The James Dean Story
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Writing this I wanted to sum up Jimmy’s persona - to represent the person he was during his short but eventful life. I don’t profess to be an expert but I love him and that’s enough. He knew fellow actors Dennis Hopper and Marlon Brando. Some people weren’t taken in by his little boy lost act but those that were fell for his unmistakable charm. If he didn’t like you, he let you know it with one of his piercing stares. He gave his all to his art, becoming the character he was playing because he didn’t know who he was. I think that’s what his fans related to. James Dean didn’t fit in this world and neither do they. So he was always looking for an escape and although he loved playing his bongo drums in the corner at parties, much to everyone’s annoyance, it was his car racing obsession that led to his death. His is not a happy story but then who can say their life is? He could be an incredibly sweet person or a total bastard. And that’s human.
INTRODUCING JD
Dean’s agent: Jimmy asked whether marrying Beverly Wills (his girlfriend) or moving in with Rogers Brackett (a man in his 30’s with good connections) would be better for his career.
Rogers Brackett liked beautiful young men - the younger, the better. Jimmy had first met him while working as a car park attendant next to the CBS Studio (a good place for unknown actors to meet directors) James Dean was then 20, in the summer of 1951.
Jimmy’s agent asked if he knew what he might be in for. “I can have my own room” he explained. “But Jimmy, what will you do on the nights you’re drunk? Fight him off?” ... “I can handle it” he insisted. After Jimmy moved in, he invited a friend to drop by the lavish apartment. “Hey that guy’s queer” whispered his friend. “Yeah, I know” replied Jimmy.
Brackett accepted a TV job in Chicago. Jimmy took it bad and was discovered by Brackett’s mother crying in the bathroom. He was scared of being abandoned. He went along with him but didn’t like it. Brackett sent Jimmy to New York. He was so intimidated by the city, he spent most of his time at the movies. When he finally settled in, over the next few years he took many acting jobs.
Later on when he embarked on his movie career, the PR machine covered up the truth about his early days. People preferred to believe the official version, not that he was rescued from a parking lot by a homosexual director.
Brackett took Jimmy in when no-one else believed in him; fed, clothed, employed him and financed his move to NY. Eventually introducing him to the producer who put him on Broadway for the first time. The biggest break in Jimmy’s short career was being chosen by director Elia Kazan to star in East Of Eden. But during 51 and 52 Brackett was the most influential person in Jimmy’s life.
The town that gave the world James Dean - Fairmount, Indiana - has always refused to acknowledge things about him that were true. Some of the residents will only co-operate with biographers if they are sure the book will contain no references to his homosexuality. Talk about small town mentality.
Jimmy occasionally admitted in letters to friends he had no idea who he was. This absence of self-knowledge helped make him a universal icon; fans from the most diverse walks of life have all identified with the image he projected in his three major films. Cal Trask in East Of Eden, Jim Stark in Rebel Without A Cause and Jett Rink in Giant.
A male lover of Jimmy’s says: Both Jimmy and I had relations with girls. While Jimmy was making Rebel Without A Cause, I introduced him to a Hollywood High School boy, an actor and dancer whom I was quite taken with. Jimmy also found him very attractive and I know something happened between them that summer.
That’s how it was, neither black nor white. Jimmy thought of himself as an explorer, making discoveries in life, things and sex. He had no conclusions about anything. For Jimmy, a conclusion would’ve conflicted with an almost uncontrollable need he had to try to go beyond the limitations set by others. His words to me were: If you aren’t willing to take the risks, then you can’t make the discoveries.
A producer on some of Jimmy’s earlier work said: What if he was one of “the boys?” That’s not important. What’s important about Jimmy is that in spite of his short life, he had really lived - and with his beauty, he acted in ways that other actors only dream about.
HOMETOWN BLUES
James Dean rose above his background. He chose to ignore the racist, homophobic bigotry and small-mindedness and retained only those aspects that were charming and natural. While living in NY, he wrote a poem to express his feelings about back home. It listed Fairmount’s external virtues; religion, daily perusal of newspapers and sweetness. But, it’s superficial morals hid the defects beneath it’s surface. He accused Fairmount of industrial impotence, idolatry and “dangerous” bigotry (including hatred of Catholics and Jews)
He concluded by proclaiming that Fairmount was NOT WHAT I AM. Precisely the reason he was not there but in New York. James Dean REFUSED to limit himself with rules imposed by others. He was happy to count African-Americans among his friends; he was interested in what they could teach him. Most of his best friends were Jewish. Race, creed or sexual preference had no bearing on his estimation of others.
Another of his virtues was his feeling for the underdog. Various experiences made him aware of his own separateness; he was brought up buy his aunt and uncle and was suspended from high school. The director in Rebel Without A Cause said he would extend sudden affection to lonely and struggling people - he “adopted” several.
Jimmy’s separateness was not invisible to other people in Fairmount. “We watched Jimmy with a little awe, but felt he was explosive and not part of the community” said a girl 3 years younger.
WE WERE AWARE HE MARCHED TO A DIFFERENT DRUMMER THAN 99% OF FAIRMOUNT
Younger female students at Fairmount High, viewed him as “a little off-limits - almost juvenile delinquent status”
Jimmy’s mother died when he was nine. His father’s sister and her husband, Marcus Winslow, asked for Jimmy to go and live with them. No member of the Dean family has ever elaborated on their reasoning that the boy would be better off with them instead of his father. The offer was accepted with little or no debate.
He once told an actress on the Rebel Without A Cause set that God couldn’t possibly care about him. “Just look at the dirty trick He played on me with my mother and father”
Jimmy’s Aunt - his “adopted mother” said: When Jimmy was set to do something, nobody could stop him. He was tough-minded when he felt he had to be. And when he laughed, the whole world laughed, and when he cried, it rained. He was always able to get people into his moods. It was a wonderful gift.
Jimmy was a sophomore basketball player on the second team. The entire Fairmount squad was on the road and stopped for something to eat. The coach told each team where to sit. But Jimmy sat with the first team. When the coach told him to sit with his team, Jimmy got mad and went back and sat in the bus. He refused to eat. Usually, the coach would drive the kids home after they got back to town. But Jimmy was still mad at him and walked home in the rain.
He wore glasses and often broke them. But not because he played sport (he would make sure they stayed in place with a rubber strap) If called for a foul he would throw them on the floor.
HE WOULD PUSH AS FAR AS HE COULD WITH SOMEONE - NOT JUST IN BASKETBALL WITH THE REFEREES BUT IN EVERYTHING WITH EVERYONE
His music teacher and band director remembers: On the drums, Jimmy had a tremendous sense of rhythm. He had to prove it to the world and he wanted to be heard. He was a difficult individual at that time. He was an introvert. He was always asking questions. A friend said:
YOU NEVER TALK ABOUT ANYONE
His reply was startling
THE UNSPOKEN WORD WE CONTROL ONCE SPOKEN, IT CONTROLS US
Jimmy had quite a temper and would walk out of acting practice if things didn’t suit him. His teacher said: From the start he had a natural feeling for the piece’s mood contrasts, the almost imperceptible drifting from sanity to madness and back again.
