James Dean

[Ybmug]

my mom told me once that he died the same day as Pier angeli got married?(!) That he walked into the church and saw her,then got really furious and started to drive really fast and then got killed in that car accident. Is it true?
I know that she later took suicide and left a note where she wrote that James was the only man she reallly LOVED!

 

[dbear1000]

my mom told me once that he died the same day as Pier angeli got married?(!) That he walked into the church and saw her,then got really furious and started to drive really fast and then got killed in that car accident. Is it true?
I know that she later took suicide and left a note where she wrote that James was the only man she reallly LOVED!

No I don't think that is true. If I remember right he was testing a car her wanted to buy or his car had just gotten fixed and he was test driving it and he was on the wrong side of the road and there was a big truck coming his way and he over corrected the car and went off the road. But don't quote me on that, I think that is how he died, but I am not certain. i will find out and let you know.

 

[dbear1000]

Yeah, I am at least right about it not being true. Her wedding was November 24th 1954 and he died September 30th 1955.

 

[Whitelinen]

I'm don't know that much about James Dean, but there were three documents aired here last year in honour of him (they also showed his three films). I think I heard from there, that the car was quite new, but he had driven it before. He and his friend were going to a race, they didn't speed, but then there was a curve, and they didn't have any time to stop when they noticed the truck...I'm not very sure though.

 

[Whitelinen]

This is what I found from Wikipedia about his death:

Dean and his mechanic Rolf Wuetherich set off from Competition Motors where they had prepared his Porsche 550 Spyder that morning for a sports car race at Palm Beach. Dean originally intended to tow the Porsche to the meeting point at Salinas behind his Ford, crewed by Hickman and photographer Stan Roth, who was planning a photo story of Dean at the races. At the last minute Dean decided he needed more time to familiarise himself with the car. Later in the afternoon, Dean was pulled over for speeding. Already having left the Ford far behind, they stopped for a fuel and meet up with fellow racer Lance Reventlow.
Dean was driving west on U.S. Highway 466 (later California State Route 46) near Cholame, California when a Ford Tudor driven from the opposite direction by 23-year-old Cal Poly student Donald Turnupseed attempted to take the fork onto California State Route 41 and crossed into Dean's lane without seeing him. The two cars hit almost head on. According to a story in the October 1, 2005 edition of the Los Angeles Times[2], California Highway Patrol officer Ron Nelson and his partner had been finishing a coffee break in Paso Robles when they were called to the scene of the accident, where they saw a heavily-breathing Dean being placed into an ambulance. Wuetherich had been thrown from the car but survived with a broken jaw and other injuries. Dean was taken to Paso Robles War Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival at 5:59PM at the age of 24. His last known words, uttered right before impact, are said to have been: "That guy's got to stop... He'll see us."[3]
Contrary to reports of Dean's speeding, which persisted decades after his death, Nelson said "the wreckage and the position of Dean's body indicated his speed was more like 55 mph (88 km/h)." Turnupseed received a gashed forehead and bruised nose and was not cited by police for the accident. He died of lung cancer in 1995. Rolf Wuetherich would die in a road accident in Germany in 1981. While completing Giant, and to promote Rebel Without a Cause, Dean had recently filmed a short interview with actor Gig Young for an episode of "Warner Bros. Presents"[4] wherein he ad-libbed the popular phrase "The life you save may be your own" instead into "The life you save may be mine." Dean's sudden death prompted the studio to re-film the section, and the piece was never aired - though in the past several sources have referred to the footage, mistakenly identifying it as a public service announcement. (The segment can, however, be viewed on both the 2001 VHS and 2005 DVD editions of Rebel Without a Cause.),

and I also found this very interesting...

The curse of "Little Bastard"

Since Dean's death, his Porsche 550 Spyder has been infamous as being the vehicle that killed not only him, but for injuring and killing several others in the years following his death.
Over the years, many groups of people believed that the actor's vehicle and all of its parts were cursed. Legendary Hot Rodder George Barris bought the wreck for $2,500, only to have it slip off its trailer and break a mechanic's leg.
Soon afterwards, Barris sold the engine and drive-train to physicians Troy McHenry and William Eschrid respectively. While racing against each other, the former would be killed instantly when his vehicle spun out of control and crashed into a tree, while the latter would be seriously injured when his vehicle rolled over while going into a curve.
Barris later sold two tires, which malfunctioned as well. The tires, which were unharmed in Dean's accident, blew up simultaneously causing the buyer's automobile to go off the road.
Two young would-be thieves were injured while attempting to steal parts from the car. One tried to steal the steering wheel from the Porsche; his arm ripped open on a piece of jagged metal. Later, another man was injured while trying to steal the bloodstained front seat. This would be the final straw for Barris, who decided to store "Little Bastard" away, but was quickly persuaded by the California Highway Patrol (CHP) to loan the wrecked car in a highway safety exhibit.
The first exhibit from the CHP featuring the car ended unsuccessfully, as the garage storing the Spyder went up in flames, destroying everything except the car itself, which suffered almost no damage whatsoever from the fire. The second display, at a Sacramento High School, ended when the car fell, breaking a student's hip. "Little Bastard" also found itself causing trouble while being transported several times. On its way to Salinas, the truck containing the vehicle lost control, causing the driver to fall out, only to be crushed by the Porsche after it fell off the back. On two separate occasions, once on a freeway and again in Oregon, the car came off other trucks, although no injuries were reported, another vehicle's windshield was shattered in Oregon.
Its last use in a CHP exhibit was in 1959. In 1960, when being returned to George Barris in Los Angeles, California, the car and the truck holding it, as well as its driver, would mysteriously vanish. It has not been seen since.

