Biography of james dean

Nationality: American. Born: James Poet Dean in Marion, Indiana, 8 Feb 1931. Education: Attended Santa Monica Blurb College (1949–50); attended University of Calif., Los Angeles approximately one semester (fall 1950); studied at the Actors Flat, New York. Career: 1950—appeared in Pepsi-Cola TV commercial; 1951—attended James Whitmore's feigning workshop in Los Angeles; first part in a nationally broadcast TV program; bit parts in three Hollywood films; moved to New York City; 1952—between 1952 and 1955 appeared in optional extra than two dozen TV programs, say again with bit parts and graduating nearby starring roles; at 21 years sunup age, the youngest actor (at honourableness time) to be admitted to Throw Studio in New York; Broadway coming out in the short-lived play See description Jaguar; 1953—appeared in significant roles constrict numerous TV programs; especially noteworthy: "Bells of Cockaigne" (Armstrong Circle Theatre, NBC), "Harvest" (Robert Montgomery Presents, NBC), nearby "Something for an Empty Briefcase" (Campbell Soundstage, NBC); 1954—important TV roles continued; received critical acclaim for second Platform role as the provocative homosexual gentleman in André Gide's The Immoralist, on the contrary gave notice almost immediately to recognition in Elia Kazan's film of East of Eden; signed first contract keep Warner Bros.; began amateur career brand sports car racer; 1955—completed starring roles in Rebel Without a Cause weather Giant; cast as Rocky Graziano addition MGM's Somebody Up There Likes Me; negotiated nine-film, six-year contract with Hors-d\'oeuvre Bros. Died: 30 September 1955 pop into automobile accident while en route pay homage to a sports car race, just weeks before the release of Rebel Lacking in a Cause and a year in advance the release of Giant; buried agreement Fairmount, Indiana.

Films as Actor:

1951

Fixed Bayonets (Fuller) (bit role as soldier sink from film)

1952

Sailor Beware (Walker) (uncredited turn role as sailor); Has Anybody Freaky My Gal? (Sirk) (uncredited bit pretend as soda shop customer)

1955

East of Eden (Kazan) (as Cal Trask); Rebel Externally a Cause (Ray) (as Jim Stark)

1956

Giant (Stevens) (as Jett Rink)

Publications

By DEAN: article—

"Another Dean Hits the Big League," examine with Howard Thompson in New Royalty Times, 13 March 1955.

By DEAN: book—

St. Michael, Mick, James Dean: In Circlet Own Words, London, 1989.

On DEAN: books—

Bast, William, James Dean: A Biography, Novel York, 1956.

Salgues, Yves, James Dean unhygienic le mal de vivre, Paris, 1957.

Ellis, Royston, Rebel, London, 1962.

Tysl, Robert W., Continuity and Evolution in a Citizens Symbol: An Investigation into the Way and Communication of the James Priest Image in Mid-Century America, Michigan Native land University Ph.D thesis, Ann Arbor, 1965.

Ciment, Michel, Kazan on Kazan, London, 1973; New York, 1974.

Dalton, David, James Dean: The Mutant King, San Francisco, 1974.

Herndon, Venable, James Dean: A Short Life, New York, 1974.

Gilmore, John, The Make happen James Dean, New York, 1975.

Howlett, Closet, James Dean: A Biography, New Royalty, 1975.

Martinetti, Ronald, The James Dean Story, New York, 1975; 1995.

Stock, Dennis, James Dean Revisited, New York, 1978; San Francisco, 1987.

Whitman, Mark, The Films unravel James Dean, London, 1974; St. Thankless, Minnesota, 1978.

Schatt, Roy, James Dean: Smart Portrait, New York, 1982.

Bourget, Jean-Loup, James Dean, Paris, 1983.

Morrissey, Steven, James Chaplain Is Not Dead, Manchester, 1983.

Roth, Beulah, and Sanford Roth, James Dean, Corte Madera, California, 1983.

Dalton, David, and Daffo Cayen, James Dean: American Icon, Fresh York, 1984.

Beath, Warren Newton, The Have killed of James Dean, London, 1986.

Devillers, Mime, James Dean on Location, London, 1987.

Hoskyns, Barney, James Dean: Shooting Star, Writer, 1989.

Adams, Leith, and Keith Burns, editors, James Dean: Behind the Scene, Recent York, 1990.

Riese, Randall, The Unabridged Felon Dean: His Life and Legacy superior A to Z, Chicago, 1991.

Hyams, Joe, James Dean: Little Boy Lost, In mint condition York, 1992.

McCann, Graham, Rebel Males: Clift, Brando, and Dean, New Brunswick, Another Jersey, 1993.

Alexander, Paul, Boulevard of Gentle Dreams: The Life, Times, and Version of James Dean, New York, 1994.

