Forever Young

THE OVERLOOK

By Tom Clavin

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The actor James Dean would be 91 if he were alive today. However, he died at just 24 and thus on screen he will be forever young. An aura of mystery has surrounded him since his death 67 years ago this Friday. There was even a feature film made about the event and its impact, September 30, 1955, written and directed by James Bridges and starring Richard Thomas and Dennis Quaid. As sad as Dean’s early death was, a silver lining was he did not live long enough to make a bad movie – the three he did make are all classics.

James Byron Dean was born on February 8, 1931, in Marion, Indiana. He claimed that his mother was partly Native American and that his father belonged to a line of original settlers that could be traced back to the Mayflower. Six years after his father had left farming to become a dental technician, the Dean family moved to Santa Monica, California. By all accounts, Dean was very close to his mother. In 1938, she was suddenly struck with acute stomach pain and quickly began to lose weight. She died of uterine cancer when Dean was nine years old. Unable to care for his son, Dean's father sent him to live with an aunt and uncle on their farm back in Indiana and he was raised in their Quaker household.

Several accounts contend that during his early teenage years Dean was befriended by a local Methodist pastor that evolved into an intimate relationship. That relationship was suggested in Paul Alexander's 1994 book Boulevard of Broken Dreams: The Life, Times, and Legend of James Dean. Then in 2011, it was reported that Dean once confided in Elizabeth Taylor – perhaps on the set of Giant – that he was sexually abused by a minister approximately two years after his mother's death.

 Unlike his character in Rebel Without a Cause, Dean was an excellent and popular student. He played on the baseball and varsity basketball teams, studied drama, and competed in public speaking through the Indiana High School Forensic Association. After graduating from Fairmount High School in May 1949, he moved back to California to live with his father and stepmother. After going to one college as a pre-law major, Dean transferred to UCLA and changed his major to drama. There, he was picked from a group of 350 actors to portray Malcolm in Macbeth and he began acting in a workshop conducted by James Whitmore. In January 1951, he dropped out of UCLA to pursue a full-time acting career.

Dean's first television appearance was in a Pepsi-Cola commercial. His first speaking part was in an Easter television special on the life of John the Apostle titled “Hill Number One.” Dean subsequently obtained three walk-on roles in the feature films Fixed Bayonets, Sailor Beware, and Has Anybody Seen My Gal? In between auditions for other roles, he worked as a parking lot attendant at CBS Studios.

In October 1951, following the encouragement of Whitmore, Dean moved to New York City. There, he worked as a stunt tester for the game show “Beat the Clock” and appeared in episodes of several CBS television series. He was admitted to the Actors Studio to study “method acting” under Lee Strasberg. And he appeared in a movie with Humphrey Bogart, Deadline USA. He continued to get parts on live and filmed TV shows into 1953, when his big break came along.

The director Elia Kazan was looking for an actor to play the emotionally complex role of Cal Trask in the feature adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel East of Eden. This book tells 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, from the mid-19th century through the 1910s.The screen version would focus on the last portion of the story, predominantly with the character of Cal. Though he initially seems more aloof and emotionally troubled than his twin brother Aron, Cal is soon seen to be more worldly and business savvy than their pious and constantly disapproving father (played by Raymond Massey) who seeks to invent a vegetable refrigeration process. Cal is bothered by the mystery of their supposedly dead mother, and discovers she is still alive and is a brothel-keeping madam. (Jo Van Fleet, who was only 39 at the time, won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing the mother.)

Before casting Cal, Kazan said that he wanted "a Brando" for the role and the screenwriter, Paul Osborn, suggested Dean, who in turn met with Steinbeck. The novelist did not like the moody, complex young man personally, but thought him to be perfect for the part. Dean was cast in the role and on April 8, 1954, he left New York City and headed for Los Angeles to begin shooting.

          What makes the film East of Eden even more remarkable was that much of Dean's performance in the film was unscripted, including his dance in the bean field and his fetal-like posturing while riding on top of a train boxcar (after searching out his mother in nearby Monterey). The best-known improvised sequence of the film occurs when Cal's father rejects his gift of $5000, money Cal earned by speculating in beans before the U.S. became involved in World War I. Instead of running away from his father as the script called for, Dean instinctively turned to Massey and in a gesture of extreme emotion lunged forward and grabbed him in a full embrace, weeping. Kazan kept this and Massey's authentic reaction of shock in the film.

