JAMES DEAN: ARCHETYPAL ADOLESCENT

This essay is a summary of a comprehensive biography that I wrote, entitled The Legend of James Dean: Demonic Heroes Have Villainous Virtues. In it, I attempt to examine the origins and development of James Dean’s legend and to explain how the James Dean legend came into existence. In the context of my analysis, I also attempt to explain how James Dean became the actor, “who spoke for all the restless young.”

The Legend of James Dean examines how Hollywood’s carefully calculated plan to promote James Dean’s image led to his being perceived as a kind of prototype of the postwar generation. I argue that Hollywood’s decision to repeatedly cast James Dean in juvenile delinquent roles transformed his public image from that of the all-American boy-next-door to that of the typical rebellious teenager, and James Dean’s acting genius enabled him to play his tough-guy roles so well that audiences saw no differences between James Dean and the characters he played. As a result, James Dean’s image began to symbolize adolescent anger and youthful rebelliousness, as James Dean came to be seen as “the quintessential rebel” in the eyes of the American public. Those who ran the motion picture industry in the 1950s used their power to determine James Dean’s fate by representing him to his fans as a street-tough kid, and, in the end, Hollywood wound up destroying James Dean’s public image, as he ceased to represent the wholesomeness and righteousness that had become so characteristic of the model American teenager by that time. In this way, James Dean entered the public’s consciousness in the middle of the 1950s as a symbol of adolescent rage and youthful rebellion.

For this reason, the fact that James Dean’s life is such an important part of American culture today is somewhat intriguing. It would suggest that whatever happened to James Dean in those days was “a fortunate stroke of serendipity.” Looking back at James Dean’s life, I am reminded of the story of Joseph, whose older brothers sold him into Egyptian slavery, because they were jealous of their father’s love for him. Genesis 50:19-20 says, “Joseph said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good.’” (NKJV) The decision to portray James Dean as a tough guy, by requiring him to repeatedly play the part of restless, reckless, and rebellious teenagers made it possible for Dean to emerge as the first star of the new “teen culture.” James Dean is revered as “the first American teenager,” because he was the first actor to play film roles that allowed teenagers to have a voice within the American family structure and to use that voice to challenge parental authority, as Jim Stark does in Rebel without a Cause.

Because James Dean was the actor who Hollywood chose to play those juvenile delinquent roles, James Dean appears to have been the Chosen One, in the sense that the word chosen is used in the Gospel of Jesus, according to Saint Matthew 22:14. “For many are called, but few are chosen.” (NKJV) I believe that James Dean was assigned those television and film roles because it was his destiny to be part and parcel of God’s larger divine plan to establish the Kingdom of God on Earth. Perhaps this explains why James Dean’s story has become so central to America’s cultural history in the years since his death.

The James Dean story begins in the winter of 1931, at the Seven Gables Apartment House on the corner of Fourth Street and McClure Street in Marion, Indiana, where Mildred Marie Dean gave birth, at two o’clock in the morning, to a boy who she named, James Byron Dean. James Dean (nicknamed “Jimmy”) was born at home on February 8, 1931. He weighed eight pounds and ten ounces at birth. Mildred was the first to recognize Jimmy’s natural talent, and she began to cultivate her son’s interest in the arts from an early age. When Jimmy was five, he started taking dance classes and studying violin at the Marion College of Dance and Theatre Arts.

In 1936, the Sawtelle Veteran’s Administration hospital in Los Angeles, California offered Winton Dean, Jimmy’s father, a promotion to the position of director of a dental laboratory, and in the summer of 1936, the Deans left Indiana and moved to Santa Monica, California, where they lived for the next four years. In May 1940, Mildred began to experience severe chest pains and was rushed to the hospital. After Mildred went into the hospital, Emma Dean, Jimmy’s paternal grandmother, moved to California to help Winton around the house. Mildred remained hospitalized for two months, during which time Jimmy and Grandma Dean often took turns reading biblical Scripture at her bedside.

