A
concise biography of James Dean, courtesy of "ronin-37" James
Dean was born February 8, 1931, in Marion, Indiana, to Winton and Mildred Dean.
His father, a dental technician, moved the family to Los Angeles when Jimmy was
five. He returned to the Midwest after his mother passed away and was raised by
his aunt and uncle on their Indiana farm. After graduating from high school, he
returned to California where he attended Santa Monica Junior College and UCLA.
James Dean began acting with James Whitmore's acting workshop, appeared in occasional
television commercials, and played several roles in films and on stage. In the
winter of 1951, he took Whitmore's advice and moved to New York to pursue a serious
acting career. He appeared in seven television shows, in addition to earning his
living as a busboy in the theater district, before he won a small part in a Broadway
play entitled See the Jaguar.
In a letter to his family in Fairmount
in 1952, he wrote: "I have made great strides in my craft. After months of auditioning,
I am very proud to announce that I am a member of the Actors Studio. The greatest
school of the theater. It houses great people like Marlon Brando, Julie Harris,
Arthur Kennedy, Mildred Dunnock...Very few get into it, and it is absolutely free.
It is the best thing that can happen to an actor. I am one of the youngest to
belong. If I can keep this up and nothing interferes with my progress, one of
these days I might be able to contribute something to the world." [He worked with
Arthur Kennedy in See the Jaguar; he would later star with Julie Harris
in East of Eden and Mildred Dunnock in "Padlocks," a 1954 episode
of the CBS television program Danger.]
Dean continued his study
at the Actors Studio, played short stints in television dramas, and returned to
Broadway in The Immoralist (1954). This last appearance resulted in a screen
test at Warner Brothers for the part of Cal Trask in the screen adaptation John
Steinbeck's novel East of Eden. He then returned to New York where he appeared
in four more television dramas. After winning the role of Jim Stark in 1955's
Rebel Without A Cause, he moved to Hollywood. In
February, he visited his family in Fairmount with photographer Dennis Stock before
returning to Los Angeles. In March, Jimmy celebrated his Eden success by
purchasing his first Porsche and entered the Palm Springs
Road Races. He began shooting Rebel Without A Cause that same month and
Eden opened nationwide in April. In May, he entered the Bakersfield
Race and finished shooting Rebel. He entered one more race, in Santa
Barbara, before he joined the cast and crew of Giant in Marfa, Texas.
James
Dean had one of the most spectacularly brief careers of any screen star. In just
more than a year, and in only three films, Dean became a widely admired screen
personality, a personification of the restless American youth of the mid-50's,
and an embodiment of the title of one of his film Rebel Without A Cause.
En route to compete in a race in Salinas, James Dean was killed in a highway accident
on September 30, 1955. James Dean was nominated for two Academy Awards, for his
performances in East of Eden and Giant. Although he only made three
films, they were made in just over one year's time. |