by Erika Cox
James Dean was very popular in the 1950’s and his untimely and tragic
death made him a legend. Dean was born James Bryon Dean on February 8,
1931 in Fairmont, Indiana. His family soon moved to Santa Monica,
California when Dean was a child. His mother died in 1940 of cancer when
Dean was only nine years. After his mother died, Dean was sent back to
Indiana to live with his aunt on her farm. Dean’s aunt was a Quaker, so
Dean was brought up under the influence of the Quaker religion.
As a high school student, Dean showed interest in a few subjects like
basketball, forensics and science. He excelled in high school and in
1949 after graduating from high school, he moved back to California to
live with his father and attend college. Dean enrolled at Santa Monica
College and majored in pre-law he also pledged to a fraternity, but to
the disappointment of his father Dean would later change colleges and
his major, attending the University of California – Los Angeles and
majoring in drama.
Dean excelled in drama school and his looks gave him the appeal of a sex
symbol. These two things helped him get his first two acting jobs.
First, he auditioned and appeared in a Pepsi commercial and his second
job was a brief appearance on the game show Beat The Clock. Enjoying his
brief television appearances, Dean started focusing on his acting career
and dropped out of UCLA.
However his career, like so many others, did not take off like he
thought or wished. Initially he struggled to get any acting jobs and had
to work as a parking attendant just to pay the bills. Dean decided to
pick up and move to New York City and try his luck there, he was able to
study at the Actors Studio, which helped develop his skills and career.
He appeared in several episodes in a number of television shows,
including one that would mirror his acting in Rebel Without A Cause.
His biggest chance to appear in a film came in 1954 when he passed a New
York audition (beating Paul Newman) to play a role in a movie called
East of Eden. After Dean got the part, he flew back to California to
start filming the movie. He relished in the role, which he played a son
constantly seeking but never getting approval from his opposing father.
Dean’s own father strongly disapproved of his desire to seek an acting
career. So, Dean could relate to this role because of his own personal
struggles with his father, who had become upset and distant with Dean
when he dropped out of law school. Dean was exceptional in the movie his
acting had a sense of realness to it, as if Dean was acting out his own
personal struggles. Once the movie was released, Dean would visit movie
theaters around the city just to watch the people line up to see the
movie.
The movie became a huge hit and was a success, in particular for Dean,
whose acting was so believable in the movie that he started to become
associated with being a rebellious figure. He followed this success and
image with his biggest acting role in Rebel Without A Cause, which had
Dean playing a rebellious young man. This movie was very popular with
teenagers and became the ultimate movie that depicted and represented
the teenage rebellion of the 1950’s.
Dean portrayed the rebellious and deviant teenager with long slicked
back hair, leather jackets, cigarettes and a “cool” demeanor who only
wants to race cars and hang out. It was during the filming of this movie
that he purchased a Porsche 550 Spyder (he called Little Bastard) to
auto race in real life.
Unfortunately, Dean was not able to visit movie theaters to watch people
line up to see him when Rebel Without A Cause was released. Before the
movie was released, Dean died in a tragic head on automobile accident on
September 30, 1955.
Although, rumors continued throughout the years that Dean was racing at
the time of his death, he was actually on his way to Salinas, CA to race
his car, Little Bastard, but never made it. No one knows for sure what
caused the crash some sources state that the driver of the other car
crossed over into Dean’s oncoming lane.
A month after his death, Rebel Without A Cause was released and became a
huge box office hit. Dean received a posthumously Academy Award for his
role in East of Eden. Due to his role in Rebel Without A Cause, his
tragic death, and rebellious image, Dean became a legend.
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