The First Posthumous Oscar Nominee
     (And the Only One Twice)

Did I Mention Legendary Cult Icon?

I can't believe how you looked at me,
With your James Dean glossy eyes.
In your tight jeans with your long hair,
And your cigarette stained lies.
                    _{--Lady GaGa}

The Sultan of Sulk, Surly, and Squint

"You're right. I am bad. I knew that for a long time...It's true. Aron's the good one. I guess there's just a certain amount of good and bad you get from your parents and I just got the bad."_{--Cal Trask, East of Eden}

J. D.--
Juvenile Delinquent...
Just Dynamite...
James Dean!

             _{--Warner Brothers Promotional}

James Dean, James Dean,
I know just what you mean.
James Dean, you said it all so clean,
And I know my life would look alright,
If I could see it on the silver screen.            _{--Jackson Browne, The Eagles}

 

WARNER BROTHER'S PROJECTION ROOM -
SEPTEMBER 30, 1955, 6 PM

The scene opens up in the darkened room as the projector is whirring, playing the rushes of the epic movie, GIANT, to be released next year.

GEORGE STEVENS, the Director, works the control board, with a crew that includes, ELIZABETH TAYLOR, CARROLL BAKER, and ROCK HUDSON. Suddenly the phone rings, and sound with picture freeze along with Stevens' face a second after he answers the phone.

         GEORGE STEVENS
(morbid demeanor, speaking slowly and distantly) 

There's been a car crash. Jimmy Dean has been killed.

         (FADE TO BLACK)

Giant, a apt description of the status of James Dean in regards to the "Shooting Star" effect of finding immortal fame while still young, would be James Dean's last film. 1955 was a busy year for Dean, he had already been in East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause, that had just opened a month before, and these big budget roles allowed him to tweak his brand new $ 7000 (56K today) silver limited edition of 90 Porsche 550 Spyder, not just for street fun, but serious racing. This work was done by later Batmobile designer, "King of Kustomizers," George Barris. It was ready for the track with number 130 on it, and Rolf Wütherich was his mechanic, where they finalized its readiness at Competition Motors.

He was not allowed to race while filming Giant, and exactly the day before the last takes were done, he set out for his fave hobby. He had a Ford Country Squire station wagon for towing his baby, affectionately named, "Little Bastard, "but decided to drive it himself September 30 to a sports car race,  October first in Salinas, California, now that part of his contract with Warner's was over, with the 29 year old Wütherich as passenger. Just a week before that day on their way, he met Alec Guiness, at a restaurant, who was working in The Swan (1956). After seeing the convertible built for speed, he eerily told Dean, "If you get in that car you will be found dead in it by this time next week.”

Rolf was thrown from the vehicle, severely injured, including busted jaw and leg, as 27 year old Cal Poly student, Donald Turnupseed's 1950 Ford Tudor took a fork where Highway 41 splits the road, like the San Andreas Fault there near Cholame, population 5, on California's U.S. Highway 466 (now 46), oblivious to Dean's lower profiled, fast moving pocket rocket in the shadows of sunset at 5:45 PM, hit them head-on. A commenting Californian, notes, "This intersection is still somewhat dangerous to this very day. If you are heading West bound on Hwy 46 the East bound traffic that needs to make a left turn onto Hwy 41 still must drive across your lane to do so." Turnupseed survived with bumps and gashes to his head. No charges were ever filed. A minute before 1800 hours, 24 year old James Byron Dean achieved that goal of so many cocky young men: being able to "Live Fast, die young and leave a good looking corpse" at Paso Robles War Memorial Hospital.

(The original quote that is falsely attributed to James Dean was in reality from the lines said by Nick Romano played by actor John Derek in the film Knock On Any Door, which premiered on February 21, 1949. He is an Chicago Italian punk from the tenements who is charged with being a cop killer, and is defended by Andrew Morton (Humphrey Bogart), and directed by Nicholas Ray (Who will be a key player later).  In this noir film, based on a book from two years earlier by African-American author, Willard Motley (1912-1965), (who created white characters), Nick tells his girlfriend that “Live fast, die young and have a good-looking corpse!” is his motto in life.)

They say there's a Heaven for those who will wait,
Some say it's better but I say it ain't.
I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints:
The sinners are much more fun...

You know that only the good die young!
                          _{--Billy Joel}

That hospital was in the town where his Porsche would have made the connection to Highway 101, but also Dean's Ford station wagon following: that was driven by photographer and friend, Sanford Roth, and accompanied by actor Bill Hickman. Blackwell's corner was the last place they stopped for gas. This entourage was cited for going 65 in a 45 mph zone earlier on Route 99, (now I-5), by the Highway Patrol. Roth, who, of course was on hand to witness the carnage, after they caught up with it, said the Spyder looked "...like a crumpled pack of cigarettes." Computer re-creations of the event maintain a 55 mile per hour reality compared to upwards of the 115 miles per hour myth. Rolf would be the one to hear Dean's pathetic supposedly last words: "That guy's gotta stop... He'll see us!"

You were the lowdown rebel if there ever was,
Even if you had no cause.
James Dean, you said it all so clean,
And I know my life would look all right,
If I could see it on the silver screen.                _{--Jackson Browne, The Eagles}

One might wonder if the hypothetical diagnosis of bi-polar disorder for Dean caused part of the risky behavior. His survivor of that fateful, day Rolf Wütherich did suffer depression, and died, too in a car crash in 1981. James Dean did have legitimate reasons for surly angst, that with a most facile manner he could portray while acting, or posing for the numerous stills, many of which were done early in 1955, which grace posters even today.

We'll talk about a low-down bad refrigerator,
You were just too cool for school.
Sock hop, soda pop, basketball and auto shop,
The only thing that got you off was breakin' all the rules...!

James Dean, James Dean,
So hungry and so lean.
James Dean, you said it all so clean,
And I know my life would look all right,
If I could see it on the silver screen.                _{--Jackson Browne, The Eagles}

Hardly a Field of Dreams, or even a Nathaniel Hawthorne setting, Winton Dean and Mildred Wilson's home, the Seven Gables Apartment Complex on the corner of Fourth and McClure Streets in Marion, Indiana, a couple of blocks from the county lockup, was where their baby, named James Byron Dean, was born. This nativity, via a farmer's daughter, after less than three hours of labor, was on a date many fans do not remember as well as his death: February 8, 1931. In one source it states that the parents married quickly after the birth, and even forged their certificate to 1929! James, was named after the dentist, Dr. Amick (Emmick ?), where the father, Winton now worked; and a friend, Bryon Vice, inspired Dean's middle name, not Lord George Gordon Byron as some purported, (you might think that when you learn how Dean and his mother loved poetry, okay, and Byron was born on February 8!).  The father had bettered himself from his previous employment in agricultural work to becoming a dental technician, and it was in this environment that James Dean started a short life of lasting fame.

