James Dean: 60 years after his death, actor still mystifies

On Sept. 30, 1955, actor James Dean was killed in a crash on a California highway. Even though that happened 60 years ago, the actor still has a fascinating hold on American pop culture.

Dean was only 24 when he died, but he already had extensive acting experience, both on the stage and screen. He actually had two tenures in Hollywood. During the early 1950s, his unique looks made it difficult for him to find jobs in the age of glamour and the best he could do was get bit parts that often didn’t even include a line of dialogue. You can actually spot him in the 1952 Douglas Sirk musical Has Anybody Seen My Gal? with his future GIANT co-star Rock Hudson.

After that, he went to New York to act on the stage and on television. He regularly appeared on live dramas, honing the skills that would make his performances memorable.

In 1953, his life changed when Elia Kazan was casting East of Eden. Kazan, who turned Marlon Brando into a star with A Streetcar Named Desire, saw something in Dean. His troubled background made the actor strangely suited to the role of Cal Trask in the adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel.

Next, Nicholas Ray cast him as Jim Stark in Rebel Without A Cause. Even though the film is a bit dated, it still has gone down as the ultimate representation of 1950s teen angst. The film’s brutal violence and realistic portrayal of American domestic issues are still shocking.

His third and final film was Giant, directed by George Stevens and starring Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor. I wrote much more about that film, which I find to be a fascinating look at America’s drive for power, in January.

One thing that always jumps out at me when I see Dean act is that he’s always doing something with his hands. There’s a great scene in Giant where he plays with rope while Hudson is talking to him. Dean was always moving. He couldn’t just deliver a line. He had to find some way to get people to focus on him.

While many filmgoers can’t remember a time when Dean was even alive, his work still resonates. The Hollywood Reporter notes that people still leave beer bottles, cigarettes and even bras at the site where Dean died, which has been dubbed “Blood Alley.” From 2000 to 2010, 38 people died in crashes there, the LA Times reported in 2010.

For more on the death of Dean, check out History.com. And make sure that you actually see his movies. He might look cool on a poster, but his name has only survived because he left three really good performances behind.