A local preacher (rumoured to have had an affair with Jimmy) Reverend James DeWeerd, says: All of us are lonely and searching. But, because he was so sensitive, Jimmy was lonelier and he searched harder.
Jimmy was briefly suspended from school for punching someone. For consolation he turned to his art teacher: He was unhappy about people talking about him. One night he came in with three watercolours he had painted. The first painting depicted people running him down. The second one was eyeballs that are crushing him and the third represents his wanting to get back at everybody and show them, but he can’t because his foot is tied down.
LEAVING HOME
Jimmy decided to live with his father and go to college there. His music teacher asked Jimmy what he would do if he didn’t make it. He acted as if he had given no thought to that possibility. His reply: when you go hunting for 2 rabbits, you don’t get either. You hunt for one...
He moved in with his father and stepmother in Santa Monica. Jimmy knew “within 5 minutes” of being back with his father that it had been a “miserable, rotten mistake...” His father didn’t support his wish to be an actor. And he didn’t like his stepmother, spending little time at home.
Jimmy’s new friend recalled: Jimmy had a motorcycle. He came to our place because he seemed very lonesome, and was always in blue jeans. He talked little. It was hard to carry on a conversation with him. I would only say hi.
Jimmy would reminisce about his small motorcycle he left behind in Indiana, saying he thought of it as a friend or even a blood relative, and that he couldn’t imagine ever selling it.
He didn’t feel his year at Santa Monica was taking him where he wanted to go and decided to transfer to the UCLA college. His friend didn’t think it was a good idea... but said nothing. She knew he would be overwhelmed by the bigger schools more rigorous academic standards. Santa Monica had better opportunities for individual help. She didn’t think Jimmy was secure enough to endure the UCLA. But he had to find out for himself...
ACTING UP AT THE UCLA
One of the construction crew on Macbeth remembers him as very quiet, almost morose: If you spoke to him, all you would get out of him was “yup” or “nope”
BUT YOU HAD TO NOTICE HIM BECAUSE HE INTENDED FOR YOU TO NOTICE
I felt that if you were someone important who could lead to Dean’s future, he would go with you.
IF HE COULD USE YOU, HE WOULD
This was how I sized him up immediately. You just didn’t exchange pleasantries or chat with him. Simply put, his eye was on the target. He struck me as the kind who was killing time at UCLA until he connected.
He was always hanging around with a student film maker who rode a Vespa (italian motor scooter) Jimmy had a Vespa, too, spending most of his time with his new friend and no-one else.
A student recalls: Jimmy was always distant. It was common for a group of us to sit together on the lawn and eat lunch. Often you could look fifty feet away and see Jimmy alone under a tree. He never joined us...
Although he had done his gentlemanly duty on the dating front, some of his colleagues became aware that he occasionally hovered at the edges of the gay world. Someone who met him said: One night after a rehearsal or some late happening at school, Jimmy and I were walking to the parking lot. He sat in my car with me. I didn’t know him well, but we were talking intimately. He wasn’t attempting any seduction, but I could detect that he was seeking information about gay life in a very oblique way. “Do you ever go to those bars?” he asked. I said I had been to some but was not amused and thereafter kept the conversation away from that subject.
Jimmy got a job in a Pepsi commercial. Dean’s soon-to-be agent remembers: That night, Jimmy’s friend phoned and he was all upset. He said “Do you know I had to drag Dean out of bed, and he was drunk” - Jimmy was drinking heavily at this time - “and he didn’t care if he went or not” Jimmy was called back and his friend wasn’t. Isabel Draemer (the agent) decided to see him for herself.
“He kind of draped himself into a couch; he would never sit. He just kind of flopped. I asked him if he wanted a career” Of course he did, but he played it cool. “Can I make a buck?” he replied casually.
Isabel: I didn’t want Jimmy to be a pretty boy. Actually, he wasn’t. His profile was gorgeous, but in frontal view he was only nice looking. His eyes were too close together, photographically, and being so nearsighted he was inclined to squint. In action, that was okay. But he missed being a romantic leading man...
I CLASSIFIED HIM AS A LEAD JUVENILE
Jimmy was not fitting in at college. He didn’t get involved in his housemates activities as was expected of him. He spent much of his time in his room, producing sketches (similar to those of his Fairmount watercolours)
His housemaster said: Whether or not these sketches are an insight into what was Jimmy’s seemingly withdrawn nature, I cannot really say. However, I do believe they are indicative of the fact that he spent a great deal of his time in such individual endeavours rather than taking any part in any cohesive activities. Apparently, he was not comfortable in our group.
The final straw came when one of his housemates criticised his cleaning, twice. So Jimmy punched him on the nose.
His reason for going? “I couldn’t take the tea-sipping, moss-walled academicians, that academic bull”
RESCUED BY ROGERS
James Dean was unemployed. This was to be one of the worst times in his life. He would eventually be rescued by director Rogers Brackett who did not give his services entirely free...
What really got to Jimmy was the rejection implied in being an unemployed actor. His moods were getting worse and he would stay in his room for hours.
At a girlfriends house he would slump in her favourite chair and hang his foot over the side, making no movements for hours other than to stretch his arm toward the fruit bowl until the contents were gone.
His disposition and failure to get jobs began feeding off eachother in a vicious cycle. One time he tagged along to his girlfriends rehearsal and she asked the director if he had a part for Jimmy. He was asked to read some lines. His reply:
GO F*** YOURSELF! I DON’T DO READINGS
The reasons given for rejecting James Dean in those days (Spring 51) were many: He was too short or not goodlooking enough. He was more fragile and pretty than the “regular guy” they wanted. And when Jimmy would hear this, he’d insult them right back. In job interviews, he came across as both naive and confident at the same time.
His friend wrote: Jimmy would take off his glasses and squint through most of the interviews, a kind of hazy nonfocus that had some agents saying he was on reefers.
Rather than develop good interview skills, he became antagonistic if they did not adore him at first sight.
Even if some people couldn’t see his talents, Jimmy already had obsessive fans. Shortly before another fan meeting, he was at his agents house for dinner: He was telling my mother about the girls as he watched her cooking. He said “I’m trying to think of as many dirty things as I can to shock them” He should’ve been thrilled! But he acts like this!
Jimmy’s room mate, already worried about his state of mind, grew even more anxious when Jimmy began taking all-night walks to the Venice Amusement Pier, mingling until dawn with low forms of life on the prowl. He preferred walking to sleeping as he’d started to have horrible nightmares.
However he was still capable of turning on the charm when it suited him, as director Rogers Brackett was to discover. Jimmy was working at Ted’s Auto Park when Brackett drove in one morning. James Dean gave the impression of a good looking, seductive young actor.