Wond'rin' who he might be:
Along came a spyder and picked up a rider,
And took him down the road to eternity.......

James Dean, James Dean, you bought it sight unseen --

You were too fast to live, too young to die, bye-bye,
You were to fast to live, too young to die, bye-bye!
Bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye, bye, bye....!                _{--Jackson Browne, The Eagles}

After Dean was born, the couple moved from what is now a mecca-like shrine, Marion, to another smaller one, 10 miles down the road, Fairmont. Within the next four years they moved four times, the last time in a home near his aunt and uncle, Marcus and Ortense Winslow's farm. They moved again in mid-1935 to Santa Monica, California, where his skill as dental technician, or mechanic, was needed at Sawtelle Veterans Hospital. The young James was enrolled in the Brentwood Public School and he live there until 1940. That was the year, on April 14th, his mother, only 29, succumbed to uterine cancer, too far advanced by the time it was discovered. His mother had been helping her son by letting have tap dance and violin lessons at the Marion College of Dance and Theater Arts. They even started a puppet theater together, needless to say, James Dean was badly hurt by his mother's passing.  Barely making ends meet, Winton could not even afford to attend his wife's funeral back in Fairmount.

What is the worst of woes that wait on age?
What stamps the wrinkle deeper on the brow?
To view each loved one blotted from life's page,
And be alone on earth, as I am now. _{-- Byron, from "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage"}

The father did not want to be a hard-up single parent, so off James went -- back to the Winslow's farm, riding the train with Grandmother Emma Dean. Winton Dean's brother-in-law were Quakers, or Friends, descended from English stock that had founded that town as an anti-slavery haven.  There were some later allegations that James had been seduced by one of the Quaker ministers, Reverend James DeWeerd, when he was 11. He shared and passed on his interest in cars and theater to the young Dean. Another story is how James broke out his two front teeth. One account is falling from the loft in his uncle's barn, another from a motorbike wreck. James, (more often known to those close as Jimmy) started out at Fairmount West Ward (originally the Old Academy, founded by Quakers) until entering Fairmount High School, where even their teams were called the Quakers. The school still celebrates the game that won the Championship with James' winning shot exactly at the buzzer.

Still looking for that blue jean, baby queen,
Prettiest girl I ever seen,
See her shake on the movie screen,
Jimmy Dean...
(James Dean)

And where do we go from here?
Which is the way that's clear?
Still looking for that blue jean, baby queen,
Prettiest girl I ever seen.
See her shake on the movie screen,
Jimmy Dean...
Jimmy Dean...
Rock on!
                    _{--David Essex}

Fast forward to graduation day, 1949, where Dean is 20th out of 49 in his class, and was an average student except for sports, art, band, and most prophetically, drama. Not only was he the basketball Letterman, he pole vaulted, and played baseball.  Adeline Nall was Dean's drama teacher (and she taught Spanish, French, and Speech), and his first appearance was in Mooncalf Mugford, in 1947, and then had starring roles in An Apple from Coles County, The Monkey's Paw, and You Can't Take it With You. Ms. Nall was instrumental in molding something out of the somewhat reserved "clay" dug out of a true hurting persona. He was a national speech finalist going to Longmont, Colorado, and he recited from Charles Dickens' The Pickwick Papers, "The Madman." Some blame him coming in only in sixth place because he refused to shorten his reading, as per Ms. Nall's request, that he previously used in making first place in the Indiana State Contest qualifying for the national Forensic League -- .

A silent look of affection and regard when all other eyes are turned coldly away--the consciousness that we possess the sympathy and affection of one being when all others have deserted us--is a hold, a stay, a comfort, in the deepest affliction, which no wealth could purchase, or power bestow.                    _{--Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers}

One would think James Dean would become a Hoosier that Fall of 1949, but as the Mamas and the Papas declared, "California Dreamin' was becoming a reality."  Coming back temporarily with his father and stepmother, near Los Angeles, he entered Santa Monica City College for pre-law in 1950. He even pledged at the Sigma Nu fraternity, but, in spite of displeasing his father, he transferred in the next semester of 1950 to the University of California, Los Angeles to scratch the bite of the acting bug. This argument, of whether or not to tolerate his son's Theater Arts major, Winton won, and James was without financial support or housing. This estrangement would be lifelong.

At first there was some promise using his new career, like his first pro acting role, the 1950 Pepsi commercial, for producer Ben Alcock of the Milton Biow Agency, that paid him thirty bucks. He is the guy who gets the party going around the Pianola, singing, “Pepsi Cola Hits the Spot!” He followed this by a helping as stunt tester on the Bud Collyer hosted Beat the Clock game show. He had to make sure that the two couples, even with housewives in high heels, pre-selected from the studio audience could actually perform the minute tasks involving messy items and Rube Golberg-type props. He beat out 350 other prospects for his first and last acting role at UCLA playing Malcolm in MacBeth.

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. _{--William Shakespeare, Macbeth}

 He had to quit UCLA in 1951, and his financial situation worsened as the Hollywood jobs became more scarce, unless one counts parking cars at the CBS studios lot. It was at this time that he roomed with William Bast, an usher at CBS at this time, later a screenwriter.  Bast wrote a book in 1956, James Dean: A biography based on his experience which included supposedly a special intimate knowledge of him.  Bast came out of the closet, bringing Dean with him in another book in 1976, Surviving James Dean. He reveals that Dean maybe got hooked up with a "Chicken Hawk" older man, so he "...paid his dues." He confesses: "In it among other things I am including everything the law and my faint heart didn't allow me to say in 1956, when I published my first bio of Dean - the one Gore Vidal refers to as my 'baby-book'."

If you're down and confused,
And you don't remember who you're talking too.
Concentration... slips away,
Cause your baby is so far away.

