Nurmi claimed that his interest in Andress, who was almost incapable of fluent English, was purely for physical reasons. The affair was brief, and eventually Andress ditched Dean in favour of actor John Derek. Jimmy would haunt both of them in a fit of rage. He would telephone Andress at odd hours, and spy on her and Derek. "Jimmy just couldn't believe that anyone could leave him for another man." said Maila Nurmi, "he was stunned." Jane Deacy had already decided that Dean's next role would be that of Morgan Evans in a television production of Emlyn Williams' The Corn is Green. But Dean planned first and foremost to attend a road race scheduled for the weekend of October 1st in Salinas. He had become friends with 28-year-old mechanic Rolf Weutherich who would accompany Dean in his Porsche to Salinas. The filming of Giant had ended and Dean began disappearing by himself, presumably as friends thought, to prepare for the race. But the night before the trip, Jimmy is said to have attended a gay party in Malibu Colony and got himself involved in a terrible scene with one of his lovers who demanded that Jimmy 'come out' once and for all and stop pretending to be interested in women, except, as the friend snapped 'for publicity purpose'. On the day of his journey to Salinas, Jimmy wore his usual outfit: light blue pants, white shirt, red nylon jacket. He and Rolf set off in the Porsche, whilst photographer Standford Roth and Bill Hackman followed in a station wagon. Mid-way through the journey, Jimmy pulled a ring from his finger and handed it to Rolf. "Why?" asked Rolf. "I want to give you something to show we're friends" replied Dean. The Porsche was low and grey and difficult to see when driven at the high speed in which Dean drove. "I'm going to keep this baby a long time" he would say, as he drove to his death.

Chapter VII: Humour In the Gallows
'He whom the Gods favour die young' Platus

ews was filtering through to Hollywood on the evening of September 30th, 1955. The cast of Giant were all together watching a private viewing of the film. Elizabeth Taylor recalled the moment: "Suddenly the phone rang. I heard him (George Stevens) say, 'No. My God. When? Are you sure', and he kind of grunted a couple of times and hung up the phone. He stopped the film and turned on the lights, and stood up and said to the room, 'I've just been given the news that Jimmy Dean has been killed'. There was an intake of breath. No one said anything. I couldn't believe it; none of us could. So several of us started calling newspapers, hospitals, the police, the morgue. After maybe two hours the word was confirmed. Then everybody drifted out to their cars to go home. It was about nine o'clock at night; the studio was deserted. As I walked to my car, I saw a figure coming through the lights down one of the little side-streets. It was George getting into his Mercedes. We looked at each other and I said, 'I can't believe it George. I can't believe it' and he said, 'I believe it. He had it coming to him. The way he drove he had it coming to him.' " In New York, Natalie Wood was rehearsing for a television show: "The night he was killed I was having dinner with a lot of his friends - Sal Mineo, Dick Davalos, Nick Adams. We were talking about Jimmy's lifestyle and Nick ventured the opinion that Jimmy wouldn't live till thirty. We pooh-poohed the idea. Later when we finished eating, Nick and Sal walked me to my hotel. I was still under age then with a studio chaperone, and it was she who heard the news. She told Nick and Sal and asked them not to say anything to me because I had an early call the next day and she wanted me to sleep. So they left rather abruptly. Next morning the chaperone had to tell me because down in the lobby the newspapers hat it on all the headlines. I didn't believe it I think I stood at the window staring out for a long time. I went to work in a state of shock." The Porsche had collided with a big black and white Ford sedan driven by a Californian polytechnic student, Donald Gene Turnupseed. Turnupseed escaped with a bruised nose, whilst Dean, his body torn open on the steering wheel was not quite so fortunate. There were no vital signs. He was officially dead. It took seven minutes to extract the body from the wreckage. Sandford Roth stood by taking photographs. The verdict was accidental death, and there would be no charges against Turnupseed. But there would have been some made against Dean had he lived. He was clearly guilty of contributory negligence. Jane Deacy drove to Los Angeles to break the news to Winton Dean. Winton was the only direct heir because Jimmy had not written out a will. Meanwhile, Warners thought the death detrimental to the box-office potential of their soon-to-be-launched Rebel Without a Cause, and tried to cancel the premier. Their theory was that 'nobody would come to see a dead star'. As Giant opened in New York on October 10th the following year, the 48-page press book gave no indication that the person who had played Jett Rink had died. Both films would find great success, and the talents of James Dean forever praised as he evoked the submerged pain of the teenagers of the 1950's. The fanfare and the rumours took leaps and bounds. Police were forced to keep a night and day guard on the cemetary in Fairmount where Dean was buried. Rumours were ripe that his body had been stolen, and many distressed fans armed with spades were eager to find out the truth. Others firmly believed that he hadn't died. A witness at the crash maintained that the dead body was not Dean's, but Weutherich's. This was added to reports of others who claimed that the person wearing the red jacket (Dean?) was in the passenger seat. The death car was exhibited privately around Los Angeles. Fans were charged 25 cents to see it, 50 cents to touch the bloodstained steering wheel. The car was later broken up and its pieces sold as souvenirs.

