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February 8, 1931 - September 30, 1955
James Dean was born to Winton and Mildred Wilson Dean at the "Seven Gables" apartment house, at the intersection of 4th and McClure Streets in Marion, Indiana. Six years after his father had left farming to become a dental technician, James and his family moved to Santa Monica, California, . The family spent some years there, and by all accounts young Jimmy was very close to his mother. According to Michael DeAngelis, she was "the only person capable of understanding him." He was enrolled in Brentwood Public School until his mother died of cancer in 1940. Dean's "moodiness and antisocial behavior are consistently attributed to her loss," and even in later years he still attempted to regain his mother's "sense of understanding in all of his relationships with women during his acting career."
Unable to care for his nine year old son, Winton Dean sent young Dean to live with Winton's sister Ortense and her husband Marcus Winslow on a farm in Fairmount, Indiana, where he entered high school and was brought up with a Quaker background. Here Dean sought the counsel of, and formed an enduring friendship with a Methodist pastor, Dr. James DeWeerd. DeWeerd seemed to have had a formative influence upon the teenager, especially upon his future interests in bull fighting, motor racing and the theater. According to Billy J. Harbin, "Dean had an intimate relationship with his pastor... which began in his senior year of high school and 'endured for many years.' "
In high school, Dean's overall performance was mediocre, but he successfully played on the baseball and basketball team and studied forensics and drama. After graduating from Fairmount High School on May 16, 1949, Dean moved back to California with his beagle, Maxx, to live with his father and stepmother.
He enrolled in Santa Monica College (SMCC), pledged to the Sigma Nu fraternity and majored in pre-law. Dean transferred to UCLA and changed his major to drama, which resulted in estrangement from his father. While at UCLA, he beat out 350 actors to land the role of Malcolm in Macbeth. At that time, he also began acting with James Whitmore's acting workshop. In January 1951, he dropped out of college to pursue a career as an actor.
Acting career
On March 8, 1954, Dean left New York City and headed for Los Angeles to begin shooting East of Eden. The film is based on the 1952 novel of the same name by John Steinbeck, which dealt with the story of the Trask and Hamilton families over the course of three generations, focusing especially on the lives of the latter two generations in Salinas Valley, California in the mid-1800s through the 1910's. The novel was adapted for film by screenwriter Paul Osborn and director Elia Kazan and dealt predominantly with the character of of Cal Trask, of whom Elia Kazan said before casting "I wanted a Brando for the role". He eventually cast Dean for the role of Cal, who is essentially the rebel son of a constantly disapproving father (played by Raymond Massey) and prostitute mother (played by Jo Van Fleet). Dean's performance in the film foreshadowed his role as Jim Stark in Rebel Without A Cause. Both characters are rebel loners and misunderstood outcasts, desperately craving parental guidance from a father figure.
Much of Dean's performance in the film is completely unscripted, such as his dance in the bean field and his curling up and pulling his arms inside of his shirt on top of the train during his ride home from meeting his mother. The most famous improvisation during the film was when Cal's father rejects his gift of $15,000 (which was in reparation for his father's business loss). Instead of running away from his father as the script called for, Dean instinctively ran to Massey and desperately embraced him. This cut of Dean's independent deviation and Massey's surprised reaction were kept by Kazan and included in the film. He received a posthumous Best Actor in a Leading Role Academy Award nomination for this role.
Dean quickly followed up his role in Eden with a starring role in Rebel Without a Cause, a film that would prove to be hugely popular among teenagers. The film is widely cited as an accurate representation of teenage angst. It co-starred Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo, and was directed by Nicholas Ray.
William Russo says that "Nick Ray's world of the teenager rebel contained knife-fights, drag racing (a baptism named 'chicky run'), stolen cars, underage drinking, social worker, high school scene, a police station scene, death of teens by speeding car and gunshot, dysfunctional families, a teenage gang with both male and female members," etc., and that Rebel Without a Cause "unleashed a spate of teen-oriented films, both with message and without."
Director Nicholas Ray often encouraged Dean’s creative input. However, "Verbal battles with his directors increased in each film as James Dean became more sure of himself as a director ... He demanded and was allowed to direct scene after scene from Rebel Without a Cause by Nick Ray, and he became so engrossed in throttling his on-screen father that a few cognoscenti wondered if he knew the difference between his performance and his life."
Giant, which was posthumously released in 1956, saw Dean play a supporting role to that of both Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson. This was due to his desire to avoid being typecast as Jim Stark and Cal Trask. In the film, he plays Jett, a surly, racist Southerner with a high prejudice towards blacks. His role was notable in that, in order to portray an older version of his character in one scene, Dean dyed his hair grey and shaved some of it off to give himself a receding hairline.
Giant would be Dean’s last film. By the end of the film Dean is supposed to make a speech at a banquet, this scene is coined the Last Supper because this would be the last scene he films before his sudden and horrible death. As Dean portrayed his older character Jett Rink, he was supposed to be drunk in the scene and Dean mumbled so much that the scene had to later be re-recorded by his co-stars because Dean had died before the film was edited.