Around Brackett’s friends, he wouldn’t say anything or join them. Instead, he would have a beer in the corner.
When Brackett had a minor car accident, Jimmy put a Band Aid on the fender.
A friend remembers: Everyone thought it was a joke where Rogers (Brackett) and Jimmy were concerned, Rogers taking this social naif under his wing and teaching him which fork to use. I had letters from people saying “Rogers has this kid in tow that he’s trying to be Svengali to”
The change was apparent to his agent the next time she took him to lunch. He got all upset because they didn’t have Roquefort dressing. She asked him “why are you upset at that, when last week you’d have been glad just to have a sandwich?”
I’VE BEEN GETTING AROUND, AND I HAVE SOME NEW CLOTHES
Brackett also paid for Jimmy to go to...
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
“Jimmy was an individualist, an original, and anyone who came in contact with him felt it” observed his friend. And only in New York could he truly flourish. Yet during his first few weeks, he was too intimidated to do anything but watch movies. He’d watch his favourite film continuously from 8am to 2am.
There was a down side to his NY life - poverty. A local barber would cut Jimmy’s hair, with no money he’d pay later. He was depressed and didn’t talk much. Sitting on the steps of the barbershop, angry he couldn’t pay rent or buy food. He had no work that winter and the hotel wanted rid of him. The barber told the management “Don’t evict him, he’s a good actor and a good kid. He’ll pay later”
Rogers Brackett had one of his friends introduce Jimmy to the right people and most of them gave him a job. One time all the actors were asked to wear dark clothes but Jimmy turned up in a transparent fishnet shirt and the tightest jeans you ever saw.
Someone commented that he was a very dark person and made them nervous.
Jimmy said at the time: REAL ACTING TECHNIQUE IS NOT TO KNOW THE LINES TOO WELL, SO IT LOOKS LIKE YOU’RE SEARCHING FOR THE WORDS
He would hang around the lobby of the residence for single female performing artists, where his friend lived. The women saw him as a lovable child and would feed him: half a sandwich from one, a Coke from another.
Fellow actress Dizzy Sheridan recalls: he seemed so insecure in his acting. Yet he must have thought he was good because he had no doubts about getting to the top. He never for one instant thought that he really couldn’t make it.
HE ALWAYS KNEW THAT HE WOULD ONE DAY BE A STAR, THERE WAS NO QUESTION
IN HIS MIND ABOUT IT AT ALL
Dizzy reminisced about her time with Jimmy: Everyone left us alone during that time. We were two people against the world. We both felt pretty separated from life. That’s why we were so good together. We had our own way of talking. Later in Rebel Without A Cause, he said things that were lifted right from the way we would talk.
There was tenderness and desperation between them and there were also old-married-couple habits that crept into their routine. “I used to wash his underwear in the sink”
I’VE HAD LETTERS FROM CRAZY PEOPLE ABOUT HIM. ONE WAS FROM A GAY MAN WHO ASKED “HOW DARE YOU CLAIM JIMMY? HE’S OURS!”
Dizzy: As to the question of whether he was gay, I really don’t know. But I can tell you that we very much enjoyed each other when we were together. It was very intense and very heated.
Dizzy: It was a very strange thing about his mother. He was so sensitive about that. Over and over, as we would lie in the dark, we would talk about the things closest to us, and his mother came up all the time.
Jimmy made a new actor friend. They began spending considerable time together, sitting in Central Park discussing Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift, or riding in tandem on Jimmy’s motorcycle. One time while riding on the back, carrying a stack of books and Jimmy’s records, he had to hold onto the collar of Jimmy’s coat with his teeth.
ALL JIMMY AND DIZZY COULD AFFORD TO EAT WAS SHREDDED WHEAT
Finally they had to separate and Jimmy moved in with Rogers Brackett, recently arrived from Chicago. A friend who visited said: There was a toy animal stuck to the ceiling of the apartment. I asked “How did that get up there?” Jimmy immediately replied “suction shoes”
Dizzy found a room that was so small it could barely contain a bed. Although living with Brackett, Jimmy spent a few nights there with her. Not surprisingly, his boyfriend and girlfriend became rivals.
Dizzy recalls: Jimmy had run away from him in Chicago (maybe that’s what he told her) He was an evil man and wanted to control Jimmy. I only remember sitting in their apartment and being very much aware that this man resented me and my position in Jimmy’s life.
Brackett’s interest in James Dean had very likely turned possessive.
THE ACTORS STUDIO
Jimmy had hopes of getting into The Actors Studio even before he came to NY (acting classes presided over by Lee Strasberg) The last auditions of the season were approaching and he still hadn’t chosen a scene or a partner. What follows is the fascinating story of how he achieved his dream.
He had gone to an agency in April 52 with the hope of becoming their client. Wearing a black suit, tie and white shirt he stepped into the reception. Beyond it was the secretarys room. A young woman in a red jumper and matching velvet hat sat typing, deep in thought, but she was not the secretary.
He wandered in and peered over her shoulder. “I can’t believe - was he raised in a barn?” the woman asked herself in annoyance. He said “What are you doing?” ... “Typing!” retorted Christine White. She had been in NY for several months. Her work had just run out and she was writing an original scene. She was a client at the agency and was using the typewriter in the lunch hour.
She figured Jimmy was a delivery boy. “He doesn’t have any right to be back here in the office” she thought. Jimmy threw himself back against a file cabinet and draped his arms around it. The following conversation ensued...
Jimmy: Are you an actress?
Christine: I don’t know whether I am. They will have to answer that. But right now I’m trying to write a play.
Jimmy: Oh! You’re trying to write a play.
Christine: YES.
Jimmy: What about?
Christine says: So he came over, and that’s when he started to read it. I figured he wouldn’t understand it if he read it, so I let him look.
Christine: You’re breaking my concentration, and you really have to move because this machine is not mine.
Finally, he left and she finished typing. When she went out he was sitting in the corner. And she felt the need to apologise. Jimmy said he had waited long enough (for his interview) and could they go for coffee. She too wanted to get into The Actors Studio. They went through the scene she had just written.
Its theme was
ALIENATION FROM SOCIETY AND FAMILY
A young woman had run away from home and was picked up in a bar by an “intellectual beachcomber” - hence the play being set on the beach. Jimmy liked the iconoclasm of the male character.
HE SORT OF TAKES HER UNDER HIS WING BECAUSE HE’S BEEN AROUND,
REJECTING THE WORLD
This made Jimmy even more interested. After 2 hours she had to leave, so he walked her to the bus stop. She gave him her number but didn’t think she would hear from him again. The next morning she was having a lie in when the phone rang. “This is Jim Dean”
He had only gone and fixed up an appointment with The Actors Studio... sending her into panic. He persuaded her it was a good idea because this way she could get in under the D’s (his surname) “He was selling me my own play”
He turned up almost straight away and they rehearsed the scene. They also showed Jane Deacy (her agent) the play. Jimmy let out a stream of cusswords (maybe because the phone rang) “God, Jimmy, don’t do that, please!” exclaimed Christine.