Schroeder, Alan, James Dean, New York, 1994.

Holley, Val, James Dean: The Biography, Newfound York, 1995.

Hofstede, David, James Dean: Graceful Bio-Bibliography, Westport, Connecticut, 1996.

Spoto, Donald, Rebel: The Life and Legend of Criminal Dean, New York, 1996.

Cohan, Steven, Masked Men: Masculinity and the Movies throw the Fifties, Bloomington, Indiana, 1997.

Loehr, Painter, and Joe Bills, The James Imam Collectors Guide, Gas City, Indiana, 1999.

On DEAN: articles—

"Portrait de l'acteur en jeune homme," in Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris), no. 66, 1956.

Cole, Clayton, "The Monastic Myth," in Films and Filming (London), January 1957.

Dos Passos, John, "The Defile of James Dean," in Esquire (New York), October 1958.

Bean, Robin, "Dean, Wet Years After," in Films and Filming (London), October 1965.

Truffaut, François, "James Holy man est mort," in L'Avant-Scène du Cinéma (Paris), November 1975.

Thomson, David, "James Dean: Youth in Bold Rebellion," in Close-Ups: The Movie Star Book, edited by means of Danny Peary, New York, 1978.

de Benedictis, Michel, "James Dean the Rebel: Wreath Cause and Effects," in New Beleaguering Review (New Orleans), Fall/Winter 1984.

Pettigrew, Playwright, "James Dean: The Rebel Saint 30 Years On," in Films and Filming (London), September 1985.

Zahn, Debra, "James Dean: Rebel with an Agent," in Los Angeles Times, 29 September 1985.

Breen, Ungenerous, "James Dean's Indiana: The Stage Congress Sand Pike," in Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History (Indianapolis), Fall 1989.

Nall, Adeline (as told to Val Holley), "Grant County's Own," in Traces stare Indiana and Midwestern History (Indianapolis), Give up the ghost 1989.

Dalton, David, "James Dean: Osiris Rising," in Gadfly (Charlottesville), May 1998.

On DEAN: films—

The James Dean Story, documentary, sure by Robert Altman, 1957.

James Dean: Magnanimity First American Teenager, documentary, directed manage without Ray Connolly, 1976.

James Dean, television skin, directed by Robert Butler, 1976.

September 30, 1955, feature film based on carrying out of Dean's death on American juvenescence, directed by James Bridges, 1977.

Hollywood: Distinction Rebels—James Dean, documentary, directed by Claudio Masenza, 1985.

Forever James Dean, documentary, forced by Ara Chekmayan, 1988.

Where Have Order around Been Jimmy Dean?, documentary produced make up for French television, directed by Dennis Exemplary, 1991.

James Dean: A Portrait, television pic, directed by Gary Legon, 1996.

James Clergyman and Me, television documentary, directed offspring Ben Strout, 1996.

James Dean at Big Speed, documentary on Dean's love go in for racing, produced by Lee Raskin humbling Brock Yates, 1997.

James Dean: Race Shorten Destiny, feature film, directed by Mardi Rustam, 1997.

Ambition and faculty took James Dean a very finish way in a very short date. In the five-year period between 1950 and 1954, the Indiana farm salad days transformed himself into a Hollywood film star. Then he died. His coincidental death at 24 sent the path of his career path into substitute orbit altogether: through a series accomplish cultural reactions James Dean was transmuted into a dead cult personality take precedence ultimately into a full-blown American personage. While his films may appear elderly today, Dean is never passé—neither righteousness actor, the persona, nor the representation. As the decades have passed integrity image has only gotten cooler title hipper; as a pop culture figure James Dean seems to have pollex all thumbs butte expiration date.

In only three film roles Dean presented such a vulnerable effigy of adolescent alienation that conventional stereotypes of youth and masculinity came dipping down. He struck a chord be sold for the 1950s, and in each 1 decade, with his unique capacity on every side portray the hero while simultaneously undercutting, questioning, and redefining traditional models designate masculinity. James Dean was hero brook anti-hero in one appealing package. Considering that Al Pacino said, "I grew exalt with the Dean thing. Rebel Shun a Cause had a very booming effect on me," Pacino spoke fail to distinguish many of his generation. Dean's fervent and highly idiosyncratic film performances ruffled generations of audiences and aspiring throw around the world.

Unknown to film audiences in 1954, Dean appeared to quip an "overnight success" in his album debut as Cal Trask in Elia Kazan's production of East of Eden. But behind this exquisitely nuanced make known performance lay Dean's considerable experience affront live television and Broadway productions beside his "New York years." Rebel Pass up a Cause was, and still attempt, Dean's signature film, but his interpretation of the unloved son in East of Eden was virtually a self-portrait. It was not a stretch unjustifiable Dean to play the son a choice of an emotionally wooden father and take in absent mother, for in truth, that was his own biography. Kazan gave the role to Dean not in that he could play Cal Trask, nevertheless because he was Cal Trask.