Well there's a rose in the fisted glove,
And eagle flies with the dove,
And if you can't be with the one you love honey,
Love the one you're with.
_{--Stephen Stills}

Why another writer (Germaine Greer, The Guardian --2005,) who adds her two cents on Dean's closeted homosexuality, thought the Pepsi ad was his cab fare to New York, I am not sure, but maybe her research was incomplete: as that commercial was not his only work in Hollywood before leaving. Another witness (who played Jerry Seinfeld's mother) had a tell all book, Liz Sheridan's 2000 Dizzy and Jimmy, in which the 20 year-old dancer was Dean's love life in NYC, and living together She states he also demonstrated, "...the full bag of neuroses that came with him. Vile moods, interminable silences, anger, guilt and tantrums." How convenient, or otherwise, that there are no pictures of them together, and the supposed love letters were destroyed after Jimmy's demise.

What is the end of Fame? 'tis but to fill
A certain portion of uncertain paper:
Some liken it to climbing up a hill,
Whose summit, like all hills, is lost in vapour:
For this men write, speak, preach, and heroes kill,
And bards burn what they call their "midnight taper,"
To have, when the original is dust,
A name, a wretched picture, and worse bust. _{--Byron, from "Don Juan"}

In 1951, there were a couple of miniscule opportunities in films for James Dean, before he decided to throw in the towel.  First he played the GI 'Doggie' in a bit, or should I say itty bitty, un-credited part in a Samuel Fuller directed Korean War drama, Fixed Bayonets. (Richard Basehart, the lead actor has been forgotten through time, but not James Dean.) He actually had a speaking part, emitting, "It's a rear guard coming back." It wound up on the cutting floor. He played, (do not blink), a football fan filmed at Pomona College in a John Wayne sports muckraking, Trouble Along the Way (released in 1953). It had Donna Reed, Leif Erickson and Chuck Connors, James Dean should not feel bad he was not credited, neither was Merv Griffin as the football announcer.  Then he was in a boxing scene in Sailor Beware, a comedy vehicle (or should I say ship) directed by Hal Walker for Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. This movie, which also featured Betty Hutton grossed 27,000,000.00 dollars worldwide in 1952, holding the record -- if one uses real dollars. He is also the 'Youth at Soda Fountain' in Has Anybody Seen My Gal? directed by Douglas Sirk and starring Piper Laurie with Rock Hudson, the latter of whom he will be with again just a few short years in his future.

I started out on burgundy,
But soon hit the harder stuff.
Everybody said they’d stand behind me
When the game got rough.
But the joke was on me,
There was nobody even there to call my bluff.
I’m going back to New York City,
I do believe I’ve had enough.
                   _{--Bob Dylan, "Positively 4th Street"}

They say networking and references are important in launching one's career, and fortunately for Dean, a few comrades like radio director Rogers Brackett, and actor James Whitmore, all suggested he go to the real core of acting -- the Big Apple.  So, in 1951 he left for New York City, where the 21 year old enrolled in and after intense auditions he, and new girl friend Christine White, beat out 150 applicants and was admitted to the Actors Studio to be tutored under the great Lee Strasberg, so sternly strict he was nicknamed, "the Archbishop". It was where Russian director Konstantin Stanislavski's "Method Acting" was emphasized, whereby one's past trauma "sense memory" can be brought to bear, thus perfect for Dean. Paul Newman, Eli Wallach, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Marilyn Monroe, Shelly Winters, Marlon Brando, and Montgomery Cliff became successes with it. With the latter two comrades, he would become friends, Brando an obsession. Eventually Dean would be miffed to be compared to Marlon. To be chastised by Stasberg was one thing, but in front of Wallach and Monroe -- his face turned white after he was laid into during Dean's bullfight scene, with, "What are you trying to show us? ... that was an exercise---not a scene." He was mortified, and threw his cape down unceremoniously, leaving under an oath of not returning. He confided to Bast later,

I don't know what happens when I act.... But if I let them dissect me like a rabbit in a laboratory I might not be able to produce again. That man had no right to tear me down like that. You keep knocking a guy down like that and you take the guts away from him. And what's an actor without guts?

But Dean once admitted that he had some other teachers: "Studying cows, pigs and chickens can help an actor develop his character. There are a lot of things I learned from animals. One was that they couldn't hiss or boo me." Emulating Brando from A Streetcar Named Desire, he would rehearse lines from that Tennessee Williams' play, probably helped him develop his craft. He was known to have pictures of Brando in his home.

 

One of his residences was near Manhattan's Central Park West at 19 West 68th Street. He was known for carrying bongos everywhere he went. He became closer friends with that young actor, Christine White, (A Hat Full of Rain on Broadway), and she said of him, "Jimmy was an impulsive, immediate creature, he could look at a delicatessen window and suddenly start waving at a bowl of prunes like they were alive.  He was childish in a charming way." She also reminded everyone that James Dean was basically blind without his glasses, which some, but not all pictures exhibit, depending whether what kind of poseur he wanted to be.

Start spreading the news,
I am leaving today.
I want to be a part of it,
New York, New York.

He began to find work right away, and that same year he arrived, on March 25, he landed a short part as the Apostle John the Beloved in Family Theatre's, "Hill Number One," where soldiers in Korea contemplate another one of many deadly nameless hills, philosophizing about war, life and death. Produced by Father Patrick Peyton, it tells how a preacher arrives on the scene and reminds them of that old, old story about another hill, Golgotha, also called Mount Calvary, where Jesus Christ was crucified for all who would believe. It was broadcast nationwide on Easter. He would go through a lean summer and early fall until October 29 when he was in CBS Bigelow Theatre's  "T.K.O." and Martin Milner of Route 66 fame co-starred. Martin Milner was with him again as Drexel, on the Stu Erwin Show, airing December 7, in "Jackie Knows All", Dean was Randy.

My little town blues,
They are melting away.
I gonna make a brand new start of it,
In old New York.

