I, James Dean: The Real Story About America's Most Popular Idol (W400)

128 pp. With 16 pages of photographs. James Dean (born February 8, 1931, Marion, Indiana, U.S.—died September 30, 1955, near Paso Robles, California) was an American film actor who was enshrined as a symbol of the confused, restless, and idealistic youth of the 1950s. Although he made few films before his death in a car accident at age 24, his performances, perhaps most notably in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), have proved enduring. Dean’s family moved from Indiana to California when he was five. Following the death of his mother four years later, Dean returned to Indiana where he was reared on a farm by an aunt and uncle. He moved back to California after high school to study theatre for two years at the University of California at Los Angeles. His first professional acting assignment was for a soft drink commercial, which led to a speaking role as John the Baptist in the television Easter special Hill Number One (1951). He played bit parts in three Hollywood films—Fixed Bayonets (1951), Sailor Beware (1952), and Has Anybody Seen My Gal' (1952)—before moving to New York City on the advice of actor James Whitmore, with whom he had briefly studied. After a series of short-term jobs, including a brief period as a “stunt tester” for the CBS game show Beat the Clock, he was cast in a key role in the Broadway flop See the Jaguar (1952). More successful was his sly, insinuating performance as a blackmailing homosexual houseboy in another Broadway production, The Immoralist (1954), a stage adaptation of André Gide’s book. - Britannica