N

Close friends of Dean's who had photographs or any of his belongings were hounded by erratic fans desperate for a tangible momento. The Winslows in Fairmount were pressed for information 24 hours a day. To this day people return in droves simply to look at the house. Three thousand people had attended his funeral, and later chiselled bits off the gravestone as souvenirs. The following year with Rebel and Giant launched worldwide, England served out an Academy Award to the dead star. In 1957, The James Dean Story was patched together by George W. George, Robert Altman and Stewart Stern. It included unused clips from East of Eden, and many rare photographs. Strangely, at a time when people were feverish for footage of Dean, the film was not a success. Dean's future had seemed so full of promise. For MGM he was to play the part of New York boxer Rocky Graziano in Somebody Up There Likes Me, and the part of Billy the Kid in The Left-Handed Gun (both went to Paul Newman). James Dean had illuminated the 50's with a new and liberated image of the male screen hero. He professed that all was not possible, and redefined strength as tolerance of others weaknesses, and of accepting one's own. As Judy tells Jim in Rebel Without a Cause: ". . . being Plato's friend - that's being strong", and later the distinction between male and female is invisible as she tells him: "your lips are soft . . ." Dean's characters voiced their innermost feelings without running the risk of seeming less than manly. The premature wisdom was not so much rebellious as a reaction against the synthetic strong and silent he-men heroes that Hollywood felt the need to serve up. The aftermath stretch into rock 'n roll as the frontrunners of that art form paid homage in their way to Dean and very often dressed like him. No other film star has impressed so many young people. In the heart of modern art with Andy Warhol, the morbid influence upon 19-year old mass murderer Charles Starkweather, and into the early 1970's when British rock group Mott the Hoople dedicated an entire L.P. to him. James Dean's appeal was not restricted. And, strangely, his death. Had it glamorised his image? Had he lived, would he be so revered? And if endurance really is the prime quality in screen stars, why should someone who only made three films be remembered at all? Eternally a teenager, James Dean would now be over fifty. A young actor who knew Jimmy in New York remembered: I used to see him and one of the spectacular things about him was that he always looked so different in real life than he did on the screen. I couldn't have been more astounded when I saw East of Eden and this magic creature appeared, because HE DIDN'T LOOK LIKE THAT! I just never saw him look like that. He was never pulled together. He was generally quite filthy-dandruff, and the whole scene. But really bad. He looked, I'd say older than thirty." James Dean worshipped and reached for immortality. He got what he wanted.