If I can make it there,
I'll make it anywhere.
It's up to you,
New York, New York!                           _{--Fred Ebb}

1952 proved to be very productive, after being a GI again in January 27th's "Into the Valley," for CBS Television Workshop, he had work in February 20th's The Web's presentation of "Sleeping Dogs", he is young man sleuthing his brother's murder. The drama also featured E.G. Marshall.  He then had guest appearance March 3rd as a bellboy on Westinghouse's Studio One in their "Ten Thousand Horses Singing."  Ten days later he was in Lux Video Theatre's "The Foggy, Foggy Dew." In "Abraham Lincoln" presented by CBS Studio One on May 26, he was a soldier again, albeit a court-martialed one. He got a part in "The Forgotten Children," showcased on NBC's Hallmark Hall of Fame, on 22nd of June, that documented educator Martha Berry, who established of Mount Berry, a Georgia sanctuary for Appalachia. In this he also shared the small screen with Cloris Leachman.

By this time in 1952, William Bast had joined Dean in New York. Dean was glad to play the tour guide and employment agent for Bast. He wanted to share how much he matured, "I've discovered a whole new world here, a whole new way of thinking.... This town's the end. It's talent that counts here. You've got to stay with it or get lost. I like it." William Bast also revealed later:

In New York we became roommates again and devoted ourselves to the pursuit of our separate careers.
I got a job in the Press Relations department at CBS on Madison Avenue. After almost nine months I suddenly, surprisingly, found myself writing for network television on a dare, a dare that paid off. At 23 I was turning out scripts for NBC's television sitcom, "The Aldrich Family". Heady with my modest early success, I left Jimmy in New York and returned to Los Angeles, which was fast becoming the nation’s principal center of television production. There, after a fruitless period of waiting for the phone to ring, I finally found myself writing for more television series.

He got into the Broadway inner circle by his staying with Roger Brackett, working on the yacht of his friend, Lemuel Ayers, set designer, now producer of Jaguar. It was not until Ayers got to see Dean work, literally learning the nautical ropes, that he even considered Dean ready for the big time. With disappointment on the horizon, Dean thought it was a good time for an Indiana homecoming, so inviting Bast to go hitchhiking there, they enjoyed the heartland at the Winslows' farm until that New York phone call. They had to hitchhike back, but, Good news: on December 03, 1952, N. Richard Nash's play, See the Jaguar opened with Dean in the lead, co-starred Arthur Kennedy and Constance Ford, at NYC's Broadway Cort Theatre. Now for the bad news: a few days later on the 6th, it closed. Now Ayers' money backers thought the worst of the rookie producer's efforts, thus the reason it faded. Reviewers panned the play, but complemented Dean's art.

 

Television still had work for James Dean when 1953 rolled around, when The Kate Smith Hour on NBC put him in a role as a Heavenly messenger in ("The Waltons") Earl Hamner, Jr.'s  "The Hound of Heaven," January 15, with John Carradine. He never let up on his dance lessons, which included ballet in New York continuing them with instructor Katherine Dunham.

His other work in 1953:

• January 29: he portrayed Randy Meeker in NBC's broadcast of "The Case of the Watchful Dog," in Treasury Men in Action, written by prolific ("Ironsides", "Have Gun Will Travel", and more) TV screenwriter, Albert Aley.
• February 8: He was ready to be part of history , in You are There on CBS, where Walter Chronkite puts the viewer into sort of a time machine, where James Dean plays Bob Ford in "The Killing of Jesse James."
• April 14: He was reunited with Kate Smith, both in a CRT version of film noir directed by Sidney Lumet, in "No Room," Danger on CBS.
• April 16: Albert Aley's "The Case of the Sawed-Off Shotgun," NBC's Treasury Men in Action, Dean is Arbie Ferris, and acts with Ben Gazzara.
• May 1: "The Evil Within," Tales of Tomorrow on ABC. He is cast as lab assistant Ralph working with Rod Steiger.
• July 17: "Something for an Empty Briefcase," Campbell Soundstage on NBC, James Dean is ex-convict Joe Adams
• August 17: "Sentence of Death," Summer Studio One -- CBS, 1953. His character is in serious trouble as death row prisoner Joe Palica.
• August 25: CBS, "Death is My Neighbor," Danger, James Dean assumes the place of a psychotic janitor, J.B.
• September 11: "Rex Newman," The Big Story -- NBC {there would be a huge one on a 9/11 later}.
• October 4: "Glory in the Flower," CBS's great show Omnibus. He is Bronco Evans an angst-filled troubled juvenile delinquent just released on bail for Marijuana. He is a tougher character than many of the ones for which he would be type-cast, spouting, "I'm not gonna take orders from you. Nobody's gonna tell me what to do." This is a show that started with Alistair Cooke dropping a nickel into the juke box to play Bill Haley and the Comets' "Crazy, Man, Crazy" for television's first Rock and Roll. James Dean starts the action by dancing to it, the movie ends with the song as well. You can see a younger Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, too. The Writer with his first production, was William Inge (Pulitzer prize "Picnic").

  When I go out and I want a treat,
  I find me a band with a solid beat.
  Take my chick and we dance about,
  When they start rockin',
  Boy we start to shout (we shout).
  Go, go, go everybody,
  
  They play it soft, they play it strong,
  They play it wild and they play it long.
  They just keep playin till the break of day,
  To keep them rockin all you gotta say is:
  Crazy man crazy,
  Oh man that music's gone, gone!                          _{--Bill Haley}

• October 14: "Keep Our Honor Bright," Kraft Television Theatre -- NBC. Dean is Jim, and also featured Bradford Dillman. This story was penned by George Roy Hill, who would later be known for a big list of movies: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 1969, Slaughterhouse-Five, 1972, The Sting, 1973, and The World According to Garp, 1982
• October 16: "Life Sentence," Campbell Soundstage -- NBC, Dean is in legally entangled again playing imprisoned felon Hank Bradon.
• November 11: "A Long Time Till Dawn," Kraft Television Theatre -- NBC. They cast James Dean as Joe Harris. This screenplay was done by Twilight Zone's Rod Serling.
• November 17: "The Bells of Cockaigne," Armstrong Circle Theatre -- NBC. He plays stevedore Joey Frasier, co-star, Gene Lockhart
• November 23: "Harvest," Robert Montgomery Presents --NBC. Dean takes the role of Paul Zelenka. There is a vignette by silent film star Dorothy Gish and see an early Ed Begley.

Why did you go and crash up your new car?
Jimmy Jimmy, oh Jimmy Jimmy.
Is it because it didn't take you too far?
Jimmy Jimmy, oh Jimmy Jimmy

Why do you always have such a sad face?
Jimmy Jimmy, oh Jimmy Jimmy.
Is it because you want to get out of this place?
Jimmy Jimmy, oh Jimmy Jimmy!