All the actors would swear, even the girls. It was street talk. Jimmy would get mad and say “Oh, f*** that!”
They finally got to audition infront of Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg. And Jimmy was terrified. During this time he was still seeing Dizzy Sheridan. And he kept her and Christine White separate. They did receive their membership to The Actors Studio. Few members got in on their first try (usually blamed on bad quality scenes)
There was a reunion for UCLA people and Jimmy was there. He was the loner on the outskirts, sitting in a window seat, just staring out the window.
A playwright member of The Studio said he couldn’t remember Jimmy doing any scenes there. “He was just sullen, and who wants to be around a sullen person?”
IT WAS SAID OF JIMMY THAT TO ACT WELL, HE NEEDED REASSURANCE, TOLERANCE AND UNDERSTANDING...
He didn’t get it from the Actors Studio.
SLEEPING HIS WAY ONTO BROADWAY
Jimmy had been living with a male friend for a while and they moved into an apartment with Dizzy Sheridan. There were bare mattresses to sleep on and they never had enough to eat. The three spent a lot of time in Central Park. They all made a brief visit to Fairmount (persuaded by the prospect of his aunt’s - adoptive mothers - cooking)
Dizzy: I wish everyone could have been with us in Indiana to see the way Jimmy treated the animals.
They were very depressed on the way back to New York through the tunnel.
Jimmy had gone to an audition and the agent said: during the questions and answers, I was aware of a quiet insolence directed at me.
I ALSO SAW THAT DEAN WAS GIVING ME THE X RAY STARE...
Jimmy’s attitude shot from rudeness to outright hostility. He had kept the appointment only to vent his accumulated resentment at all casting agents, feeling they had ignored or rejected him.
“How come all you agents never pay us any attention until someone else gives us a tumble? We bust our backs making the rounds, going from office to office every day, trying to see you guys, and not a chance. We’ve got feelings too! Then, when we get our own break - bam! You all jump on the bandwagon. All of a sudden, we’re popular” That’s him told then.
A fellow actor said: Jimmy was a mixture of naiveté and driving ambition. He was completely taken with his own momentary need. Everything was judged by “What do I feel now?”
I NEVER MET ANYBODY WHO WAS MORE APPEALING TO THE MATERNAL SENSE IN ALL WOMEN
Jimmy used his charms to get himself work and people knew it. Media Expert Robert Tysl accused Hollywood reporter Joe Hyams of “pussyfooting to the established Hollywood line, rather than revealing, or at least seeking, the truth”
The reporter’s version of how Jimmy got his first Broadway role: By talking himself into a crewmans job on a yacht. One night he told the skipper that he really wanted to be an actor... The skipper had a friend... The reporters and fan magazines repeated this story.
The truth was that Jimmy had slept his way into the part (on the yacht) Tysl:
THE INSIDE STORY OF HOW ONE BECOMES A STAR IS NOT ALWAYS A PARTICULARLY WHOLESOME STORY. IT IS, IN FACT, UNPRINTABLE
And of course no-one really wants to know the truth about their precious hero. Just keep believing the PR machine.
Broadway legend holds that Jimmy pulled a knife on the director during a rehearsal or scenery set up. He flashed a knife and said “You come up here, you son of a bitch, and you’ll get this!” Jimmy was so angry because he didn’t act by the rules and the director was a professional.
Playwright Tennessee Williams went to see the show and Jimmy thought Tennessee had the hots for him.
A while later Jimmy bumped into the agent he had told off: Hiya... What do you think of me now? Don’t tell me, I know. All you guys are saying the same thing: Dean’s a great actor. Nuts to you all!
By following his instincts and opting for on-the-job training in NY, rather than an academic environment, James Dean had taken the path that was right for him.
LONESOME
For the rest of his life he would choose to live alone. He moved into a hotel.
Christine White: I moved in right below him one floor. Jimmy was always trying to fix up his room. He’d pound on the floor with his boot. That meant come up. He had no fridge, so he kept his milk and beer out on the fire escape. It was in the dead of winter. There were two plants I had brought him. He would bathe the leaves in milk. His room was never a mess at that time.
Often we would talk until 3 or 4 in the morning, settling the worlds problems. One of these sessions was out on the fire escape; it was one of our deepest exchanges. We were smoking cigarettes, drinking beer, and dropping the bottles to watch and hear them break.
We had many exchanges about God and what Jimmy’s theological viewpoint was at that time. We discussed it very often and deeply. Jimmy was no puritan; to him Jesus was a champion. “Any guy who would do all that has got guts and balls. That’s what I like. All that theological, ideological ritual crap is nothing but boring”
I know that his roots were grass roots in an underprivileged way; that’s what he said. He was used to going without; he had no regard for wardrobe, clothes or anything. He was completely involved in:
WHAT YOU THINK OR WHAT YOU FEEL IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN
THE SHIRT YOU’RE WEARING
Christine: His father was basically not too encouraging. I think he felt a lot of lack there. I think he felt his father could have made a move, and had wishful thinking in that area. Jimmy covered up whatever he felt about the absence of his father’s approval. You can be cocky and throw it off.
Jimmy didn’t really go on a lot; didn’t really have patter at his command. If he were excited, the rhythm of his speech might be up and up. But if you were alone with him, as I was so much, he would completely relax and open up, all the nuances would come out.
BASICALLY HE WAS NOT YOUR BIG TALKER
Asked how she managed to stop herself falling in love with him: That’s an interesting question because I ask myself that. But there were many times when Jimmy would make a pass... he knew me pretty well. It was a look, or we would hold hands in a movie, or it would be walking down the street, or he would make a sudden move. Yes, he would. Then if I would laugh or something like that... or sometimes we would stand in the street and hug each other. It wasn’t that there was any reason not to fall in love.
We would spend the night together. But everything was fun and just like “getting to know you”. It was like building a relationship, a very solid relationship, on trust, on fun, on friendship, and companionship. In the back of our minds, it would be like “if there is going to be somebody, it’s probably going to be you”. The serious nature of it was on a layer that we didn’t really act on. But it was pretty deep. The respect for oneanother was very deep. I think that’s what we had. I think he needed that.
Of her time as his downstairs neighbour: He was so lonely. He didn’t know how much. Of course, he refused to admit it. Maybe this quality made girls want to mother him. He thought nothing of crying.
Christine left the hotel and one of Jimmy’s old room mates moved back in. This time they would keep separate quarters on the same floor, directly across the hotel’s small courtyard from eachother. They would often signal to oneanother through their windows.
BUT WHEN DEAN’S SHADE WAS DRAWN, IT WAS HIS “DO NOT DISTURB” SIGN
TO THE WORLD
Another friend Jimmy had at the hotel (his next door neighbour) said in his diary on 22 Feb 53: He has a provocative way of looking at you, then suddenly smiling.
