James Byron Dean (1931–55) was an American film actor. Although he starred in only three films, he is enshrined as a symbol of the confused, restless, and idealistic youth of the 1950s postwar era.
Born in Marion, Indiana, Dean started acting at the University of California-Los Angeles. In 1952, he moved to New York City, where he joined the Actors Studio. After small parts in theater, including See the Jaguar on Broadway, and in films and television, he gained instantaneous success in the movie East of Eden (1955.)
Dean starred in only two more films, Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Giant (released 1956,) before being killed in a car crash. Rebel Without a Cause opened just weeks after Dean’s death. Almost immediately, an intensely loyal cult was established—Dean has since remained a cult figure and a symbol of youthful rebellion and self-assertion.
Biographies include Val Holley’s James Dean: The Biography (1996) and John Gilmore’s Live Fast, Die Young: Remembering the Short Life of James Dean (1997.) Photographer Dennis Stock’s James Dean (2015) offers a glimpse of the fledgling movie star in unguarded moments.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by James Dean
To me, acting is the most logical way for people’s neuroses to manifest themselves. To my way of thinking, an actor’s course is set even before he’s out of the cradle.
—James Dean
If you’re not afraid… if you take everything you are, everything worthwhile in you, and direct it at one goal, one ultimate mark, you’ve got to get there.
—James Dean
Only the gentle are ever really strong.
—James Dean
Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die tomorrow.
—James Dean
Topics: Life, Carpe-diem, Dreams
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