You're much too wild for this town,
There's not much here that's gonna hold you down.
You gotta lotta style it should take you far,
Take you further than my back yard.

Jimmy Jimmy, oh Jimmy Jimmy!                   _--Madonna

February 8 of 1954, Dean had his second Broadway job opening on his 23rd birthday, cast as Bachir, the blackmailing Arab gigolo houseboy in André Gide's autobiographically inspired, The Immoralist, (L'Immoraliste). The production which addressed repressed homosexuality also starred Louis Jourdan and Geraldine Page. Though he left after two weeks into its run --that went until May-- because a contractual spat with the producer, he received the Bloom Award as "Best Newcomer." Director Fred Zinnemann about this time this year had considered Dean for the lead in Oklahoma!, and he did great in his audition at the Sherry-Netherland Hotel, a role cajoling suicide from Rod Steiger who was villain Jud, but his lack of singing ended that. He had arrived at the hotel with funky cowboy attire as Curly and was ejected and had to convince them to let him back in.

Elia Kazan's curiosity was piqued by the positive reviews in the press ("...a talent to be watched"), and the On the Waterfront, (1951) andViva Zapata(1952) promoter of "Method" and Brando sought Dean for his upcoming project. That, of course would be John Steinbeck's East of Eden, and Dean looked perfect for the role of Caleb "Cal" Trask, the sullen brother, as opposed to the behaved Aron, played by 19 year old Richard Davalos. Raymond Massey was going to be the stubborn "Old School" father, Adam Trask. After Dean did his screen test one was also done for Paul Newman, a potential for some of the roles, but at 29 the younger Dean won out, even over the rising star Brando. Marlon felt like an older brother, liking Dean and irritated by his adulation, too. Dean even bought a Triumph too, a 500 cc TR-5 Trophy. Turkish born (1909) Elia Kazanjoglous, also known as the "actors' director", understood these artists, as he had been one himself in a couple of films. In the 1941, Blues in the Night, he is a fascinating jazz blues musician, Nickie Haroyen. Kazan would eventually produce six and direct twenty movies; and write the screenplay for several, including 1969's The Arrangement.

A whoo-ee-duh whoo-ee
Ol' clickety clack's a-echoin' back
...the blues in the night
(Hum)
My mama was right, there's blues in the night!                    _{--Cab Calloway}

James Dean flew out La Guardia to LAX March 8, 1954 to begin that rocket ride rising higher and faster with producer and director Elia Kazan's mother hen-like love and rooster-like hold over the wild youngster. Kazan accompanied Dean to visit his prodigal father, and he witnessed in person the father's thorn in the side relationship. Kazan even had him room with Davalos, and then in a trailer nearer by to keep Dean from living out his reputation (Dean bought right away a crimson track ready MG-TD) before getting his 1200 dollars a week worth out of him. Dean moved a bit later into a one room apartment above a Sunset Strip garage, he dubbed, "...a wastepaper basket with walls." "Gadge" Kazan, thought Dean was too skinny and long-haired to be a farm hand, so he not only wants him, despite Jimmy's objections, drinking cream, flocks cropped, but also to get a tan in Palm Springs. Dean gets to visit his idol, Brando on the set of Désirée.

Please stay in my love house by the river.
Fast talkin' guys with strange red eyes,
Have put things in your head,
And started your mind to wonderin',
I love you so, please don't go.
Please stay here with me in Mendocino. _{--Sir Douglas Quintet}

  Shooting begins May 1954 on East of Eden, locations are in California, a few in the book's setting of Monterey, Salinas and Mendocino, when not in Burbank's soundstage. It was going to be done in Warnerscope, their version of the 2.55 : 1 aspect ratio similar to CinemaScope that was a TV buster. Kazan wanted extreme closeups, so cinematographer Ted McCord did some 'Dutch tilts' to offset the distortion. Kazan was almost fanatical in his production, he actually rented a real Ferris wheel and borrowed Disney's crane for romantic shots. The story was a bizarre one about a Father's unloved son discovering and then getting money from his prostitute mother played by Jo Van Fleet to invest in bean futures. To do justice to Steinbeck's drama (the writer and director were friends), Kazan manipulated the actors' personalities to get the maximum effect of these characters in polarity. One is Dean, the Cain-like villain, Cal, who has to oppose Davalos, the favored brother, and Able-like Aron. He basically sets Raymond Massey up playing Adam the father, the kind of actor who goes by the script, hitting his marks. This animosity strengthened against Dean, who Massey despised on and off camera. Dean as Cal in his off the cuff style Massey hated, volunteers to help Adam, but the father answers,

Son -- I'd be happy if you'd give me something like, well, like your brother's given me, something honest and human and good... If you want to give me a present, give me a good life. That's something I could value.

After these line, Dean goes and embraces, ad-libbed, a bewildered Massey. Massey showed his real emotions, mostly angry, for Dean's impromptu 'method' on screen, and Kazan deliberately left it, as he quips:

You think I'd do anything to stop that antagonism? No, I increased it. It was the central thing, the hatred they felt for each other--that's precious!

Dean was encouraged by Kazan to fire up the frigid Massey by knowingly being crudely blasphemous to him in a read involving a Bible recitation...it worked, almost too well, as afterwards Massey left in a huff, talking lawsuits. And he pits Davalos and Jimmy, too they got into their roles so closely even as Davalos recalled, "...to the teeth. It crept into our social life. He would do something and I would reject him, and he would follow me down the street about twenty paces behind." He thought Dean really hated him after a punching incident scene on him. Julie Harris had to soothe the crying Richard Davalos afterwards. The director himself confessed about Dean, "It was almost psychotic. He was exactly like the people you see in insane asylums." But he liked his spontaneity, "He'd do anything to be good. He was way open. ...actually like a kid," better for that rural character than Brando, too. He seemed to be hard on Dean's case, especially when he seemed to ego-trip at others' expense, even thought to dislike Jimmy, but Kazan revealed:

You can't not like a guy with that much pain in him....You know how a dog will be mean and snarl at you, then you pat him, and he's all over you with affection? That's the way Dean was.

Julie Harris who plays Aron's betrothed, Abra, and on whom Cal has got a crush, is asked also asked by the director to be a kind of emotional support for Dean, and Kazan explained:

I doubt that Jimmy Dean would ever have got through East of Eden except for an angel on our set. Her name was Julie Harris, and she was the soul of goodness with Dean -- kind and patient and everlastingly sympathetic.