On 7 March he wrote: There’s a wonderful way he has of looking down at his feet, then up into my eyes, and then after a second of non-expressiveness, a glowing smile bursts forth. One wants to hug him.
Nearly four decades later his friend spoke of Jimmy’s modest quarters and their friendship: Jimmy’s room had a white, enamelled bed, on which he was always stretched out playing his recorder. He was not one for sitting; he was always on that damn white bed, leaning his head against the slats. I’d say “Jimmy, use a pillow!”
I was older (37) and I never made a pass at him. One thing about me, even from the time I was small, was that when I would find beauty in a person, I would look at them in a certain way - worshipful. Warmth was what I got back from Jimmy.
HOLLYWOOD RUINED HIM, AND MYTHOLOGY HAS DEFACED HIM COMPLETELY
It was something very clear to me, always very clear to me. He was the loneliest person I ever knew. Sometimes he would cry... Once when I hugged Jimmy he rested his head on my shoulder.
JIMMY’S GIRLS AND BOYS...
In 1953 James Dean appeared in 16 TV shows. The small screen laid the foundation for his movie career. It was also a good way for Hollywood talent scouts to recognise him. Rogers Brackett was now out of his life but Jimmy spent enough time slagging him off. Dizzy Sheridan went off to be a dancer. Christine White was still around.
Jimmy had met a new girl in a coffee shop - Barbara Glenn. He was to have one of his most exceptional relationships with her. Sitting with her friends, she spotted “a magnificently gorgeous” but “withdrawn” Jimmy in a corner by himself and invited him over. He seemed uptight and insecure, and his attempts at conversation were pathetic, yet she found him attractive and fascinating. The combination of good looks and danger was irresistible to her.
HE RELATED TO ME DIFFERENTLY THAN ANYONE I’D EVER MET
She reminded him of his mother. She could see he was a highly vulnerable person, wary of letting anyone get close and terrified of rejection. Eventually he realised she was a kindred spirit and began to confide everything to her. They didn’t go out socially together. His letters to her over the next 2 years are the best resource on who he really was.
Because they were so close, they had frequent fights. When he was angry, he refused to communicate. They stayed “together” for over two years.
When he wasn’t working in TV Jimmy spent a lot of time with a director friend. He didn’t believe he could sustain friendships; they all had to be tested.
I CONSTANTLY TRIED TO GET HIM TO GO TO A THERAPIST, SO HE COULD IMPROVE HIS INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS. HE WAS BEGINNING TO ISOLATE HIMSELF FROM PEOPLE
He was in desperate need of help yet distrustful of almost everyone who could help him.
In May 53 Jimmy met Jonathan Gilmore, an 18 year old actor. It was a semi-platonic friendship: He saw me as a kind of teenage Rimbaud who didn’t like anybody, and he liked that. I’d been told that I was misanthropic and that it was a bad situation to have negative thoughts, but Jimmy liked these.
AND HE’D ENCOURAGE ME TO SAY BAD THINGS ABOUT PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY TO THEIR FACE
It was like two bad boys... I encouraged whatever craziness he’d think up. The physical side or attempts at it were extensions of the intensity of this relationship. It was kind of an affair between bad boy spirits.
I’d met (Edith) Piaf in LA in 52, and Jimmy was most excited to talk about her. I played her records for him. Jimmy said she was a “superb prima donna bitch”. He was fascinated with her mouth; he said it was a kind of living thing with a mind of its own, apart from the personality, and that it gave him a hard on and he wanted to stick his ! in her mouth.
Jimmy did confide his most personal feelings about his mother and father to his younger friend: He would talk to me about his mother when he was drunk, how they related, and how he lacked a “line” to her, such as he said was still possible for me to sustain with my mother, who was alive.
Barbara Glenn was away and Jimmy was friendly with another actress. He would be sitting in a corner without speaking, sometimes playing his drums along with the music. His new friend said that:
JIMMY LOVED ATTENTION FROM GIRLS, EVEN THOUGH HE WENT TO EXTREMES NOT TO BE NOTICED
They spent hours and even days and nights together at her apartment but were never seen socially. She understood the troubled rebel in him.
One of his letters to Barbara that summer, written in a 6.30am mental haze referred cryptically to the contents of a drawer in the desk he was sitting at, saying it contained photographs and drawings that were “imaginative” and “not so subtle”. He claimed to have stumbled upon it.
Another time Jimmy was drunk and pulled out some bad drawings of sailors seducing a man, holding a man down and so forth... He’s starting to go weird. But all my heroes are.
There was rivalry between Jimmy and his friend over acting parts.
GILMORE KNEW THAT JIMMY WOULD SLEEP WITH THE PLAYWRIGHT TO STEAL AN ACTING PART FROM HIM
I was up for it (the part) without yet having had to go to bed with the playwright and was hoping to keep it that way.
Jimmy had a way with words, when he did speak (if you were a stranger more often than not because he was angry at you) His advice to a fellow actor:
“You think I give a shit you want to be an actor? You think that guy over there, or that woman in the booth, cares about you being an actor? Oh, maybe your mother does, I don’t know, but get this straight...”
ABSOLUTELY NOBODY IN THE WORLD GIVES A FLYING F***
“You want to be an actor? Fine. But never, ever bitch about it”
Jimmy also had his first groupie (you could say) after a 17 year old student phoned him up and said “you don’t know me, but...” Somehow you just know he didn’t say no. Although he did see her for a while but she realised he was involved with men as well as other women.
SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED
In his acting, Jimmy was unpredictable. He liked to be appreciated and told how wonderful he was.
He once brought a scene to a halt by taking an imaginary object out of his pocket, licking it and holding it up to the light. “You can’t do this, we’re in a play!” said the director, chasing him out of the theatre and down the street, yelling “You son of a bitch! If I catch you I’m gonna kill you!” It wasn’t the last time he would get up to mischief. At the end of the play, the actors had to bow to the audience. Jimmy curtsied... The director complained that Jimmy would taunt him with it.
James Dean was to meet Elia Kazan to be considered for the part of Cal Trask in East Of Eden. The man who was adapting the novel for the silver screen had recommended Jimmy. Kazan recalls:
He did a thing that always attracts me: he wasn’t polite to me. He made me feel he wasn’t straining to butter me up, that he had a real sense of himself. He said “I’ll take you for a ride on my motorbike”
IT WAS VERY HARD FOR HIM TO TALK AND RIDING ME ON THE BACK OF HIS MOTORBIKE WAS HIS WAY OF COMMUNICATING WITH ME. AS I GOT TO KNOW HIS FATHER,
AS I GOT TO KNOW ABOUT HIS FAMILY, I LEARNED THAT HE HAD BEEN TWISTED BY THE DENIAL OF LOVE
James Dean got a NINE picture contract. His salary for East Of Eden would be ten thousand dollars, increasing with every picture until it reached forty thousand on the ninth film. No more than two pictures were to be made each year without his consent.