Hope this helps

 

[Ybmug]

Yeah, I am at least right about it not being true. Her wedding was November 24th 1954 and he died September 30th 1955.

thanx for the help!!!

 

[Josephine]

omg that car!!!!

 

[dbear1000]

thanx for the help!!!

No problem, glad I could help you out.

 

[Lacroix]

James Dean was homosexual, he had an affair going with Sal Mineo when he died/just before. How could he have lusted after Pier Angeli? (I'm not being rude, I'm just curious) If I've read the past comments right.

 

[xx44]

It's sad how flukey his death was. A minute earlier or later and that college kid makes the left hand turn across those lanes of traffic and there's no accident. It's just that the silver Porsche was hard to pick up at dusk.

James Dean was homosexual, he had an affair going with Sal Mineo when he died/just before. How could he have lusted after Pier Angeli? (I'm not being rude, I'm just curious) If I've read the past comments right.

Just like in the cases of Marilyn Monroe and JFK there's nothing to stop a writer from creating false stories about someone who's no longer living.

I think the prevailing opinion was that in the beginning Dean was "gay" for trade to advance his career. Once he had some success he pursued women.

Most of Dean's friends say that he was deeply in love with Pier Angeli. He was reportedly outside the church as Pier was married revving his motorcycle as she left the church with her new husband.

 

[xx44]

It's sad how flukey his death was. A minute earlier or later and that college kid makes the left hand turn across those lanes of traffic and there's no accident. It's just that the silver Porsche was hard to pick up at dusk.

James Dean was homosexual, he had an affair going with Sal Mineo when he died/just before. How could he have lusted after Pier Angeli? (I'm not being rude, I'm just curious) If I've read the past comments right.

Just like in the cases of Marilyn Monroe and JFK there's nothing to stop a writer from creating false stories about someone who's no longer living.

I think the prevailing opinion was that in the beginning Dean was "gay" for trade to advance his career. Once he had some success he pursued women.

Most of Dean's friends say that he was deeply in love with Pier Angeli. He was reportedly outside the church as Pier was married loudly revving his motorcycle as she left the church with her new husband.

 

[Josephine]

pier is thought to be the love of his young life - but james did have other relationships with women...in new york he had a serious relationship with liz sheridan (a.k.a jerry's mother on seinfeld)

 

[DosViolines]

James Dean in "Giant" (4X), "Rebel Without a Cause" (2X) and some publicity shots:


doctormacro.com

 

[DosViolines]

Some more...


doctormacro.com

 

[Josephine]

yay thanks!

 

[keroppi]

pier is thought to be the love of his young life - but james did have other relationships with women...in new york he had a serious relationship with liz sheridan (a.k.a jerry's mother on seinfeld)

Liz Sheridan even wrote a book about their relationship "Dizzy & Jimmy". I haven't read it yet some people think that she romaticized it a tad too much. Could she really remember their dialogues and conversations they had?

 

[Josephine]

^ if i was going out with james dean everything he said would be burnt into my mind

 

[Lacroix]

That’s really strange, just how you say that he wasn’t gay and was attracted to women, I've heard the complete opposite, also the fact that he was gay was not a publicized thing as it was controversial at the time so I feel that it would hinder his career at the time he was alive etc. I wasn't aware at first, I watched Rebel and East of Eden, and my grandma got all excited that I was watching 'proper' films instead to contemporary ones, and I started to find myself attracted to him, , and we were casually talking and she said 'Oh it was a waste him being that way' and naturally I was confused, she told me that when she was younger she really liked him and her uncle's friend (or something ?) worked for the Warner Bros casting sectile, and he told her so (that he was bisexual, not homosexual). I know what you mean about writers making up falsities but I have always thought in rumours such as these, there is a root from where they are established. Anyway, I didn't quite believe her, but I went researching,

One of his few documented homosexual relationships was with Rogers Brackett, the 35-year-old radio director of a prestigious advertising agency, whom Dean met in the summer of 1951 while working as a parking attendant at CBS. At a time when many radio programs were created, written, and cast at ad agencies, Brackett was a particularly good person for a struggling actor to know.

