Jay's HOLLYWOOD ICON Post - The Real James Dean - Meteoric Rise to Fame - Fiery Car Crash - The Legend Lives On

  Nearly fifty years ago, I began my first semester at college at UC Santa Barbara, and if my math is correct, that means I was about the same age as most of my students are now.   One of my first elective classes was called something like “Pop Culture History.”  Pop Culture was a relatively new term then, so I didn’t know what it meant exactly, but it fit into my schedule, so I took it.  I mean with the word “Pop” in  the title, how hard could it be?  On the syllabus, the professor had offered us list of 50 people or topics we could choose from to write our term papers.  I didn’t know it THEN, but I know it NOW,  that everything we discussed or read in this class has left a indelible stamp on our culture and history.  I chose James Dean.  I don’t know why.  This was before the internet had been invented.  I had probably seen his poster – BOULEVARD OF BROKEN DREAMS -  sold in shopping malls and thought he was cool.  Jaja.  In this way I can relate to how my students choose their research topics.   I openly admiit: Not much thought involved in my selection process!  But, my paper turned out to be 21 pages TYPED – with a TYPEWRITER!  It was my first A.  I remember that the students on my dormitory floor loved the essay.  They volunteered to read parts of it out loud in my dorm room;  however,  I eventually saw my classmates in Pop Culture History hate me for the grade I received.  I mean, I probably wrote twice as much as anyone else.  That’s because I found so much to write about.  James Dean was and still is such an interesting figure. He only made three films before he died in a fiery car crash at age twenty four.  These three, we still talk about today.  In my research paper, I wrote of his journey to become an important actor.  That goal he definitely achieved. I can’t think of too many actors as INTERESTING as James Dean.

This week I finished Peter Winkler'sThe Real James Dean; then,  I watched Dean’s last film Giant.  It was Jimmy D's last film because he died before the film was ever completed.  In this movie, he plays a character that elevates from an impovershed young man to a greedy-ass, cutthroat oil tycoon.  He ages 50 years in this movie.  I might be able to say, that when Jimmy assumes the character of Jett Rink, he is basically playing himself – a man of relentless ambition and single-minded focus. But I would be wrong.  We will never know how James Dean would have fared in real life. On the morning of Sept. 30, 1955, he drove his brand new Porsche 550 Spyder from Hollywood enroute to Salinas to participate in a racing event.

THEY TOLD HIM NOT TO GO.  The studio knew who he was and what he was about.  His contract prohibited him from all racing events during the duration of the film shoot.  Jimmy D waited until all his scenes were shot before speeding off into the Wide Blue Yonder.  If ACTING was the most important thing in his life,  SPEED may have been a close second. Following Grapevine on the way up to Salinas,  Jimmy D received a ticket - for SPEEDING. Two hours later, he found himself approaching a barren stretch of the highway.  This is where highways 466/41 and 46 meet.  He saw a Ford Coupe carelessly enter the intersection apparenty without checking oncoming traffic.  The last words Jimmy Dean ever said were to his friend sitting in the passenger seat of the Spyder: "That guy is going to see us, Right?" Dean suffered a broken neck in the head-on collision. First responders at the scene probably didn't know who he was.  The public had seen him in only one film, East of Eden.  Rebel without a Cause was yet to be released.  Giant was in the can. By the time an ambulance transported him to the nearest hospital, Jimmy D was D.O.A.

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Peter Winkler's The Real James Dean is an anthology of interviews, articles and personal memories of the young actor who left us much too early. This may be hard to believe, but many of the most insightful and interesting recolloections of Jimmy may have come from people who knew him before he became James Dean. Adeline Nall was his high-school English teacher in Fairmont. Indiana.  She was the one who turned Jimmy on to Drama and Speech.  It wasn't easy!  Young Jimmy was the school's basketball and baseball star.  He would have been the first to tell you that academics just wasn't his thing.  But, when Mrs. Nall posted the announcement of an Indiana statewide speech tournament, she must have have stirred Jimmy's competitive juices. In her essay, she describes how he transformed into a serious actor right before her eyes. Participants in this Indiana speech tournament would be required to step on stage an present and interpret dramatic readings in front of thousands of people. This was Indiana basektball-mad country, and Jimmy was the leading scorer on his high-school team.  Stepping on stage in front of a skeptical  crowd was his thing. He personally selected his own monologue to read  from a college catalogue claled, "A Madman's Manuscript."  He once told the New York Times that it was "about this real gone cat who knocks off several people." He implored Mrs. Nall to teach him everything she knew, probably in same way a boxer implores guidance from his trainer.  Jimmy D was hooked by the acting bug. He became the statewide winner in Dramatic Declamation.