I just wanted to take a pause here. You’re thinking what I’m thinking... they’ve given him all that money, it’s going to go to his head. He’s finally made it. His life would never be the same again.
Kazan and Jimmy flew to the film capital together in April 54. It was Jimmy’s first flight. He had his few belongings tied up with brown paper and string.
After they arrived, reported Kazan: We were heading toward the studio when Jimmy said “Can we stop here a minute? My father lives in there” He went in and got his father. Out came a man who was as tense as Jimmy was, and they could hardly look at eachother. They could hardly talk; they mumbled at eachother. I don’t know what the hell Jimmy stopped to see him for, because in a few minutes he said “Let’s go”
LOST LOVE IN HOLLYWOOD
Jimmy wanted no part of the Hollywood social scene. A director commented: Everything Jimmy did suggested he had no intention of belonging to the place.
Between arriving in Hollywood and starting work on the film, he wrote five letters to Barbara Glenn, full of desperate declarations of misery i.e.
HIS PERSISTENT AND DELIBERATE ANTAGONISM TO JUST ABOUT EVERYONE, WONDERING WHY HE TREATED PEOPLE THAT WAY
Kazan and Tennessee Williams were objects of his scorn. He realised this was not good. Preliminary work at Warner Brothers - wardrobe and makeup tests - repelled him.
HIS ONLY SALVATION WERE THE NEW DIVERSIONS HE COULD BUY WITH HIS SUDDENLY FULL WALLET
Including his MG and a motorcycle
He met a friend from the days he was a struggling actor. He said to them “If anyone comes in here, you’ll see me change. Just play along with me” And someone did come in that he knew. He did act strangely - brooding, incoherent, staring into his coffee, not looking up.
LATER THE FRIEND CAME TO UNDERSTAND THAT HIS NOTORIOUS “STRANGENESS” WAS JUST AN ACT. BUT HE PLAYED THAT PART SO LONG, MAYBE HE BECAME THE ACT
There was real life tension on set during a bible reading scene. Kazan secretly told Dean to insert obscenities into the verses to provoke a co-star into on-camera rage.
And of course it wasn’t long before Jimmy had a new girl, actress Pier Angeli. He did not meet with parental approval (what a surprise) One day, Pier’s mother found her diaphragm and confronted her with it. Pier answered her back. Mama stormed into Jack Warner’s office and flung it on his desk. “You’ve got this punk kid” she bellowed “and my daughter’s going to be a big star”
I DON’T WANT HIM TO SEE MY DAUGHTER EVER AGAIN!
Jimmy was distraught, pounding the wall with his fist: I’m not allowed to see Pier again. I was summoned to Warner’s office. The big mogul said “I want you to stop f***** that broad, or you’ll be off the picture” Jimmy was offended that Warner called Pier a broad. He snarled “The old lady wouldn’t let me marry her if I were the goddam pope!”
Pier’s mother asked for advice from another protective Italian stage parent. He said: You do what we do in the old country - lock them up. You do whatever it takes to keep non-Catholics away from our beautiful women. So she did.
Jimmy was depressed. All he had for comfort was his camera. He used to stand infront of the mirror in his room and take roll after roll of close-up photographs of his face, with only the slightest variation of expression.
He got a friend to act as a go-between so that he and Pier could communicate. The friend would also write in his column that Jimmy was seeing other girls.
East Of Eden finished filming on 9 August 54. By now Jimmy had worked his charm on Mama. A couple of Sunday night suppers on the family patio did the trick. He had to go back to NY to work on a TV show and Pier drove him to the airport. He hadn’t wanted to leave her behind... Finally he asked a friend if he could call her in Hollywood.
The friend witnessed one of Jimmy’s few emotional outbursts. It was so bad, he had to take the phone. “Tell him not to get so excited” pleaded Pier. Before leaving, he’d said: They’re getting to her. I’m gonna lose her... He couldn’t bear it.
Jimmy was right all along. She left him and got engaged to Vic Damone. Jimmy was quoted as saying: I figure that when I went back to NY after finishing East Of Eden her family and friends changed her mind about me... I hope they’ll be happy.
What he really said was: I don’t give a shit. But I know how we can cure her of Damone. We lock her in a five-by-five room plastered with pictures of him before his nose job (now it was Jimmy who wanted to lock her up)
The wedding was set for November. Jimmy went along uninvited. He said: I’ll be in my black leather jacket - Mama hated it - on my motorcycle, and I’ll gun the shit out of that thing! Reports said that he was indeed across the street; some mentioned the motorcycle.
Maybe she was better off away from him anyway. Why?
WHEN DRUNK HE HAD A REPUTATION FOR BEATING UP HIS GIRLFRIENDS.
HE HAD PHYSICALLY ABUSED PIER ANGELI “ONCE TOO OFTEN”
RELUCTANT INTERVIEWEE
Jimmy’s attitude to his official studio biog? He took it out of his pocket, glanced at it, rolled his eyes and threw it away.
JIMMY HATED THE PRESS AND HE REFUSED TO HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THEM
His reactions to being marketed as a commodity were often hostile. But the Hollywood press made it’s living out of the stars and they had other ideas. While making East Of Eden, they had been banned from talking to Jimmy as he was new in town and didn’t know the rules. He wasn’t equipped to deal with the imbeciles who covered the studios.
A columnist at the Mirror News heard about Jimmy from her husband (who worked in the Warner’s PR dept) “He’s shy and won’t talk to anyone” But she decided she wanted to talk to him and called the film set, pretending to be a secretary. Jimmy came on the phone.
He said “Go f*** yourself! I’ve never heard of you before” She said “I’ve never heard of you! Listen, I’ve met people more interesting than you. And there’s not a four, six or eight letter word you can say that will shock or frighten me!”
Jimmy was so astounded that he laughed. She told him that she wrote her column only to please herself. When they met, he asked her for advice. “How do I handle these reporters?”
DON’T TRUST ANYONE, EVEN ME. DON’T TELL (THE REPORTERS) TO GO F*** THEMSELVES. DON’T TALK POLITICS
He admired her ingenuity. The reason she got along with him - and ended up getting more than others from him - is that the big columnists were all starstruck.
SHE WASN’T A PERSONALITY OR OUT TO PROMOTE HERSELF
Jimmy would be written about as the new Marlon Brando. Or not “WHY DEAN CAN NEVER BE LIKE BRANDO” exclaimed one headline. However Jimmy idolised Brando but did not like public comparisons.
“It’s true I am constantly reminding people of him. They discover resemblances - we are both from farms, dress as we please, ride motorcycles, and work for Elia Kazan”
Both had been exceptional in high school dramatics. In his earlier days, Brando’s behaviour at parties was much like Dean’s now: silent and withdrawn. Complaints about the two from fellow actors were identical: they never did the same scene twice. They both felt revulsion for the press - although Brando’s stemmed from the publicity he got after A Streetcar Named Desire.