On July 14, 1940, Mildred Dean died of breast cancer. After his mother died, Jimmy’s father sent him to live with his Aunt Ortense and Uncle Marcus Winslow on the Winslow’s farm in Fairmount, Indiana. Eighteen months later, the Army Medical Corp. drafted Winton, leaving Ortense and Marcus to raise Jimmy, who lived with his aunt and uncle for nine years.

Over the years, Jimmy won numerous medals for his dramatic readings before the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), and he continued to development his artistic ability as a student at Fairmount High School, where he took part in five school plays, including Mooncalf Mugford, Our Hearts Were Young And Gay, The Monkey’s Paw, Goon With The Wind, and You Can’t Take It With You. In his sophomore year at Fairmount High School, Jimmy became a member of the Thespian Society, and in his senior year there, he was elected president of the Thespian Society.

In the second semester of his last year in high school, James Dean’s speech teacher, Mrs. Adeline Nall, encouraged him to enter the National Forensic League state tournament in Peru, Indiana, and he took her advice. On April 9, 1949, the National Forensic League awarded James Dean first prize for his reading of a monologue from Charles Dickens’s Pickwick Papers titled “A Madman’s Manuscript.” That same semester, James Dean decided to pursue an acting career upon graduation. On May 16, 1949, Dean graduated from Fairmount High School, and two weeks later, he boarded a train at the station in Marion and relocated to California, so that he could be closer to Hollywood. When he arrived in Los Angeles, Jimmy went to live with father. Winton had remarried after he was discharged from the army in 1945, and he was living with his new wife, Ethel Case Dean.

In the fall of 1949, James Dean entered Santa Monica City College (SMCC) as a freshman. Although he enrolled as a pre-law student, Dean registered for every theater arts course SMCC offered. Dean also joined the Drama Club, and he became a member of the Jazz Appreciation Club. In January 1950, SMCC recognized James Dean as one of the most outstanding young men on campus, by electing him to the Opheleos Men’s Honor Service Organization (OMHSO).

In May 1950, James Dean auditioned for a part in a school play, titled She Was Only a Farmer’s Daughter and landed the role of the father. Gene Owen, chair of the drama department at SMCC, recognized James Dean’s raw talent, but she thought that it would take a lot of time and effort to develop his natural talent if he were going to succeed as an actor.

Everything appeared to be going well for James Dean in his first year at SMCC. However, Dean was not content to remain there, and in the fall of 1950, he transferred out of SMCC and into the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), against Gene Owen’s objections. Winton Dean was also opposed to the idea of Jimmy becoming an actor, because he saw no future in the acting profession.

In the fall of 1950, Jimmy moved out of his father’s place and moved into the Sigma Nu fraternity house on Gayley Avenue, having been invited to pledge Sigma Nu fraternity. Though he planned to study theater arts at UCLA, James Dean entered the University of California at Los Angeles as a pre-law student. Dean quickly settled in at UCLA, and in the beginning of the fall semester, he tried out for one of four major theatrical productions at UCLA. In October 1950, UCLA announced that Dean had won the part of Prince Malcolm in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

During rehearsals for Macbeth, James Dean met a young woman, named Jeanette Lewis. She was also a student at UCLA and a member of the crew on Macbeth. Lewis later introduced Dean to a transfer student at UCLA, named William Bast, who became one of Dean’s closest friends. A Hollywood agent, named Isabelle Draesemer, attended one of UCLA’s performances of Macbeth, and she was very impressed with Jimmy Dean’s portrayal of Prince Malcolm. Mrs. Draesemer was so impressed with Dean’s acting ability that she signed him on as a client at the end of the play’s run.