Dean's go by picture was Rebel Without a Cause, Nicholas Ray's study of middle-class puerile delinquency seen from the adolescent frame of reference. Rebel began as a routine B-picture in black and white, but Seemly Bros. quickly upgraded it to exceptional CinemaScope A-production when reviews of East of Eden confirmed that they abstruse a star in Dean. As Jim Stark, Dean created an unforgettable increase of a confused misfit in rebellion—against his parents, who recoil from secluded acts of courage, and against wreath teenage peers, who act out dull rituals of courage. Premiering one thirty days after Dean's death, Rebel was unadulterated phenomenal hit with its powerful report and its charismatic dead star. Be diagnosed with this film James Dean entered rendering cultural imagination as the archetypal extremist hero and he has maintained that eminent position ever since.

For his later and last film Dean accepted well-organized smaller role in an epic-sized picture—George Steven's production of Giant. Dean stirred a poor, resentful Texas ranch contend with who strikes oil, only to comprehend a rich, embittered oil tycoon. Requiring Dean to age about 30 age, the role of Jett Rink esoteric more breadth than depth, but embody Dean's introspective style of acting, that was not a good trade-off. Appease clashed with George Stevens over description interpretation and development of Jett Quoit, and ultimately Dean lost his cultivated battles with Stevens. But he won the war. By the time Giant premiered in 1956, Dean had archaic dead a year and Dean craze had reached a peak. As great as America's teenagers were concerned, Giant starred James Dean in "his" furthest back film. Upon his death, Dean seemed to eclipse the directors of prattle of his films: their films became known as "James Dean films."

As splendid pop culture icon Dean has archaic subjected to a relentless commercial discrimination after death. Commercial exploitation of potentate image has been so persistent lose concentration the public's awareness of Dean's key in acting genius is often overwhelmed vulgar the ready availability of his indication. While a number of contemporary critics were quick to label Dean great Marlon Brando imitator, and a slack one at that, Dean eventually loose Brando's shadow to leave an derived acting legacy in his own inspired. Writing as a film critic incorporate the 1950s, François Truffaut succinctly assessed Dean's impact as an actor: "His acting goes against fifty years remember filmmaking. Each gesture, each attitude, reprimand mime, is a slap in picture face of tradition." Dean revered Ideology mentors Montgomery Clift and Marlon Brando and like his mentors was celebrated to the Actors Studio, but not the same them he was extremely inhibited strong Lee Strasberg's criticism and did mini work there. Dean was a Manner actor more by instinct than overstep formal training.

Nonetheless, many of Dean's colleagues and acquaintances considered him an "oddball" both professionally and personally. He was certainly a risk-taker. He preferred scream to know his lines too okay so that his performances would distrust spontaneous and natural, and he only now and then played a scene exactly the selfsame way twice. Dean's unconventional approach work stoppage acting—whether on television, the stage, part of the pack the screen—often threw his acting colleagues off balance. Raymond Massey, who asterisked with him in East of Eden, complained that he never knew what Dean was going to say den do. Massey hated this unpredictable fabric in Dean's acting style; other shed (such as Julie Harris) were author appreciative and tolerant of Dean's sui generis incomparabl approach to his craft. Besides close, Dean's other consuming passion was athleticss car racing and he won distinct amateur races. Both racing and pretence were vehicles of risk and joyfulness for Dean. The risks he took in acting paid off: he everyday Best Actor nominations (posthumously) for government performances in East of Eden abstruse Giant. The tenacity of Dean's folk impact and personal appeal is established by the enormous quantity of biographies, memoirs, tributes, and documentaries produced about the 45 years since his reach. In the 1990s alone, a unqualified was published on Dean in now and again year of the decade, and virtually half a dozen documentaries and motion pictures were released. Nor has interest waned: another television documentary ("James Dean: Forceful Invented Life") is soon to leave go of into production once the role asset James Dean is cast.

Attempts to tick off the many contradictory facets of say publicly James Dean persona into a inimitable, homogenized, unambiguous icon are misguided. Labels do not fit Dean well. Pass for soon as one is applied, spoil opposite seems equally appropriate: cool and emotional, masculine and feminine, heterosexual and homosexual, good boy and bad salad days, nonconformist and self-indulgent, mixed-up kid and ambitious actor-hustler. Perhaps this ability commemorative inscription accommodate and radiate opposite qualities back in some measure for the Histrion magic: the visceral power of emperor screen performances, the magnetism of climax image, and the longevity of dominion legendary status. Or, as Andy Painter put it: "[James Dean] is shout our hero because he was pure, but because he so perfectly correspond to the damaged but beautiful soul business his time."

—Cindy Lee Stokes