Dream as if you'll live forever
live as if you'll die tomorrow
James Dean
B: 8 February 1931
D: 30 September 1955 aged 24
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His death by way of a horrific car accident in September 1955 at the tender age of only 24
assured the man became a legend, forever immortalising him as a cult Hollywood icon.
Yet whilst such ended the life of one so young, it failed to put a stop to speculation over
the nature of his sexuality. Said by some to be gay, only for others to deny such,
Dean's sudden rise to stardom led many to question whether such was by way
of Dean having courted various homosexual men of Hollywood influence.
Such was commented upon by William Bast in his revealing book SURVIVING JAMES DEAN in a poignant
reference to Dean's close Hollywood relationships and his almost exclusive role in life as
"an older homosexual's toy-boy." Such are not the only accounts of Dean's homosexual
affairs and yet it would appear that Dean was neither gay nor straight, holding
instead a bisexual view to life and if anything, an open mind to sexual experimentation.
His name, like his film legacy is remembered to this day, surely the perfect epitaph for any
actor. And yet it is a legacy that rests on only three films:-
- the Elia Kazan work EAST OF EDEN / 1955 for which Dean received the first posthumous
acting nomination in the history of the Academy® Awards,
- the classic REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE / 1955 with Natalie Wood and notably Sal Mineo as the
real outsider of the piece, thanks to his tender portrayal of an alienated gay teenager,
- and finally GIANT / 1956 with Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson and a work in which
Dean would receive his second posthumous Academy® nomination.
Yet like many an actor, Dean had polished his craft though bit parts in films, a series
of over thirty often overlooked television appearances and his work in the theatre,
including his Broadway debut in the 1954 adaptation of André Gide's book THE IMMORALIST.
It was a role that paved his way to Hollywood - and the rest, as they say, is history!
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