In December 1950, a fellow student at UCLA, named James Bellah, invited Dean to participate in a television commercial for Pepsi-Cola. It was Dean’s first paid acting job. Dean received twenty-five dollars and a free box lunch. Jerry Fairbanks, who produced the Pepsi-Cola commercial for television, saw something special in Jimmy, and he telephoned his agent and asked Mrs. Draesemer to set up an audition for an episode of Father Peyton’s Family Theater titled Hill Number One. The one-hour Easter Sunday special aired on March 25, 1951, with James Dean in the role of John the beloved. After the Easter special aired, the girls of Immaculate Heart High School formed a fan club called the Immaculate Heart James Dean Appreciation Society.

Subsequently, Mrs. Draesemer got bit parts for Dean in three movies, including Fixed Bayonets! Sailor Beware, and Has Anybody Seen My Gal?. Mrs. Draesemer also found a minor role for Jimmy in an episode of Bigelow Theatre, “a television anthology series,” titled “T.K.O.” In the winter of 1951, Dean got a part in a one-act play at UCLA titled The Axe of God. The play was scheduled to open on March 21, 1951, but before the play opened, Dean dropped out of the cast, after punching a fraternity brother in the nose. Around this same time, James Dean withdrew from UCLA and began attending James Whitmore’s acting class, along with Bill Bast. Whitmore’s acting class met once a week off-campus in Rehearsal Hall.

In January 1951, James Dean and William Bast became roommates. They moved off-campus and into a fully furnished apartment in Santa Monica, California called The Penthouse. In April 1951, Bast introduced Dean to a senior at Beverly Hills High School, named Beverly Wills, the daughter of comedian Joan Davis. Beverly was a regular on the popular CBS radio show Junior Miss. Beverly Wills graduated from high school in June 1951, and she asked Dean to be her prom escort.

In June 1951, Bast helped Dean get a job at Ted’s Auto Park near CBS. One day while parking cars in the lot, Dean met an advertising executive in his mid-thirties, named Rogers Brackett, who worked for Foote, Cone & Belding, a prestigious New York advertising agency. Brackett directed a radio program in Los Angeles, called “Alias Jane Doe,” and he helped Jimmy Dean get a small part on the CBS radio adventure-drama series.

Rogers Brackett was given an offer to direct a radio program in New York City, and he invited Dean to go with him. However, Brackett had a brief assignment to complete in Chicago, before going on to New York City, and he wanted Dean to accompany him on his trip to Chicago. After carefully weighing Brackett’s offer over for a while, Dean finally decided to go with him to Chicago. In October 1951, Dean and Brackett left Los Angeles together and headed to Chicago, Illinois, traveling by train. As soon as they arrived in Chicago, Brackett telephoned composer Alec Wilder in New York and asked him to book a room for Jimmy at the Iroquois Hotel off Times Square. Rogers gave Dean some money to help pay for his room at the Iroquois, and then he put Dean on a train bound for Fairmount, Indiana. Jimmy had decided to spend a few days with his family before he went to New York. Rogers Brackett stayed behind in Chicago until he completed his assignment there.

While he was home, James Dean went to see James DeWeerd, a local pastor who Dean met in his junior year at Fairmount High School. DeWeerd became one of Dean’s two most important mentors. (Mrs. Nall was also one of Dean’s mentors). In his senior year, DeWeerd took Jimmy to see his first road race, the Indianapolis 500. He also taught Dean how to drive a car. Like Brackett, DeWeerd gave Dean some money to help with his living expenses in New York. Then, he said good-bye, as Jimmy embarked upon his journey to the Big Apple. In late October 1951, James Dean arrived in New York City.

This is the midway point in my story. After Dean arrives in New York, the scene suddenly changes from an academic environment in Los Angeles, California to the hustle and bustle of New York City’s towering workforce. By coming to New York to pursue an acting career, James Dean joined the hundreds of thousands of young, aspiring actors who came to New York City each year, hoping to break into the acting profession. New York City introduced Dean to a whole new way of living, and he quickly began to adjust to his new life in the big city.

