James Dean

70 Years Gone…

Hard to believe, but James Dean died 70 years ago today. He was 24.

He only ever made three above-the-title films, only one of which was released in his lifetime. Yet he remains the archetypal Rebel Without A Cause; the Mr Cool, still managing to outshine Leonardo Di Caprio, Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp.

The James Dean Estate generates an estimated yearly turnover of $5 million. James Dean’s image has been licensed to over 200 products, including Levi’s jeans, National Westminster bank and 4711 cologne.

In 2005, a replica of the car Dean was killed driving toured America to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his death.

In song, James Dean has been commemorated by Madonna, the Eagles, Lou Reed, Don McLean, REM, Bruce Springsteen and Mick Jagger. There were 100 or so “tribute” records (‘His Name Was Dean’, ‘We’ll Never Forget You’, ‘The Death Of James Dean‘) released immediately after Dean’s death

Elvis Presley was approached to play James Dean in a biopic; he was Bob Dylan’s first idol; The Smiths used Dean’s image on a single sleeve and Morrissey’s Suedehead video was filmed at Dean’s grave.

Dean’s first onscreen line was the unpromising “Hey pops, I’ll have a choc malt, heavy on the choc, plenty of milk, four spoons of malt, two scoops of vanilla, one mixed and one floating!”. He filmed a road safety commercial, recorded a fortnight before Dean ‘s death - in a car crash!

Just how good was he? There is sadly scant evidence, but I always believed he had the talent, and deserves to be appreciated as more than someone who lived fast, died young and had a good looking corpse. I remember clearly the first time I saw him: it was in 1975, and for the 20^th anniversary of his death, BBC TV was showing his three films.

I was working at the Department of the Environment and one of my colleagues, Robin Groom, probably ten years older, asked what I was doing that night? Probably going to the pub. Stay in, he sagely advised, and watch East Of Eden. Advice for which I am eternally grateful.

Dean first appears hunched on a pavement, while a grandly -dressed woman passes him by. He follows her, moving like a cross between a kitten and a cougar. She is the mother he needs to make contact with. His every movement is spooked, twitching, carrying all the turmoil of coiled adolescence. The film then develops into a visceral contest between Dean and his over-bearing father, the great Raymond Massey. As it was 1955 though, a happy ending is required.

Dean is best remembered as the surly, misunderstood Jim Stark in Rebel Without A Cause. Along with The Wild One and Jailhouse Rock, it stands as one of the decade’s best attempts to deal with the trauma of teenagers in the cosy- white-fenced world of Eisenhower’s America.

The film’s reputation was enhanced when it was released only a week after Dean’s death. The fans flocked in their millions.

The only film to ‘stretch’ Dean was Giant. It begins as him playing his own age, but in a sprawling three hour Dallas-style oil baron saga, Dean’s character ages, the only time he played beyond his actual age.

Of course that tragically premature death only enhanced the legend. But for years, James Dean came to symbolize the mixed-up kid, reaching out for help, but rejecting every advance.

I happen to believe had he lived, he could have developed into an actor of substance. Comparisons with Brando aren’t really relevant: for Brando, acting came so easily, that he soon grew bored, and allowed his talent to dwindle. Dean was possessed of a curiosity, a desire to learn and a wish to stretch himself as an actor.

We’ll never know how it would have panned out. Somewhere on a lonely desert highway in the late afternoon of 20 September 1955, as he sped along in his newly-purchased Porsche, Dean’s last words to his passenger as he watched a car ahead make an ill-advised turn “He’s got to see us…”

The passenger and other driver survived. Dean’s death prompted Hollywood’s greatest mourning since Rudolph Valentino. Endless biographies, tributes and documentaries still try to find the ‘real’ James Dean, but in a sense, he outlives us all.