In recognition of his performance in East of Eden, Dean was nominated posthumously for the 1956 Academy Award for Best Actor. It was the first official posthumous acting nomination in Academy Awards history. Sadly, East of Eden was the only film starring Dean released in his lifetime

Dean quickly followed up his role in Eden with a starring role as Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause, which would be released later in 1955. Directed by Nicholas Ray, it also starred Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo. The film proved be hugely popular with a younger audience because of its portrayal of “teenage angst.” Following East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause, Dean wanted to avoid being typecast as a rebellious teenager so he took on the role of Jett Rink, a Texan ranch hand who strikes oil and becomes wealthy, in Giant, adapted from the Edna Ferber novel and directed by George Stevens.

The movie portrays a number of decades in the lives of Bick Benedict, a Texas rancher, played by Rock Hudson; his wife, Leslie, played by Elizabeth Taylor; and Rink. To portray an older version of his character in the film's later scenes, Dean dyed his hair gray and shaved some of it off to give himself a receding hairline. Giant would prove to be Dean's last film. At the end of the film, Dean was supposed to make a drunken speech at a banquet. (This is nicknamed the “Last Supper” because it was the last scene filmed before his sudden death.) Because of his desire to make the scene more realistic by actually being inebriated for the take, Dean mumbled so much that Stevens decided the scene had to be overdubbed after the actor’s death by Nick Adams who had a small role in the film. Dean received his second posthumous Best Actor Academy Award nomination.

His next role was to be as Rocky Graziano in the boxing biopic Somebody Up There Likes Me (eventually played by Paul Newman). However, there was an unhappy Hollywood ending to Dean’s career.

In 1954, he had become interested in developing a career in motorsports. Just before filming began on Rebel Without a Cause, he competed in his first professional event at the Palm Springs Road Races. Dean achieved first place in the novice class and second place at the main event. His racing continued in Bakersfield in April 1955, where he finished first in his class and third overall. The Indiana native hoped to compete in the Indianapolis 500 but his busy schedule made it impossible. His final race occurred in Santa Barbara on Memorial Day, then his brief career was put on hold when Warner Brothers barred him from all racing during the production of Giant. Dean had finished shooting his scenes and the movie was in post-production when he decided to race again.

He purchased a new, powerful, and fast 1955 Porsche 550 and entered the Salinas Road Race event scheduled for October 1–2, 1955. Accompanying the actor on his way to the track on September 30 was stunt coordinator Bill Hickman, Collier’s photographer Sanford Roth, and Rolf Wutherich, the German mechanic from the Porsche factory who maintained Dean's car. Wutherich, who had encouraged Dean to drive the car from Los Angeles to Salinas to break it in, accompanied Dean in the Porsche. At 3:30 p.m., Dean was ticketed for speeding, as was Hickman, who was following behind in another car.

As the group was driving westbound on U.S. Route 466 near Cholame at approximately 5:45 p.m., a 1950 Ford Tudor, driven by a college student, Donald Turnupseed, was driving east. (Yes, that was his name.) Turnupseed made a left turn onto Highway 41 headed north, toward Fresno, ahead of the oncoming Porsche. Dean, unable to stop in time, slammed into the passenger side of the Ford. His car bounced across the pavement onto the side of the highway. Wutherich was thrown from the Porsche while Dean was trapped in the car and sustained numerous fatal injuries, including a broken neck. Turnupseed exited his damaged vehicle with minor injuries.

The accident was witnessed by several passersby who stopped to help. Dean was pronounced dead on arrival at the Paso Robles War Memorial Hospital at 6:20 p.m. Details of Dean's death rapidly spread via radio and television. By October 2, his death had also received significant coverage from foreign media outlets. Dean's funeral was held on October 8 at the Fairmount Friends Church in Indiana. The coffin remained closed to conceal his severe injuries. An estimated 600 mourners were in attendance, while another 2,400 fans gathered outside of the building during the procession.

For those who like to seek out such things: Today, James Dean’s grave can be found at the Park Cemetery in Fairmount, second road to the right from the main entrance, and up the hill on the right, facing the drive.

Tom Clavin is the bestselling author/co-author of 18 books, including Lightning Down: A World War II Story of Survival. The next collaboration with Bob Drury, The Last Hill: The Epic Story of a Ranger Battalion and the Battle That Defined WW II, will be published by St. Martin’s Press on November 1. Please go to your local bookstore or to Bookshop.org, Amazon.com, BN.com, or tomclavin.com to pre-order a copy.