Immediately after he checked into his room at the Iroquois Hotel on West Forty-Fourth Street, Dean went out to scour the town. After a few days, he checked out of his hotel room and got a room at the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) on West Sixty-Third Street, which cost less money. While he waited for Brackett to show up, Dean got a job as a stunt tester on the popular TV game show Beat the Clock. The pay wasn’t great, but it was enough money to make ends meet until Brackett arrived. In December 1951, Brackett finally made his way to New York. He rented an apartment on West Thirty-Eighth Street in Manhattan, and as soon as he arrived, he invited Jimmy to move in with him. (At the time, Dean was still living at the YMCA).

Dean jumped at the offer to live with Rogers Brackett because of the chance that it gave him to live rent-free, and because he knew that Rogers had good show business connections. In late December 1951, Dean moved out of his room at the “Y” and into Brackett’s apartment. While they were living in Los Angeles, Brackett introduced Dean to a television director, named Ralph Levy, who used Dean as an extra on The Alan Young Show. Levy wanted to help Jimmy succeed, and he telephoned James Sheldon, a television director in New York, and asked him if he would help Jimmy find work. Sheldon, who worked for Young & Rubicam, said that he would be happy to help Jimmy, and he told Levy to ask Dean to call him when he arrives in New York City.

Dean chose to wait for Brackett to arrive before he called Sheldon, and soon after he moved in with Brackett, he telephoned Sheldon at his New York office, and Sheldon set up an appointment for Dean to come in and read for him that very same day. Sheldon later sent Dean over to meet with his own agent, Jane Deacy, who worked for the Louis Shurr agency, and Jane Deacy took Dean on as a client. Several months later, when Deacy left the Shurr agency to form her own talent agency, she took Dean and several other clients with her.

In the fall of 1952, James Dean met an aspiring young actress, named Christine White, in the reception area of Jane Deacy’s new office. Christine was working on a skit that she was due to perform at the Actors Studio in a few months. Christine and Jimmy hit it off right from the start, and in November 1952, they auditioned together for admission into the Actors Studio, before a panel of judges that included Lee Strasberg and Elia Kazan. Several weeks after the audition, Christine received a postcard in the mail, informing her that she and Jimmy had been accepted for membership into the Studio. At the age of 21, James Dean became the youngest actor ever to be admitted to the Actors Studio.

In May 1952, Bill Bast moved to New York City upon graduating from UCLA. When Dean heard that Bast was living in New York, he moved out of Brackett’s apartment, so that he and Bill could begin living together again. Dean kept in touch with Brackett after he moved out of his apartment, and one afternoon, in the summer of 1952, Rogers invited Jimmy to the home of Lemuel Ayers, a big-time theatrical producer, who had a production planned for the end of the year, and Ayers later invited Dean to come in and read for the part of Wally Wilkins in See the Jaguar. James Dean gave such a beautiful reading that playwright N. Richard Nash invited Dean to come back for a second and third reading. The second reading did not go over as well as the first reading did. But, the third reading went smoothly, and the part of Wally Wilkins went to James Dean. See the Jaguar opened on December 3, 1952, at the Cort Theatre in New York. The play closed on December 5, 1952, after only five performances, because most of the press reviews were bad.

Between January 1952 and November 1953, James Dean appeared in over twenty television dramas. Then, in December 1953, he won the lead role of Bachir in the Broadway adaptation of Andre Gides’s autobiographical novel The Immoralist. Rehearsals for The Immoralist began just before Christmas. Before the play opened on Broadway, the production moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for three weeks of a pre-Broadway tryout. One of the out-of-town performances was seen by screenwriter Paul Osborn, who was in the process of adapting a screenplay for Warner Bros., based on John Steinbeck’s best-selling novel East of Eden. After Osborn saw the play, he telephoned Elia Kazan and told him to see The Immoralist when it opened on Broadway. Osborn thought that Dean was right to play the lead role of Caleb Trask.