Julie Harris was kidded by Jimmy as being a square, so she took his dare to ride in his new wheels, "C'mon, I'm going to take you for a ride in my new MG." She reminisced:

And he took me for a ride that I thought would be my last, up in the Hollywood hills and so fast that my heart was in my throat, but instead of saying to him, "Slow down, Jimmy," I didn't say anything. I was, like, "Whe-e-e-e-e!" As long as I didn't say, "Hey, don't go so fast!," I was a comrade. And after that we just always got on. He knew I was in his corner. I wasn't attracted to him, I loved Jimmy's spirit, but I didn't want to 'make' him. We were comrades.

Dean was scared to do a scene on a steep roof with Harris, and Kazan used profuse amounts of alcohol to loosen him up. Throughout his career, Dean was alleged to skip bathroom breaks to get that nervous energy on screen. There was also a cut scene where Aron lovingly handles one of Abra's shoes in her bedroom while she sleeps. Dean easily became Cal because he showed true rebellion as Kazan toldl it:

Dean was scarcely at the Studio at all. He came in only a few times. I remember him sitting in the front row, a surly mess. He never participated in anything.

At this time Dean was in an interesting geometry socially. He went out with Mila Nurmi, also striptease dancer, later famous for Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959) and being the TV horror movie hostess, Vampira. Another anonymous girl met him at Googie's, a restaurant for the thrifty minded...and Dean was notoriously cheap, and he got her address and she recalls:

 

Twenty minutes later, my doorbell rang. I opened the door and there was Jimmy. He'd brought his bongo drums. He came in, sat down, started playing, and didn't stop for almost three hours. During all that time, we hardly exchanged a word. When he finished, he picked himself up as abruptly as he'd come and left. I never saw him again.

But while filming East of Eden he met and began dating Italian born Pier Angeli (Somebody Up There Likes Me -1956). She would supposedly be the love of his life: But things get tangled from here, Marlon Brando was a roommate with Sid Gilman (One-Eyed Jacks, Missouri Breaks) , and Josanne Berenger was Brando's main squeeze, and she had a house-guest, Ursula Andress (Doctor No). Sam Gilman reveals something interesting in these strange relationships with Marlon Brando, women like Ursula Andress, Pier Angeli, and James Dean:

Marlon told me that he was dating two young women and Pier Angeli, and he was going to marry one of them and keep the other one as his mistress, but I haven’t decided which one is going to be cast in the role of the long-suffering wife and which one is going to be cast as the lucky mistress who gets the diamonds, the mink coats, and me.

When asked about James Dean dating both Andress and Angeli, Marlon told Gilman,

Yes, that is precisely why I’m interested. I have to keep showing Jimmy boy who’s the real man in our relationship. I’m practically driving that boy to suicide....She's {Andress} more woman than Jimmy can handle.

He wrote several letters to an another girl (3 sold at Christie's $ 36,000), he knew in a yo yo way, back in The Big Apple with Martin Landau, Barbara Glenn. The first, with doodles on it, was written back in January the 10th - postmarked Philadelphia, where he called The Immoralist, "Probably a monster success; but to me it’s still a piece of sh*t." And, adjuring her, "Please write to me darling.... Please come and see me, Love Jim." In one dated April 26, 1954, he admits to her poignantly, “Must I always be miserable? I try so hard to make people reject me.” His other answers her letter on the 7th, and he fusses about somebody exploiting her, "You know how I am about stuff like that. But g**amn it honey with all the gory detail... when I get hold of that son of a bitch... ...$8000 to see you in a bathing suit, boy that’s sellin’ out cheap. You’ve got no g**amn respect for yourself... ...love Jim." The third was postmarked May 19, 1954, is he breaking up with her when he writes:

Darling, I haven’t written because I have fallen in love. It had to happen sooner or later. Its not a very good picture of him but that's "Cisco the Kid," the new member of the family. He gives me confidence. He makes my hands and my heart strong... May use him in the movie. I’m very lonely. Your card smelled so good, please don’t do that. (dirty trick, I’m still a California virgin. I hate this place).

No, his love interest, his Palomino horse, which he had bought when he first arrived.

 

  Also, when not on the set, Dean relaxed by hanging around at Hamburger Hamlet, drumming at clubs, playing chess, reading books, including poetry, enjoying his Jazz, Judy Garland, and Frank Sinatra records, , playing Bach on his wood recorder, and loved other classical music, like Béla Bartók, and Igor Stravinsky. He remembered his piano teacher's music, Leonard Rosenman, who additionally, was another of Jimmy's New York roommates. Rosenman, an understudy of Schoenberg's and his 12-tone specialty, and Emmy winner for Sybil (1976), and Friendly Fire (1979), was naturally recommended to do the movie's soundtrack. 

After ten weeks of drama, on and off screen, they "wrapped" on August 9th that year. (His relationship with Pier Angeli would be too, she might have broken his heart when she married Vic Damone November 24, 1954 instead. Supposedly, Mama Pierangeli and la familgia did not approve of the crazy non-Roman Catholic boy. Her marriage lasted two years before divorce, and two years after her second divorce in 1971 she swallowed a whole bottle of "Reds.") She once said something pathetically prophetic:

We used to go together to the California coast and stay there secretly in a cottage on a beach far away from all 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. Sometimes we would just go for a walk along the beach, not actually speaking, but communicating our love silently to each other.

We had 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.

It wasn’t that we wanted to commit suicide. We loved our life, and it was just that we wanted to be that close to each other always.

Dean's first major film would not debut until April 5, 1955.

 

He still found time, before and afterwords, to do some television work in 1954:

• March 30: "The Little Woman," Danger (CBS). Dean portrays Augie, a counterfeiter running from the law.
• September 5: "Run Like a Thief," Philco Television Playhouse (NBC). Dean plays Rob, Written by Sam Hall.
• November 9: "Padlock," Danger (CBS). Dean is an incarcerated felon again, but he breaks out.
• November 14: "I'm a Fool," General Electric Theatre (CBS). Dean as a racetrack stable-boy; also Eddie Albert, Natalie Wood.
• December 12: "The Dark, Dark Hour," General Electric Theatre (CBS). They cast Dean as a "hepcat" killer. He is in this with no other than Ronald Reagan (Who called Dean, "America's Rebel").