ONE SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BRANDO AND JIMMY WAS BRANDO’S DISDAIN OF BULLFIGHTS; JD WAS OBSESSED WITH THE SUBJECT
The Hollywood press felt ignored and insulted by Jimmy, who found small talk impossible. He had a famous tantrum during a photo shoot for Life magazine. He would refuse to be interviewed, be persuaded he had to and then piss off the interviewers.
When he returned to visit Indiana, he refused to talk to the local paper because he said they hadn’t given him enough publicity on his way up. “I’m not letting that goddam paper in my home”
During the 18 months he was a star, he did make numerous quips. He never spelled out his criteria in deciding who he would favour but he did say I’LL TALK TO THE ONES I LIKE.
The full-length, autobiographical interviews he gave can be counted on one hand; only two were printed during his lifetime (there were 4 altogether)
Around the time East Of Eden premiered, there were 13 fan magazine interviews waiting for him. So it’s not that people weren’t interested in what he had to say.
The one columnist he trusted, who had first given him advice on how to deal with the press, said: Both of us had the same type of drive so we understood eachother. What we had, no-one else had, an unerring sense between the bogus and the real. He knew I was doing it on my own, a rebel in my own way. He wrote me a note that said:
I’M INTERESTED IN THE CRAFT, NOT THE CRAP
I think Jimmy came to Hollywood with the hope of doing a good job at what he loved doing, what he found worth doing. He wanted to be a star in the sense that it meant he was good at what he did. I think he identified with misfits and loners. He wanted very much to please himself with his work.
In his interviews, he spoke with thoughtfulness and candour: I’m a serious minded and intense little devil... and so tense I don’t see how people stay in the same room with me. I know I wouldn’t tolerate myself! (is that why he used to hide behind his drums?)
Jimmy offered one interviewer freshly brewed coffee and raisin bread with cream cheese. He was docile and charming.
HE WANTED TO DEMONSTRATE HIS HIFI EQUIPMENT WHICH WAS STATE OF THE ART
By the end, the interviewer was eating out of his hand. In response to the question “Have you lost anything since East Of Eden made you famous?” he was positively angelic.
“I fought it for a long time but after a while I think I started learning what so many actors have learned - about that certain communicative power we have that so few people are privileged to have. We find that we can reach people all over the world! And then we start thinking “I’m famous, all right, and I guess this is what I wanted, so now how do I face it?” And then the responsibilities come. And you have to fight against becoming egotistical”
This is taken from the most remarkable interview he gave.
AFTERWARDS, HE SENT THE INTERVIEWER AN AUTOGRAPHED PHOTO WITH THE INSCRIPTION “I KNOW, MIKE, WE ALL MARCH TO A DIFFERENT DRUMBEAT”
REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE
Kazan had witnessed the effect of success on many an unknown actor. “I don’t expect it to be honorable” he warned. With Jimmy, Hollywood was saying he was a big star before East Of Eden had finished filming and Kazan saw it go to his head. He was rude to the wardrobe man and complained about scenes he was expected to do. Kazan resigned himself that it was going to happen but Lee Strasberg (Actors Studio) was terrified by it. This is what he said at The Studio shortly after Jimmy’s death:
Now that you’ve really made it... what the hell happens with it? The senseless waste, the hopping around from one thing to the next, the waste of talent, the waste of your lives, the strange kind of behaviour that not just Jimmy had, but that a lot of actors have.
Not everyone believed fame affected him. Christine White says it did not. When she saw him after he’d made East Of Eden, she thought he looked different. She asked “Have you gotten taller, or is that fame?” He replied “It can’t be fame because I’m not aware of it” Dizzy Sheridan had the same opinion.
Rogers Brackett had fallen on hard times and asked Jimmy to lend him some money. Jimmy told him no and that he’d outgrown him. When Brackett’s friend heard of this, he confronted him.
“I read him the riot act about his dreadful behaviour... For nowhere in all his publicity had Rogers name been mentioned. I told him he was morally bound to write Rogers a letter of apology. He claimed that he couldn’t do it, so I wrote a letter... then I forced him to rewrite it so that it could be mailed in his handwriting... but the damage had been done and they never met again”
He ranted that Brackett ought to sue him for repayment of past assistance. Jimmy:
I DIDN’T KNOW IT WAS THE WHORE WHO PAID; I THOUGHT IT WAS THE OTHER WAY AROUND
If you got on the wrong side of Jimmy, he could be a bad boy. When filming East Of Eden he lived in the star dressing room. When they finally got him out, against his will, he removed the name and number plates from all the office doors and hung them from ceilings and unusual places. Then, he rode away on his motorcycle, vowing never to make a film there again. But Jimmy was contracted, on October 7th, to make Rebel Without A Cause.
Tennessee Williams was at the public preview of East Of Eden in December and Jimmy would make up a foursome with him and 2 girls on a nightclub visit at the end of that week.
Jimmy now travelled by plane but was afraid of flying. He would tire himself out before journeys, so he would fall asleep once on board.
THESE PLANES - THEY’LL FALL OUT OF THE AIR
He knew a disabled actress and, after overhearing other actors making a hurtful remark about not wanting to take her on a date, she got in her car and drove off. After that incident Jimmy repeatedly told her she was beautiful and special, every time he saw her.
His love of fast driving was already causing concern having recently fallen off his Triumph. Marlon Brando had a word with him about it, warning him he would never work again if he damaged his looks. He also told him to see a psychiatrist.
The screenplay for the next film was coming together and he hung round with the writer (whom he wanted to write his life story) ... Jimmy and I started talking very personally. A couple of times before this I had seen him be cold or abrupt with people - but these things always ended in something causing pain for him.
HE WAS ALWAYS PUTTING PEOPLE THROUGH A SERIES OF CIRCUS HOOPS BEFORE LETTING THEM GET CLOSE. HE REALLY WANTED TO BE A PARTICIPANT IN LIFE BUT HE WAS CONSTANTLY F****** HIMSELF OVER BY BEHAVIOUR DESIGNED TO ALIENATE PEOPLE
I sensed a terrible feeling of inadequacy and emptiness and yearning, and I told him. As much as he wanted and needed friends, he often drove them away.
Then something terrible happened. He would be rejected for a second time by someone he loved. Barbara Glenn had met a man she was planning to marry. Jimmy wanted to meet him, but she was wary because she knew what he was capable of. However they did meet and he was on best behaviour. Then he asked to see her alone. She wasn’t sure. But he begged her and she went to his flat.
When she walked in, she noticed an open suitcase on the bed, full of money. He told her to take it. She didn’t know what to think but because she had loaned him money over the years, she asked if he was trying to pay her back. His reply?
YOU CAN’T LEAVE ME, BARBARA, YOU CAN’T GO. WE CAN’T END LIKE THIS
She retorted that she was getting married and that was final. She said goodbye and started walking down the stairs. He began to scream.