What if Donald hadn't turned left...
THE DATE IS SEPTEMBER 30TH.. 1955 THE TIME IS APPROX 4.40 IN THE AFTERNOON. THE SUN IS FAST DISAPPEARING IN A LANDSCAPE THATS FLAT AND UNINTERESTING. THE MONOTONY BROKEN ONLY BY THE HIGHWAY CUTTING THROUGH THE BLEAK SCENE. HIGHWAY 46. A WHITE PORSCHE 'SPYDER' SNAKES ALONG HIGHWAY 46 CARRYING JIMMEY DEAN AND HIS GERMANBORN MECHANIC ROLF WEUTHERICH. ROLF HAS FALLEN ASLEEP BESID JIMMY. THEY HAVE BEEN DRIVING ALMOST CONTINUOUSLY NOW FOR 12 HOURS, WITH ONLY A COUPLE OF STOPS FOR EATS AND A LEG-STRETCH. JIM IS DRIVING WITHOUT HIS GLASSES..... HERE IN THE FRONT SEAT OF HIS PORSCHE (DUBBED IRONICALLY, "THE LITTLE BASTARD"), HE IS UNDOUBTEDLY BEGINNING TO FEEL HIS OWN BRAND OF MONOTONY AS THE ENDLESS BAND OF BLUE-GREY CONCRETE AND IT'S BORDER OF LOW SCRUB TREES, UNFOLD ON EITHER SIDE. ONLY THE OCCASIONAL PASSING AUTO THAT LOOKS UNUSUAL, QUALIFIES FOR HIS ATTENTION, AS THEY APPROACH, APPEAR OPPOSITE, AND THEN CONTINUE ON PAST ON THEIR RESPECTIVE JOURNEYS. THEN, AND WITHOUT WARNING A CAR BREAKS THE NORMAL PATTERN AND BEGINS TO TURN OFF THE HIGHWAY ONTO A SECONDARY ROAD LEAVING JIMMY'S CAR EXPOSED BROADSIDE TO IT DIRECTLY IN HIS PATH. ROLF WOKE AS HE NOTICED THE SUDDEN CHANGE IN SPEED. JIMMY WAS SHOUTING IN DISBELIEF AT THE CAR NOW AT RIGHT ANGLES TO HIM. "HE MUST SEE US" ......... "WHAT IS HE DOING???? ........... THEN ......... WHUMP!!!! ROLF WEUTHERICH WAS THROWN CLEAR OF THE WRECK ONTO THE GRASS SIDING, SERIOUSLY INJURED. DEAN WAS NOT AS LUCKEY HE LAY MOTIONLESS, PUSHED FOREWARD AGAINST THE STEERING WHEEL, SUSTAINING MASSIVE INTERNAL INJURIES .... DEAD!!!! ..................! THE OWNER OF THE FORD SALOON WHICH HAD JUST COLLIDED FATALLY WITH JIMMY STAGGERED OUT THE PASSENGER DOOR, DAZED, BEWILDERED, BUT WITH NOTHING MORE SERIOUS THAN SUPERFICIAL CUT AND BRUISES. HIS NAME WAS DONALD TURNIPSEED. DONALD HAS SINCE SAID HE DIDN'T EVEN NOTICE A CAR COMIN' TOWARDS HIM, AN ALMOST INCREDIBLE STATEMENT, WHICH WAS LATER EXPLAINED AWAY BY FAILING LIGHT, COUPLED BY THE MERGING OF THE MONOTOND COLOURED PORSCHE WITH ITS BACKGROUND. OTHERS MAINTAIN IT WAS DUE TO JIMMY NOT HAVING HIS GLASSES ON, COMBINED WITH FATIGUE AND OVER ANXIOUSNESS TO ARRIVE AT HIS DESTINATION. HOWEVER, ALL THE THEORIES AND SUGGESTIONS AS TO WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT ACTION, THE FACT IS DEAN DIED ON IMPACT ON FRIDAY 30TH. SEPT., 1955 WITH DONALD'S CAR! THAT, AS EVERYONE WHO KNOWS DEAN'S STORY IS THE WAY HE WENT OUT. IN RETROSPECT, THE ONLY WAY. SO JIMMY BECAME AN ACCIDENT STATISTIC, ONE OF APPROXIMATELY 38,500 PEOPLE WHO WOULD DIE WITHOUT APPARENT GOOD REASON ON AMERICA'S ROADS IN 1955. BUT WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED TO JIMMY AND HIS CAREER, HAD HE BEEN ALLOWED TO CONTINUE ALONG HIS NATURAL PATH, AND ALIVE TODAY, ALBEIT PAST MIDDLE AGE. PROBABLY HE WOULD HAVE CRUMPLED UNDER THE ATTRACTIONS OF BIG STAR STATUS AND COLOSSAL SALARIES AS WITH MOST OF HIS CONTEMPORIES - NEWMAN, MCQUEEN AND EVEN HIS ONE TIME IDOL BRANDO. INTERISTINGLY, NEWMAN, WHO WAS CONSIDERED IN THE EARLY '50'S TO BE AS GOOD AS DEAN, WENT ON TO FILL THE ROLES HE LEFT VACENT AFTER HIS DEATH AND WHICH HE INTENDED DOING, AS ROCK GRAZIANO, THE N.Y. BOXER IN "SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME", AND ALSO THE ROLE OF BILLY THE KID IN PENN'S "THE LEFT HANDED GUN". OBVIOUSLY JIMMY WOULD HAVE BROUGHT HIS OWN INTERPRETATIONS TO THESE CHRACHTERS, AND NO DOUBT HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFUL IF ONLY ON THE STRENGTH OF "EDEN", "REBEL", AND "GIANT", BUT IT'S EVEN MORE INTERESTING TO CONTEMPLATE WHERE THESE SUCCESSES WOULD HAVE FURTHER LED HIM. IF ONE WERE TO LOOK AT SAY, NEWMAN'S FILMS AFTER "GUN", AS THEY WERE RELEASED - HE MADE FILMS OF YAWANING QUALITY I.E. "RALLY ROUND THE FLAG, BOYS" ('58), "CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF" ('59), "THE YOUNG PHILLIDELPHIANS" ('59), "EXEDOUS" ('61) YOU WOULD NOT BE IMPRESSED WITH HIS PARTICULAR GRAPH!! ALTHOUGH LOOKING THROUGH HIS FILMS NOW AS A WHOLE YOU CAN SEE CERTAIN FILMS HE MADE WHICH COULD HAVE BEEN VEHICLES FOR HIM "THE HUSTLER" ('62), "HUD" ('63), "COOL HAND LUKE" ('67) AND POSSIBLY "HOMBRE".

