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James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955) was an American film
actor. Dean's mainstream status as a cultural icon is best embodied in the title of
his most cited role in Rebel Without a Cause as a troubled high school rebel filled
with teenage angst.
The other two roles that defined his star power was awkard loner Cal Trask in
East of Eden and the surly, racist farmer Jett in Giant, which proved him capable
of playing different roles.
His enduring fame and popularity rests on only three films, his entire starring
output. He was the first person to receive a posthumous Academy Award nomination
for Best Actor and remains the only person to have two such nominations
posthumously.
Like many others including Bruce Lee, Jim Morrison, Marilyn Monroe and Kurt
Cobain, his death at an early age helped guarantee a legendary status.
Dean is today often considered an icon because of his "experimental" take on life",
which included his ambivalent sexuality.
There have been several accounts of Dean's sexual relationships with both men and
women, although Dean's "true" sexual preference remains unknown. William Bast was
one of Dean's closest friends, a fact acknowledged by Dean's family. Dean's first
biographer (1956), Bast was his roommate at UCLA and later in New York, and knew
Dean throughout the last five years of his life.
Bast has recently published a revealing version of his first book, in which,
after years of successfully dodging the question as to whether he and Dean were
sexually involved he has finally admitted that they were (Surviving James Dean,
2006). In this second book Bast describes the difficult circumstances of their
involvement and also deals frankly with some of Dean's other homosexual
relationships, notably the actor's friendship with Rogers Brackett, an influential
producer of radio dramas who encouraged Dean in his career and provided him with
useful professional contacts.
Journalist Joe Hyams suggests that any homosexual acts Dean might have involved
himself in appear to have been strictly "for trade," as a means of advancing his
career. Val Holley notes that, according to Hollywood biographer Lawrence J. Quirk,
gay Hollywood columnist Mike Connolly "would put the make on the most prominent
young actors, including Robert Francis, Guy Madison, Anthony Perkins, Nick Adams
and James Dean." However, the "trade only" notion is debated by Bast and other Dean
biographers. Indeed, aside from Bast's account of his own relationship with Dean,
Dean's fellow biker and "Night Watch" member John Gilmore claims he and Dean
"experimented" with homosexual acts on one occasion in New York, and it is
difficult to see how Dean, then already in his twenties, would have viewed this as
a "trade" means of advancing his career.
In his Natalie Wood biography, Gavin Lambert, himself homosexual and part of the
Hollywood gay circles of the 50s and 60s, describes Dean as being bisexual. Rebel
director Nicholas Ray has also gone on record to say that Dean was bisexual.
Consequently, Robert Aldrich and Garry Wotherspoon's book Who's Who in Contemporary
Gay and Lesbian History: From World War II to the Present Day (2001) includes an
entry on James Dean. William Russo also confirms that Dean's bisexuality was
well-known.
As for Dean's relationships with women, after Dean signed his contract with Warner
Brothers the studio's public relations department began generating stories about
Dean's liaisons with a variety of young actresses who were mostly drawn from the
clientele of Dean's Hollywood agent, Dick Clayton. Studio press releases also
grouped "Dean together with two other actors, Rock Hudson and Tab Hunter,
identifying each of the men as an 'eligible bachelor' who has not yet found the
time to commit to a single woman: 'They say their film rehearsals are in conflict
with their marriage rehearsals.' " Dean is best remembered for his relationship
with a young Italian actress Pier Angeli, whom he met while Angeli was shooting The
Silver Chalice on an adjoining Warner lot, and with whom he exchanged items of
jewelry as love tokens. Angeli's mother was reported to have disapproved of the
relationship because Dean was not a Catholic. In his autobiography, East of Eden
director Elia Kazan, while dismissing the notion that Dean could possibly have had
any success with women, paradoxically alluded to Dean and Angeli's "romance,"
claiming that he had heard them loudly making love in Dean's dressing room. For a
very short time the story of a Dean-Angeli love affair was even promoted by Dean
himself, who fed it to various gossip columnists and to his co-star, Julie Harris,
who in interviews has reported that Dean told her about being madly in love with
Angeli. However, in early October 1954, Angeli unexpectedly announced her
engagement to Italian singer Vic Damone, to Dean's expressed irritation. Angeli
married Damone the following month, and gossip columnists reported that Dean, or
someone dressed like him, watched the wedding from across the road on a motorcycle.
However, Dean denied that he, personally, would have done anything so "dumb", when
his friend William Bast questioned him about the reports later.
Actress Liz Sheridan claims that she and Dean had a short affair in New York. In
her memoir detailing this, she also states that Dean was having a sexual
involvement with Rogers Brackett, and describes her negative response to this
situation.
Contrary to popular notions, Gavin Lambert wrote in his Wood biography that Natalie
Wood's casting in Rebel Without a Cause did not lead to a romance with Dean: "Like
many people, she was fascinated by his charm. He had this magnetic quality on the
screen and in life... They got on very well, they liked each other a lot," but
there was no affair and no sexual relationship.
Source : Some of the information on this page came
from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU Documentation
License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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