FLINGING FISTFULS OF MONEY DOWN THE STAIRS HE SAID “AND WHEN I DIE, IT’LL BE YOUR FAULT”
When Rebel Without A Cause started filming on 30th March 55, he would work without a break until just before his death. He would never go home again.
Those who felt East Of Eden hadn’t changed him were right. He had always been reckless, moody and contemptuous of authority. But those who thought he had changed were right, too because
ALL OF HIS SELF DESTRUCTIVE TENDENCIES WERE NOW GREATLY MAGNIFIED
LIVE FAST...
James Dean was spending his money on expensive race cars. Within 17 months he bought an MG, two Porsches - a Speedster and a Spyder - and had a Lotus IX on order. No matter how depressed he was, if he had the chance to get behind something fast, he would laugh and come alive again. Talking to Barbara Glenn about his sleek red MG was almost like discussing a new girlfriend...
At first he raced the MG and Speedster over the Hollywood Hills. But he wanted to drive faster than public highways would allow. On the last weekend of March 55, just before he started filming, he entered the Speedster into the Palm Springs airport course meet. He came first in the novice race, second in the main event.
DEAN WENT CRAZY. HE WENT OUT FRONT AND LEFT EVERYBODY. HE WAS BLASTING - GOING LIKE A BOMB
His directors imposed restrictions on what he could drive while filming. After his last day of work on Giant, 17th September 55, he couldn’t get to the races fast enough. On 21st September, he traded in his Speedster towards a 69 hundred dollar Porsche Spyder.
He was going to enter the new car in a race in Salinas on 30th September and although he set out, he never made it. They don’t know how fast he was going or if it was really an accident. He was 24 years, seven months and 22 days old.
There is no uncertainty about his commitment to his last 2 films. A review of Rebel said: only a superb interpretation could have given (the unhealthy parent-son relationship) the texture of a deeply corrosive, psychic disorder, and James Dean magnificently achieved it.
The director said: to work with him meant exploring his nature, trying to understand it; without this, his powers of expression were frozen.
The story had been the director’s idea, and his one strong conviction was that:
THERE WAS A BIG MISCONCEPTION THAT SO-CALLED JUVENILE DELINQUENCY WAS A PRODUCT OF ECONOMIC DEPRIVATION. I FEEL THAT IT WAS EMOTIONAL DEPRIVATION
Trying out a scene where they had to laugh uncontrollably, Jimmy achieved it by going to the bottom of the stairs on the old Streetcar Named Desire set and shouting “Stella!” a la Brando.
During the scene at the police station where Jimmy punches the desk, he does it with real ferocity. To prepare for such an intense scene he kept them waiting for an hour, drinking red wine and listening to a chosen song in his dressing room.
The one film he will always be remembered for is Rebel Without A Cause. He was the first American teenager (it’s all his fault then)
--- THE END ---
AFTERWORD
I used to have a huge poster of James Dean on my wall when I was a teenager. When I left, I never got it back. But I’ll never forget it. The look in his eyes said it all; desperate and scared. Exactly how I felt. It was said that Jimmy hated his own couldn’t care less attitude and his independence from society. But that’s exactly who he was.
Typing this story affected me, making me feel really negative. Near the end I wished I’d never started it i.e. when Jimmy started to crack up. I also found out things I never knew about him.
I think I respect James Dean most because he was just himself. He’s an icon of the dispossessed from any walk of life. I like people who are honest about their feelings. If he wasn’t always honest about his lifestyle, he was emotionally. Some people just did not like him. He was too intense for them to handle.
He felt unloved by his father. If you feel/felt like that, then you’ll identify with him 100%. Why didn’t his father make an effort? Was he scared of his own son? And no-one can fix it when it’s broken.
He believed in himself while at the same time being very insecure. Most of my heroes have the same personality and I’m constantly amazed by how similar they are.
To J.D. by alienated
He had lost eyes
Give him love and
He’s like a sieve
Demanding, always asking
For answers
He never found
One of life’s strays
He never had a home
Maybe in our hearts
But he’ll never know
His tears were real
On the silver screen
Finally achieved
His dream
And you know
What they say
The second you’re happy
They take you away . . .
xxxx
Morrissey is a big fan of James Dean, dedicating a whole video - Suedehead - to a visit to Fairmount, Indiana.
Jimmy Jimmy - Madonna 1986
Where you’re goin boy
I see your legs twitchin
My Daddy says
You just need a good lickin
You say you’re gonna be
The king of Las Vegas
You’re just a boy
That comes from bad places
Why oh why do fools fall in love
With fools like you
Why did you go
And crash up your new car
Is it becos it didn’t take you too far
Why do you always
Have such a sad face
Is it becos you wanna
Get out of this place?
You’re much too wild for this town
There’s not much here
That’s gonna hold you down
You’ve got a lot of style
It should take you far
Take you further than my back yard
Took my advice and
Got out of this place
This old town ain’t
Never gonna be the same
I really love you
I just couldn’t tell you so
I should’ve said it then
Now you’ll never know...
The Underdogs - Rialto 1998
The underdogs
Keep running after shiny motorbikes
Trying to keep up while they
Look back and laugh
We’re so tired of dragging our hearts
It’s the chrome and the steel
And all the power that we wanna feel
So when we catch them
We will rip them apart
Cos it’s no more than they did to us
We’ve been waiting so long
We know just what we want
We will cheat and we’ll rob
Cos we are the underdogs...
To be bitter and in love
Is such a dirty little joke
We’re jaded to our brittle bones
Cos we are the underdogs
thanks to flicker for the following lyrics
James Dean (Goo Goo Dolls) new 21 july
Look around outside
Ain't nothing to do but hang around
Think about all the stupid things that I've done
I guess I ain't nothin' but a clown
If I had a wish, I swear I'd wish, I'd wish for just one thing
And I don't even like to think about all the things my wish'd bring
'Cause I just wanna be James Dean
I just wanna be James Dean
I just wanna be James Dean
For a day
I wanna be oversexed and underworked and look at me I'm such a jerk
And I just wanna be James Dean
For a day
Think about stories of the actors and the movies stars
Sitting here watching the old men drinking at the bar
I think about Dean and all the things he should've tried
I think about Dean and all the ways he could've died
And I wouldn't give a shit about anything cause I'd be such a big big star
And that don't really do me much good just cryin' at the bar
But I just wanna be James Dean
I just wanna be James Dean
I just wanna be James Dean
For a day
I'm overworked and undersexed and look at me I'm such a wreck
And I just wanna be James Dean
For a day
I'm going crazy cause I'm always all alone
I'm going crazy no one calls me on the phone
I think about Dean and I know Dean he wouldn't care
If I was Dean I know there'd be somebody there
Yeah there'd be somebody there
For me
Yeah I think about all the really cool things I could do and say
Then you go and tell me that you found out Dean was gay
No I don't wanna be James Dean... Anymore
At first when I read these lyrics I thought how could they identify with him so much and then reject him because of his sexuality, but maybe this is what they are trying to illustrate, that this is what some people do.