DEAN ALSO EXPRESSED A WISH TO PLAY HAMLET, NOT IN THE TRADITIONAL OLIVIER FASHION, BUT IN AN INTERPRETATION MORE 'LOOSE' AND "AMERICAN" (POSSIBLY A DESIRE, PERHAPS, NOT TO BE OUTDONE BY BRANDO'S MUCH ACCLAIMED PERFORMANCE AS ANTHONY IN "JULIUS CEASER"). IT IS ALSO FASCENATING TO DRAW PARALLELS AND COMPARISONS BETWEEN THE CAREERS OF SAY THE EVERGREEN BRANDO OR MARTIN SHEEN , DE NIRO, NICHOLSON OR BRUCE DERN, WHO WHILE NOT BEING NECESSARILY DEAN'S OR EVEN LOOK-ALIKES, CAN NONE THE LESS, GIVE US A GLIMPSE OF WHAT JIMMY MIGHT HAVE ACHIEVED, OR DIRECTION HE MIGHT HAVE TAKEN, OR MORE IMPORTANTLY - WHAT WE WOULD HAVE LIKED HIM TO DO. THERE IS ALSO THE POSSIBILITY GROWN SO DISSILLUSIONED BY, THE CASH, LIGHTS, PUBLICITY ETC. THAT HE COULD HAVE BECOME A RECLUSE IN THE CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD TRADITION, OR EVEN WORSE, IN THE TRAGI-HOWARD HUGHES MOLD I CONSIDER THE LATTER A REAL POSSIBILITY. NOTE, IN HINDSIGHT, THE PIC ON THE NEXT COL. "DEAN OR HUGHES?" THE PHYSICAL LIKENESS HE ACHIEVED TO HUGHES IN HIS MAKE-UP AS JETT RINK AGEING IN "GIANT". [A REFERENCE TO A VERY HUGHES-LIKE PICTURE LATER IN THE ARTICLE] AS ONE READ OF HUGHES PRE-OCCUPATION THROUGHOUT HIS LIFE WITH HYGINE UNTIL IT FINALLY BECAME THE OBSESSION WHICH RULED HIM, WE CAN ALSO NOTICE IN DEAN, CERTAIN CHRACHTERISTICS ABOUT HIS PRIVATE HABITS WHICH COULD LEAD TO SIMILAR CONCLUSIONS. THIS WAS, QUITE SIMPLY, HIS APPARENT ATTRACTION TO THE SUBJECT OF DEATH!!... OR MORE NOTICEABLY HIS ATTENTION TO OTHER MORE FAMOUS TRAGIC DEATHS, LIKE ROBERT CAPA, A PHOTO JOURNALIST (WHOM DEAN NEVER MET) .... WHO HAD BEEN KILLED WHILE SHOOTING IN VIET-NAM AFTER ACCIDENTALLY STEPPING ON A LANDMINE. DEAN OBTAINED A COPY OF ONE OF CAPA'S MOST WELL KNOWN PICS (OF A LOYALIST IN THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR BEING SHOT) AND RECORDED ON THE DATE ON THE BACK "DOAI THAN, AFTERNOON, MAY 25TH, 1954". HE ALSO ATTACHED IMPORTANCE TO THE DEATHS OF BULLFIGHTERS MANOLETE AND MEJIAS, AND ITALIAN GRAND PRIX RACING DRIVER ALBERTO ASCARI. WHETHER THIS "NOTING OF DEATHS" IS A MORBID / HUGHES CHARACHTERISTIC OR MERELY NOTING THE PASSING OF SOMEONE HE ADMIRED IS OPEN TO THE INDIVIDUAL INTERPRETATION, BUT ...... MAYBE ...........!!! ON THE MORE POSITIVE SIDE HIS KNOWN ACTIVITIES INCLUDED THE DESIRE TO DIRECT. SOON HE WAS ALSO INTO PHOTOGRAPHY (STILLS), SCULPTING, WRITING, PIANO LESSONS AND HIS BIGGEST INTEREST GRAND PRIX RACING DRIVING. HE WAS TYPICALLY DETERMINED TO EXCELL IN ALL OF THESE FIELDS. I THINK HE FOUND IT DIFFICULT TO BE ACCOMPLISHED IN ALL THESE SUBJECTS, AS BASICALLY HE WAS NOT WILLING TO SPEND THE NECESSARY TIME TAKEN TO MASTER THEM. HOWEVER, WHAT HE LACKED IN DEDICATION TO A SUBJECT WAS MADE UP IN SHEER ENTHUSIASM, AND DRIVE. AS EVIDENCE OF THIS, ON THE SUBJECT OF ACTING, DEAN SAID, "I KNOW I WANT TO BE AN ACTOR, BUT THAT ISN'T IT, THAT'S NOT ALL." "JUST BEING AN ACTOR, OR A DIRECTOR, EVEN A GOOD ONE, ISN'T ENOUGH. "THERE'S GOT TO BE SOMETHING MORE THAN THAT!!" IN FACT JIMMEYS SCREEN IMAGE WAS CREATED FROM, FED, AND FINALLY DESTROYED BY HIS OWN DESPAIRING PURSUIT OF WHATEVER VISION HAD BEEN FOLLOWING HIM SINCE HIS CHILDHOOD DAYS, A VISION HE ALWAYS BELIEVED HE WOULD ONE DAY BE ABLE TO HARNESS AND POSSIBLY UNDERSTAND. GIVEN WHAT WE NOW KNOW TODAY OF DEANS EVENTUAL PERSONA, WE CAN SEE HE FINALLY DID ACHIVE THIS AIM. IF ONE IS TO TAKE HIS CAREER'S POSSIBLE COURSES AFTER HIS DEATH, IT IS PURE SPECULATION AND IT IS PERHAPS BEST THAT VISION AND REALITY IN THE FORM OF DONALD TURNIPSEED FINALLY COINCIDED FOR THIS BRIEFIST POSSIBLE MOMENT AT THAT LEFT WEST BOUND ON HIGHWAY 46!!!!