He starts out 1955, on January 4th finding work in television again playing Fernand Legarde in the ABC U.S. Steel Hour's "The Thief," and produced by The Theatre Guild. Silent movie actress Mary Astor (Beau Brummel (1924), and Maltese Falcon (1941) Was in it as well. On May 6, on CBS Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, the 24 year old had his last television appearance in "The Unlighted Road," as Korean War Vet, Jeff Latham. But because of his other roles, he was now type cast, and was ready in early 1955 to be the most famous,Rebel Without a Cause as Jim Stark. Warner brothers continued his contract guaranteeing a minimum of fifteen thousand dollars for each of nine pictures over a six-year period, and he would be allowed to do any TV, and, in a year he could go back to Broadway stage work. Nicholas Ray had done a synopsis storyboard originally titled, The Blind Run of Stewart Stern's screenplay from Irving Shulman's version of a true story by psychiatric Doctor Robert Lindner. It was his 1944 factual book titled Rebel Without a Cause: The Story of a Criminal Psychopath. Ray was brought into the project after earlier ideas of using Marlon Brando faded.

When he holds my hand, I'm so proud
'Cause he's not just one of the crowd
Why is he always the one
To try the things they've never done?
And just because of that, they say:

"He's a rebel and he'll never ever be any good.
He's a rebel 'cause he never ever does what he should."
_{--Gene Pitney}

This re-working and reviewing of the story cost them months before starting shooting in March, and studio executives were not enthusiastic or optimistic, either. Ray, who once studied in Chicago under Frank Lloyd Wright, and after radio play writing, was Kazan's understudy. Shulman and Ray actually interviewed juvenile delinquents to try to get a different angle to help America understand those that went from bobby socks, skirts, and penny loafers to their blatant substitution with, cigarettes, blue jeans and leather jackets. I guess they still went to the "Hop", albeit with switchblades. They even obtained consultation from an ex-thug, Frank Mazzola. Shulman's memorable addition was the "Chickie Run" car race toward the cliff scene. They decide to do this like an episode of 24, a kind of Greek Tragedy without togas. Leonard Rosenman would naturally be tapped for the score, who can be seen and heard in his name's link.

After the reviews after East of Eden opened, especially TIME's, came in that April, it boosted Dean's career, and the money Warners threw into this new James Dean vehicle. They would up the ante from a lower budget black and white affair to color. So, contrary to myth, Dean would have a bright red jacket, not black, or leather. David Weisbart would be the producer, who later was responsible for Elvis' first, Love Me Tender, and three more. He was also the guy that brought you Them -- giant ants, and Valley of the Dolls. Dean's weekly pay would be $1,250 for no less than 10 weeks. Dean plopped four thousand dollars on a white Porsche 356 Speedster to hit the track, again.

Nicholas Ray established an especially good rapport with his new protegé, socializing and asking for Dean's input on casting and other essentials of the production. They tried out 300 young men for the roles by having them run up the bleachers. The winners were not the first to the top, but the ones with "'tudes". (Howard W. Polsky wrote in 1962 about troubled kids in a "Diamond" of hierarchy analyzed in Cottage Six. This oft cited source explains that there are: leaders, lieutenants, members, status seekers and victims). Of course for the love interest, Judy, he wanted his old gal Chris White, but the studios wanted Debbie Reynolds, Ray wanted Carroll Baker, and Natalie Wood (who at 43 drowned off Robert Wagner's yacht in '81) wanted the part badly. Who would think a car accident would be the catalyst to securing a part. When the police investigated her Dennis Hopper the driver, afraid what her father would say, she gave Nicholas Ray's number. She took advantage imploring Ray, "Nick, they called me a g**damn juvenile delinquent, now do I get the part?" After winning the role, Jack Warner maintained she would still need time with Voice coach, Nina Moise. Perhaps the most out of the box thing was Nicholas Ray making Dean's character's room exactly like the one he had as a kid. Out of that personnel pool, Dean finally concurred that Sal Mineo would be ideal to play the "touched" scooter riding Plato, passing up his Googie's pal, Jack Simmons. Dennis Hopper wound up in a secondary role as gangbanger, "Goon." Sal Mineo, Oscar nominated in this for best supporting actor (also Exodus, 1960), would be another of this cast that died early and mysteriously, in 1976 the 37 year old, was fatally stabbed.

Dean brought another date with him to Palm Springs, Lili Kardell competed in a race. He won because another driver noted he was, "The kind that comes from a desperate desire to win. He was a menace to himself and other drivers. He would take any kind of chance to be first." He was to begin shooting the morrow, Monday, March 28.

Kids!
I don't know what's wrong with these kids today!
Kids!
Who can understand anything they say?
Kids!
They disobedient, disrespectful oafs!
Noisy, crazy, dirty, lazy, loafers!
While we're on the subject:
Kids!
You can talk and talk till your face is blue!
Kids!
But they still just do what they want to do!

Why can't they be like we were,
Perfect in every way?
What's the matter with kids today?

Kids!
I've tried to raise him the best I could.
Kids! Kids!
Laughing, singing, dancing, grinning, morons!
And while we're on the subject:
Kids! They are just impossible to control!
Kids! With their awful clothes and their rock an' roll!
Why can't they dance like we did?

What's wrong with Sammy Kaye?
What's the matter with kids today?! _{--Lee Adams (Bye Bye Birdie)}

 Right from the opening of this Five Act pseudo-Shakespearean drama,, Dean's character, Jimmy, will set the tone in the "Night Court" scene. In-fighting middle-class parents (Jim Backus and Ann Doran) and grandmother, all who have had to newly moved here because of Jimmy's school expulsion, come to take their boy home after sobering up in the holding tank. Dean swaggers in unsteadily while juvenile officer, Ray (Edward Platt) discerns the sources of Jimmy's problem.

Frank Stark: We give you love and affection, don't we? Well, then, what is it? Was it because we went to that party? Well, you know what kind of drunken brawls those kind of parties turn into. It's not a place for kids.

Mrs. Carol Stark: A minute ago, you said you didn't care if he drinks.

Mrs. Stark, Jim's grandmother: He said a little drink.

Jim Stark: You're tearing me apart!

Mrs. Carol Stark: shocked What?

Jim Stark: You, you say one thing, he says another, and everybody changes back again!

