Actor and icon James Byron Dean was born on 8 February 1931 in Marion,
Indiana. Dean died on 30 September 1955 in a car crash.
James Dean started acting at UCLA, and then he moved to New York and joined
the Actors Studio. Before starring in East of Eden, James Dean had appeared
extensively in television. He also had a few small parts in Hollywood films and
won a prize for his portrayal of an Arab in a Broadway adaptation of Gide's The
Immoralist.
James Dean's three main acting roles were in East of Eden, Rebel Without a
Cause and Giant. To some extent he plays a very similar character in all of
them. A broody, internal personality, good-natured but with a rebellious outlook
on authority. James Dean will be forever the icon of rebellion.
East of Eden, directed by Elia Kazan, is a masterpiece. Dean appears almost
throughout the whole film and his performance is thoroughly absorbing.
Gilbert Adair described James Dean's star quality in The Post-Modernist
Always Rings Twice:
"A star may possess talent but, given the absolute consistency of image that
is his gift to the screen, he ultimately does not need it... James Dean was not
neccessarily a more talented actor than the other struggling unknowns one
watches alongside him [in his TV roles]. But he alone was already, if as yet
obscurely, a star.
Dean died tragically young at the height of his talent. |