BIBLIOGRAPHY
1956 - JAMES DEAN (William Bast) Ballantine Books, New York. (paperback)
Authoritive and romantic recollections by one who knew Dean better than most, but hardly a landmark in English literature.

1962 - REBEL (Royston Ellis) Consul Books, London. (paperback)
Cover depicts unshaven Dean looking suitably 'gone'.

1960's (early) - THE IMMORTALIST First paperback edition (it went through several reprints).
Unread, but apparently quite impressive. Cover by Warhol.

1974 - JAMES DEAN: A SHORT LIFE (Venable Herndon) Futura Publications Ltd. 49 Poland Street, London W1A 2LG. (paperback).
No surprises here, but not as unworthy as critics claim.

1975 - JAMES DEAN: THE MUTANT KING (David Dalton) Dell Publishing, 1 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, New York, N.Y. 10017. (paperback)
The definitive Dean book, which cannot be praised too highly. Excellent research, lengthy (but worthwhile) reading.

1975 - JAMES DEAN - A BIOGRAPHY (John Howlett) Plexus Publishing Ltd. 31a Valetta Road, London W3 7TQ. (large paperback)
Worthy and updated account of Dean, with impressive collection of photos.

1978 - JAMES DEAN REVISITED (Dennis Stock) Penguin Books, 625 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10022 (hardcover)
Pictorial account of Dean's life. Underwhelming text, but the shots are a treasure.

Except for the Howlett and Dalton Books, the above collection is out of print.