  This book is filled with these types of anecdotes. Everyone in the book recognizes Jimmy's complete devotion to becoming an actor - even if they didn't seem to like him as a person.  They respected his single-minded focus. His father writes of the life-long strain in their relationship. On more than a few occasions, he tried to steer Jimmy away from acting.  "Jimmy, acting is a good hobby," he told him, "but why don't you study something  substantial?"  This happened when Jimmy came out West to study acting at UCLA.  By this time in his life, he tuned everyone out save for his acting coach or director.  Several actors who shared the stage with him apparently hated the experience of working with him.  It seems while an entire cast could be dedicated to one goal, Jimmy goals often drifted far, far away from theirs.  How could they not?  We know now Jimmy to act on another plane. Popular character actor Hume Cronyn blasted Jimmy for not following the script.  In rehearsals, he would not only find Jimmy off mark, but he could not depend that he would read the lines he was supposed to. Jimmy D was a method actor deluxe.  His ideas came deep from within his soul, not form the mind of the writers.  In Rebel Without a Cause, Jimmy nearly killed the actor playing his father, Jim Backus, in the shooting of a family feud:  "YOU ARE TEARING ME APART!"  In Giant, Jimmy nearly duked it out with Rock Hudson, on and off camera. Rock, who was much more famous, wasn't going to allow this up-and-comer steal his scenes. Jimmy thought Rock was a lousy actor. The tension they exude on screan is REAL.  Just the way Jimmy wanted it. 

Near the end of the book, legendary actor Sir Alec Guiness shares an encounter he had with the unknown James Dean – this was before any of Jimmy’s movies would have made it to the big screen. The meeting of these two legends took place at a small Italian restaurant called the Villa Capri.  Sir Alec had just been turned away at the door, for the restaurant was full.  I would imagine that doesn’t happen too often to a big star like Sir Alec, but it did.  Sir Alec writes about his hunger and frustation he felt walking away, when a young man came up quickly to invite him to join him at his table inside the restaurant.  It was James Dean!  But that name wouldn’t mean anything to Sir Alec.  He was just relieved for the opportunity to sit down and eat. Sir Alec gladly followed Jimmy back to the restaurant,  only to have Jimmy firrst guide him through the restaurant’s courtyard where the young man  had parked his brand new Porsche Spyder that coud travel at speeds exceeding 150 miles per hour. Jimmy told Sir Alec he just completed his latest film, and he planned to race the Spyder in Salinas the very next week.

Sir Alec, known for his impeccable control on stage, may have lost a little bit of it when he peered into Jimmy’s eyes.  He must have understood that Jimmy was dying for his approval;  otherwise, why would he have chased him down the street?  This is the advice that Sir Alec gave to the young actor. “Please, never get in it,” he said. “If you get in that car you will be found dead in it by this time next week.”   Sir Alec was known for his interests in the paranormal.   He was a regular patron of Tarot readings. He writes himself he had experienced visions of his own fate, a few of them may have saved him from his own death.   But, why was he sharing his fears  o a complete stranger? Jimmy’s reaction was very  much in line with how he listened to people throughout this book.  If it wasn’t about acting, he just didn’t listen.  One week later, Jimmy was pronounced dead on arrival at Paso Robles War Memorial Hospital.

It’s hard to believe that I’m still  writing about Jimmy D fifty years after I first saw him on the big screen. I must pay tribute my college professor that provided his students with opportunities to explore and/or discover new interests. In each of the classes I teach now, I find providing students choice of research topics empowers them with a special sense of freedom that they unfortunately do not see in many classes. The results are often deeply personal responses to what they read.  Funny how that works. I read every day.  A book a week.  I often feel disconnected from the interests of my students, but at the same time I look to  my own reading to create new interests for them to discover.  I’m constantly creating new lists of topics that may engage them in my semester writing projects.  I won’t be around, but maybe in fifty years, some of my students will still be talking about the topics they covered in Mr. Lewenstein’s class.