Kazan remembered James Dean from the Actors Studio, and after he saw Dean in The Immoralist, he went backstage and invited him to come by his office the following morning to discuss a possible role in his upcoming picture. Kazan had already signed to direct East of Eden, and he, too, had a hunch that Dean was right for Cal Trask. The next morning, Dean stopped by Kazan’s office. Kazan asked him to read for the role of Cal, and then he sent Dean over to John Steinbeck’s apartment on East Seventy-Second Street, where Dean and Steinbeck discussed the psychological realities of the part. Later that evening, Steinbeck called Kazan and told him that he was essentially in agreement with him about James Dean, but he still wanted to see a few more actors before making his final decision. A few days later, Dean received a call from Kazan, confirming him in the role. On April 7, 1954, James Dean signed a contract with Warner Bros., and on April 8, he and Kazan flew to Los Angeles to begin filming East of Eden.

We have now passed the midway point and have come to the end of my story. The conclusion of my story centers around the making of East of Eden, Rebel without a Cause, and Giant. On May 27, 1954, East of Eden began shooting in Mendocino, California. At this juncture, James Dean begins to make the transition from television actor to film star.

While East of Eden was in production, James Dean met newcomer Paul Newman. In February 1954, Dean screen-tested with Newman, who was under consideration for the part of Cal’s brother, Aaron. However, the role of Aaron Trask eventually went to Richard Davalos over Paul Newman, primarily because Davalos had a better on-screen chemistry with James Dean than Newman, in Kazan’s view. By the time James Dean met Newman, Paul had already been cast in the lead role of Basil in The Silver Chalice. Not long after The Silver Chalice began shooting, Newman introduced Dean to Pier Angeli, Newman’s co-star in The Silver Chalice. James Dean and Pier Angeli started dating soon after they met. Their love affair was one of the most talked about romances in Hollywood before Pier suddenly broke it off to marry singer Vic Damone.

On August 12, 1954, filming ended on the set of East of Eden. While James Dean waited for Warner Bros. to release Eden, he appeared in a few more television dramas. On September 5, he co-starred in NBC’s Philco TV Playhouse titled “Run Like a Thief.” On November 9, he appeared in an episode of Danger titled “Padlocks,” and on November 14, he co-starred in an episode of CBS’s General Electric Theatre titled “I’m a Fool.”

On December 4, 1954, Elia Kazan screened East of Eden for James Dean and other members of the cast. On December 8, Dean co-starred in another episode of CBS’s General Electric Theatre titled “The Dark, Dark Hour,” and on January 4, 1955, Dean co-starred in an episode of ABC’s US Steel Hour titled “The Thief.”

Later that same month, Dean met a young photographer, named Dennis Stock, at a party in director Nicholas Ray’s bungalow at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood. Nick Ray had earlier signed a contract with Warner Bros., to direct a film about juvenile delinquency, and the party that was thrown at the Chateau Marmont was designed to give Ray a chance to meet the cast and crew of his upcoming film. In 1954, Nick Ray showed up at Warner Bros., with a treatment for a film about juvenile delinquency called The Blind Run. Jack Warner, Warner Bros.’ executive producer, liked Ray’s treatment, but not the title that he chose for it, so the title was later changed from The Blind Run to Rebel without a Cause. The executive producer took the title from a book that he had earlier purchased the rights to, written by Dr. Robert M. Lindner. However, Nick Ray’s treatment had nothing to do with the subject of Lindner’s book.

Both Nick Ray and Jack Warner thought that James Dean was right to play the lead role in Rebel without a Cause, so the part of Jim Stark went to James Dean. While the cast and crew of Rebel without a Cause were waiting to go into production, Dean invited Dennis Stock to an advanced screening of East of Eden. After Dennis saw Eden, he realized that Dean was about to become a big star, and he asked Dean if he could do a photo-essay on him for Life magazine.

In early February 1955, Dean and Stock left Los Angeles and went to New York. The photo shoot began there. After a few days in New York, they flew to Fairmount, Indiana, where the photo shoot continued. On March 7, 1955, a group of Dennis Stock’s photos appeared in Life magazine in a layout titled “Moody New Star: Hoosier James Dean Excites Hollywood.”