Mrs. Carol Stark: That's a fine way to behave!

Mrs. Stark, Jim's grandmother: Well, you know who he takes after.

Jimmy, instead of being able to start with a clean slate in his new school starting the following day, has hard choices to make when confronting the jealous young buck bully, (“This is the test, man. It’s a crazy game!) ”Buzz (Corey Allen, Emmy, dir. Hill St. Blues) because his girl friend, Judy, who has her own problems with Dad (William Hopper), has been talking to the new kid in town. Asking her whether her house is where she lives, she answers, "Who lives?" He plays hero for Plato, standing up to the school bullies, and makes a strong bond. To assuage the gang and increase his stature with Buzz after the knife incident (Dean insisted on real knives) at Griffith Park Observatory -- during a school trip! That same park was where Dean filmed that first gig for Pepsi. Jimmy lies about being experienced in the game of Chicken in speeding stolen vehicles. He turns to his buddy, "Plato, what's a Chickie-run?" Buzz's jacket gets hung up on the door handle, and he proves accidentally to not be a jump-out-of-the-car coward with his life. With Judy and Plato (both played by 16 year-olds) his only friends after the gang blamed Jimmy, and family life not supportive, Jimmy becomes the nurturing part of their life at their hidepout at J. Paul Getty's abandoned mansion that was on 641 Irving Boulevard. Unfortunately, Plato has to learn the hard way that Jimmy cannot really replace a parent. Jimmy echoed some of Dean's hurts when he agnonizes, “If I had one day…when…when I didn’t have to be all confused. And I didn’t have to feel that I was ashamed of everything. If I felt that I belonged someplace.” They worry about the end of the world while up at the observatory. Jimmy states, "You can wake up now, the universe has ended." In the abandoned mansion where they hang out, Plato has his mother's borrowed gun, and after some police involvement, Plato gets shot, and Jimmy's parents are relieved to find their son alive, and meet girlfriend Judy.

 

There is a funny back story where Dean does a bassy mumbling Mister Magoo impression on set, (Backus did those cartoon voice overs), and some Warner execs complained, "Couldn't you at least do Warner's Bugs Bunny instead?" Another one was the ignored memo by Warners, "Minors cannot work at night except under emergency conditions ... and this picture is approximately 80 percent night." Was Kazan sympathetic to these angst-filled teens? Well, he said they were, "...self-pitying, self-dramatizing, and good-for-nothing." The sale of T-shirts, jeans and Ace combs went up after the movie was seen. The movie holds its own because it did not try to proselytize. Even early in the production of Rebel, Dean was contracted and cast for the next project, Giant. He got a weekly bump to 1500 bucks for a total of 22K. In May, after Rebel was done, he was able to join the crew near Marfa, Texas at the Evans Ranch, becoming the Reata and Little Reata ranch location in June, 1955. shooting for Giant had already begun in Virginia; But not before he entered a race in Santa Barbara on Memorial Day, but blew it when he blew his engine. That would be the incentive to get a new Porsche. In a safety promotional interview at Reata, by Gig Young, the cowboy hatted Dean as Jeff Rink was asked, "Do you have any special advice for the young people who drive?"

Dean answered, "Take it easy driving. The life you might save might be mine."

Director George Stevens was taking on the most expensive film to date: $5 million, of which half of the budget was fronted by Jack Warner, himself. Though interior shots were done in Burbank, the outside scenes were in Marfa. Everybody stayed at The Hotel Paisano in Marfa, (except for Hudson and Taylor in rented separate houses) not far from Big Bend, where you can still find James Dean's room, 223, that included a 19 year old that would play one of Bick's twins, Dennis Hopper, (the other twin was Fran Bennett as Judy) who remembers,

George Stevens saw me in Rebel Without a Cause and cast me as Jordy, Rock and Liz's son. We all rode out on the train from Los Angeles to Marfa for the shoot.

They also reviewed their daily filming of what was billed as "The Giant of them all" at the town's Palace movie theater. While today, the Paisano perpetually plays Giant; Or anniversary commemorations at the Texas Theater. Carroll Baker would play the Benedict's youngest daughter, Luz II, and Sal Mineo had a part. Elizabeth Taylor became a close confident and friend to Dean, even gave him a Siamese cat. Clay Evans, a local, remembers:

Mr. Stevens would do a scene over and over again, and Jimmy never got upset. He would always do his best every time. One day they spent an entire afternoon shooting Jimmy taking spark plugs out of Model A. He {Stevens} spent an entire afternoon shooting a scene that was onscreen for less than a minute!

 

This story by Edna Ferber centered on the Benedict's Reata ranch owned by Luz Bick's older sister. She leaves Jett, a wildcatter some inheritance when she's mortally bucked off Wild Fire, the horse from Maryland that made the opportunity to marry his English lady, Leslie. Jordy marries a Mexican girl, which sets up racist antagonism with the redneck Jett. Jett eventually ages, and Dean shaves hair and adds grey. There was animosity on and off screen between Rock Hudson and Dean, and once again it made Dean's performance shine. Jett made his lust known without hiding it:

My, you sure do look pretty, Miss Leslie. You always did look pretty. Pretty good enough to eat.

A typical scene was when Jett strikes oil on his land and he comes to the house leaning on their immaculate white pillars with an oily hand to taunt Bick:

l'm here to tell you it ain't, boy. lt's here. There ain't a dang thing you gonna do about it. My well came in big, so big And there's more down there, bigger wells l'm rich, Bick! l'm a rich one. l'm a rich boy. l'm gonna have more money than you ever thought you could have. You and the rest of you stinking sons of Benedicts.

Dean's mental state might have been part of his fatal problem, he had learned that Ursela Andress married John Derek. His hateful father inherited the close to a hundred thousand dollars of Dean's equity, most from insurance. Dean's final resting place is in the family plot in Park Cemetery near his uncle's farm. He was the first and second to receive a posthumous Oscar nomination for best actor out of five in the history of the Academy. There are identical big bronze statues in Fairmount and Griffith park, and the renamed crash site, the James Dean Memorial Junction, has a plaque. Anniversary celebrations still revere this rebel, and his estate still makes five million dollars a year.

 

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Sources are multiple, from more than twenty searches/hits on the internet. Space, my final frontier, (beware: scratchpads hold more than nodes), literally prevents listing them all.