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James Dean
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Born: Feb 8, 1934
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James Dean was raised on a farm by his aunt and uncle in
Fairmount, Indiana. He received rave reviews for his work as the
blackmailing Arab boy in the New York production of Gide's "The
Immoralist," good enough to earn him a trip to Hollywood. His
early film efforts were strictly bit parts: a sailor in the
Martin & Lewis overly frantic musical comedy
Sailor Beware (1951); a GI in the moody
Richard Basehart study of a platoon in the Korean War
Fixed Bayonets (1951); a youth in the Piper Laurie
- Rock Hudson comedy
Has Anybody Seen My Gal? (1952). He had major roles in
only three movies. In the Elia Kazan production of
John Steinbeck's East of Eden (1955) he played
Caleb, the "bad" brother who couldn't force affection from his
stiff-necked father. His true starring role, the one which fixed
his image forever in American culture, was that of the brooding
red-jacketed teenager Jim Stark in Nicholas Ray's
Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Filming of
Edna Ferber's Giant (1956) ( George Stevens
), in which he played the non-conforming cowhand Jett Rink, was
just coming to a close when Dean, driving his Porsche Spyder,
collided with another car just east of Paso Robles, California.
His head was almost severed from his body. He had received a
speeding ticket just two hours before. His very brief career,
violent death and highly publicized funeral transformed
James Dean into a cult object of apparently timeless
fascination.
click here to see him in action
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