James Dean:
From Rebel to Legend
Author: Barbara Diggs
Sexy, sulking,
reckless James Dean. The 50th
anniversary of his death approaches,
and yet his brief life continues to
attract and fascinate new devotees
every year. With his pale brooding
eyes, sullen good looks, and taste for
fast cars and road races, he
symbolizes the quintessential “bad
boy” of the 1950’s – and beyond.
James Byron Dean was
born in Marion, Indiana on
February 8, 1931. His parents moved
to Fairmount, Indiana shortly after
his birth, and later moved to Santa
Monica, California. When his mother
died in 1940, young Jimmy returned to
Fairmount to live on a farm with his
maternal aunt and uncle.
After graduating
from high school, Dean left
Fairmount to attend Santa Monica City
College, where he was to study
pre-law. But a sedate life of a
lawyer was hardly his style, and in
1950, in defiance of his father’s
wishes, he transferred to UCLA to
study drama – and was promptly booted
out of his father’s house. Dean
appeared in several commercials, and
later moved to New York City to seek
his fortune on Broadway.
For two years, he
struggled to catch a break. Finally, in 1953, he landed his first
Broadway role in the play See the
Jaguar. But it was his
performance in his second Broadway
play, The Immoralist, that
caught the attention of movie director
Elia Kazan. Kazan promptly sent Dean
to Hollywood to screen test for the
starring role in an adaptation of the
John Steinbeck’s book “East of Eden” –
a role that would require him to play
a disaffected teenager desperate to
win his father’s love. Dean’s
explosive talent, naturally defiant
air, and troubled history with his
father made him perfect for the role.
By 1955, Dean’s
future seemed brilliant. After
East of Eden opened, there wasn’t
a teenager in America that didn’t know
the name James Dean. Wild, reckless,
bold, rebellious: he was the
antithesis of everything a ‘50s youth
was supposed to be, and young people
loved him for that. Money and job
opportunities poured in. Immediately
after filming Eden, he was
snatched up for the starring role in
Rebel Without A Cause – the
movie that would embody his status as
a cultural icon – and promptly went on
to film Giant with mega-stars
Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson.
Dean’s “bad boy”
reputation didn’t only come from
the characters he played. He was said
to be often selfish and bratty, prone
to throwing temper tantrums on the set
and storming off in an adolescent-like
huff. He also unabashedly enjoyed
speeding up and down the California
highways in sports cars or on
motorcycles, and loved competing in
auto races.
But Dean’s taste for
fast living caught up with him
much too soon.
On September 30,
1955, James Dean was driving his
brand-new 550 Porsche Spyder to
Salinas, California to compete in
another race, when an on-coming car
crossed into his lane, and smashed
into him. The Spyder crumpled “like a
pack of cigarettes.” Dean, age 24,
was killed instantly.
The timing of Dean’s
death sealed his fate as a legend. Rebel
Without A Cause had been released
only a week before he died, and
Giant was not scheduled to open
until the following year. Through
these films, James Dean would live on
and on, as if the accident never
happened: forever young, beautiful,
brash, and blazingly alive.
James Dean may not
have been the ideal ‘50s youth,
but the era was nonetheless
illuminated by his presence.