Just two weeks after they met, Dean began living with Brackett in his Hollywood flat. Brackett used his social and professional connections to find Dean work on radio shows like Hallmark Playhouse. By Labor Day, Dean was also getting bit parts in movies.
Most biographies of Dean, including a recent TV biopic, acknowledge the sexual component of this relationship, but also claim that Dean had sex with Brackett purely out of expediency - he needed acting jobs, and the well-connected Brackett could get them for him. Brackett, however, remembered their relationship differently - although he later said that, because of Dean's talent, "my primary interest in Jimmy was as an actor," he added that "I loved him, and he loved me."
Later that year, Dean moved with Brackett to New York, where most radio programs were produced. There Dean began getting television work and eventually theater parts, including a pivotal role as a gay Arab houseboy in Andre Gide's The Immoralist, opposite Louis Jourdan. That, in turn, garnered the young actor the lead role as Cal Trask in the Elia Kazan film East of Eden.
While in New York, Dean began dating a singer-dancer named Elizabeth "Dizzy" Sheridan, who seems to have been his only serious girlfriend; he even asked her to marry him. Dean confided in Sheridan about the relationship with Brackett and also said that he planned to end it. "He did not want to be gay," Sheridan recalled years later - a telling statement that, coupled with the fact that he continued seeing Brackett, hints at a possible practical side to Dean's romantic involvement with Sheridan. Being openly (or even too suggestively) gay would have quickly ended his career at that time, when gay actors like Rock Hudson were being forced into sham marriages to protect their image.
It's not surprising, then, that when Dean's movie career began to take off, he started appearing at Hollywood events with pretty starlets on his arm. The press - and his studio, Warner Brothers - made much of his supposedly passionate love affair with the lovely Italian-born Pier Angeli, one of the stars of The Silver Chalice. But though Dean's colleagues and friends maintained that he was heartbroken when Angeli decided to marry singer Vic Damone, Dean's relationship with Angeli was, she herself later said, "all so innocent." Kazan once told an interviewer that he "did not think Jimmy was a very effective lover with women."
Another of Dean's documented gay relationships was with Jack Simmons, a young actor who, by all accounts, was devoted to him. Because the attachment was kept quietly in the background - Dean virtually lived with Simmons while filming Rebel Without a Cause but had his own apartment - studio officials did not seem to mind. That may have also been because the Warner publicity machine was busily getting articles like "The Dean I've Dated," by Lori Nelson, into fan magazines. Dean took the secret of his sexuality to his untimely death, which occurred soon after he finished filming Giant. (His next scheduled role, in Somebody Up There Likes Me, went to Paul Newman.) Although Dean can hardly be called straight, it remains unclear if he identified as gay or bisexual, or if he was questioning. Since he was only 24, his sexual identity may, in fact, have been still in formation.
-http://www.q.co.za/2001/

The movie also depicted for the first time on film a blatant homosexual desire between James Dean and Sal Mineo. Dean, who was an admitted bisexual, encouraged Mineo to express homosexual feelings toward him during the filming in an attempt to add more depth and realism to the characters. It was believed that a relationship developed between the two off screen, but the rumor was never substantiated. Yet, there was no doubt that there was chemistry between the two actors on screen.
Years later, Sal would admit he was also bisexual but that he didn't realize his interest in men until several years after the movie's completion. According to Jeffers, when Sal was asked if he had a relationship with James Dean he was quoted as saying that if he "understood back then that a guy could be in love with another one, it would have happened. But I didn't come to that realization for a few more years, and then it was too late for Jimmy and me"- Sal Mineo.
-http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/celebrity/sal_mineo/4.html

Joe Hyams, who knew Dean personally, devotes an entire chapter to Dean's relationship with Angeli, and also brings out the account regarding Dean's molestation by a minister as his first homosexual encounter (although the minister DeWeerd himself portrayed these encounters as part of a wholesome relationship.) Hyams also suggests that by all accounts, any homosexual acts that the undeniably shrewd Dean involved himself in appear to have been strictly "for trade," as a means of advancing his career.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Dean

Also on Sal Mineo's official website there is reference to the subject too.

Anyway if he was or wasn't that doesnt make a difference to how much I like him, and I think that he was a great talent and brought an amazing presence to the few movies he had the chance to star in Btw, I'm not disputing that he was attracted to women anymore after having read some of his biography, I just thought i'd share with you what I know

 

[keroppi]

^ if i was going out with james dean everything he said would be burnt into my mind

James Dean said "I wouldn't want to go through life with one hand tied behind my back," when asked about his sexuality. So, he may be a bisexual man who, proven from his past relationships with women, led a predominantly heterosexual lifestyle...if that makes sense .

 

[dbear1000]

"James Dean" by the Eagles.

James Dean, James Dean
I know just what you mean
James Dean, you said it all so clean
And I know my life would look allright
If I could see it on the silver screen

You were the lowdown rebel if there ever was
Even if you had no cause
James Dean, you said it all so clean
And I know my life would look all right
If I could see it on the silver screen

We'll talk about a low-down bad refrigerator,
You were just too cool for school
Sock hop, soda pop, basketball and auto shop,
The only thing that got you off was breakin' all the rules
James Dean, James Dean
So hungry and so lean
James Dean, you said it all so clean
And I know my life would look all right
If I could see it on the silver screen

Little James Dean, up on the screen
Wond'rin' who he might be
Along came a Spyder and picked up a rider
And took him down the road to eternity

James Dean, James Dean, you bought it sight unseen

You were too fast to live, too young to die, bye-bye
You were to fast to live, too young to die, bye-bye
Bye-bye, Bye-bye, Bye-bye, Bye, bye