On March 9, 1955, a star-studded celebrity benefit preview of East of Eden was held at the Astor Theater in New York, and on March 10, East of Eden opened to the public. (It is worth noting here that James Dean did not attend the celebrity benefit preview or the New York premiere of East of Eden).

The Los Angeles premiere of East of Eden was held on March 16, 1955. Following the premiere of his first feature film, James Dean became Hollywood’s brightest new star. However, Dean had very little time to enjoy his stardom, owing to his busy shooting schedule. On March 28, 1955, Rebel without a Cause began filming in Los Angeles. Jack Warner had originally planned to shoot Rebel in black and white, but after he read the press reviews for East of Eden, he realized that James Dean was about to become an important new star, and he made the decision to shoot Rebel without a Cause in WarnerColor.

On May 26, 1955, Rebel without a Cause wrapped after two months of filming, and James Dean immediately went into makeup and wardrobe tests for Giant. On June 3, 1955, Dean flew to Marfa, Texas, where he joined the cast and crew of Giant already in production. James Dean’s final day of filming on the Giant set was September 17, 1955. Dean was “planning to go on [a] racing kick” when Giant completed filming, and after Dean finished shooting his last scene in the picture, he returned to Los Angeles, California.

Upon his return to L.A., James Dean bought a new Porsche 550 Spyder at Competition Motors, located on North Vine Street in Hollywood, California. Dean was hoping to compete in the weekend sports car races at Salinas, and on September 30, 1955, he set out for Salinas, California, accompanied by fellow actor Bill Hickman, photographer Sanford Roth, and auto mechanic Rolf Wütherich. The four men left Los Angeles at 1:30 p.m. Wütherich rode with Dean in the Spyder, and Hickman rode with Roth in Dean’s 1955 Ford station wagon.

At about 3:30 p.m., James Dean was pulled over by California Highway Patrol Officer Otie V. Hunter, who gave him a speeding ticket for traveling at sixty-five-miles-an-hour in a fifty-five-mile-an-hour zone. At approximately 5:30 p.m., James Dean’s Porsche collided with a two-tone black-and-white Ford sedan approaching from the opposite direction at the intersection of Routes 41 and 466 east of Cholame. James Dean was killed in the head-on collision. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Paso Robles War Memorial Hospital. Donald Turnupseed, the driver of the Ford sedan, escaped with minor cuts and bruises, and Rolf Wütherich was thrown from the Porsche on impact. He suffered a broken jaw and a leg fracture.

Funeral services for James Dean were held on October 8, 1955, at Fairmount Friends Church in Indiana. The Reverend James DeWeerd delivered the eulogy. On October 11, 1955, a jury met in the county courthouse of San Luis Obispo as part of a coroner’s inquest. The jury determined that James Dean came to his death due to injuries received in a two-car collision and found “no indication that James Dean met death through any criminal act of another, and that he died of a fractured neck and other injuries.”

On October 12, 1955, Giant completed filming, and on October 29, Rebel without a Cause held its world premiere at the Astor Theater in New York. Rebel instantly became a cult classic. Natalie Wood, who played the part of Judy in Rebel, received her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and Sal Mineo, who played the part of John Crawford (nicknamed “Plato”), earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. James Dean’s performance in Rebel without a Cause established the new image of the American teenager as a deviant loner. Film critic Leonard Maltin (Movie Guide) called James Dean’s role in Rebel without a Cause “Dean’s seminal performance.”

Yet, it was the role of Cal Trask in East of Eden that earned James Dean his first posthumous Oscar nomination. In 1956, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences nominated James Dean for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for East of Eden, and in 1957, James Dean received his second posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Giant, which held its world premiere on October 10, 1956, at the Roxy Theater in New York City. James Dean was gone, but his legend lived on!

In 1986, Derek Reeves graduated from the University of Rochester with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history. Derek is also a graduate of Harvard Divinity School. In 1991, he received his master’s degree in theological studies. Derek works as a security guard in Queens. He lives in the Bronx.