September 30, 1955 is a date that will live in pop culture infamy – especially for the 1950s’ generation. That was the day James Dean — teen idol, Hollywood rebel and one of the most influential actors of his time — was killed in a car crash.
Dean was 24 and starred in just three movies: “East of Eden,” “Rebel Without a Cause” and “Giant.” The last two were released after his death. Those were “three memorable performances in films which have stood the test of time,” Robert Osborne said this week on the TCM cable network. 
Now, on the 60th anniversary of his death, the legend of James Dean remains intact. A DVD collection of Dean’s television acting appearances has been released. It’s called “James Dean: The Lost Television Legacy.” It features Dean’s TV work in the early ‘50s and is available at shop.tcm.com.
For me, the most fascinating episode was “I’m a Fool.” It was telecast in 1954 and featured Dean with Natalie Wood, his soon-to-be costar in “Rebel without a Cause.” The video is stark, grainy black and white. But the performances of Dean and Wood are electric and filled with colorful emotion.
Dean had a way of contorting facial expressions and moving his hands and body almost as if doing a slow and sometimes painful dance. He was kind of a cross between Marlon Brando and Al Pacino. More than acting and moving, Dean brought youthful vulnerability to his characters. In most roles, Dean, boyishly handsome and emotionally fragile, expressed the confusion, pain and struggle of adolescence.
This was the middle of the 1950s when a new generation of teenagers came of age. They discovered rock and roll, fashion and a hip attitude. Dean, with his curly pompadour, sideburns and ultra-cool personality, became a cult role model for kids. “I would never compare myself to James Dean,” Elvis Presley once said. “Because James Dean was a genius.” Elvis, sported Dean’s high-rise pompadour and sideburns.
Dean had style, but when it came to acting, he possessed revolutionary substance.
“What allowed his myth to flourish, however, was not his death, as tragic as it was, but the enduring power of his art,” Paul Alexander wrote in The Daily Beast. “For in the end James Dean was a transformative actor.” “Dean opened himself up to the audience. There was no such thing as an emotion too painful or too revealing to be portrayed on screen. Dean was able to play his parts as convincingly as he did because, unlike the generation before his, he was willing to reveal himself and display true emotions for the camera, even if they were painful for him to portray and painful for the audience to watch.”
The world changed, especially for young people, in the 1950s. Teenagers and those like Dean in their early 20s, were searching for meaning and acceptance. “Rebel without a Cause,” is a landmark film. What Shakespeare did in “Hamlet,” Dean did for American youth in the 1950s.
To see the trailer for the movie:
“Rebel Without A Cause” is a tragic tale about three teens: Dean, Wood and Sal Mineo. Dean is the loner who comes to new school and has to prove himself to a new crowd. At home, Dean’s henpecked father drives him crazy and he is bitter at his mother. Wood is ignored by her father and doesn’t feel wanted at home. Mineo’s parents are rich but never around to care for him. Put those three together and you have heart-gripping teen angst. Dean gets caught in a fatal drag race, a switch-blade knife fight; battles his father, mother and the cops. He falls in love with Wood and they become substitute parents for Mineo. The end is tragic and only two of the three survive.
The thing is, Dean made it real. We’ve all been outsiders. We’ve all been challenged by parents. We’ve all been hurt and we’ve all been lost. Dean makes it so believable, tender and tragic, that it’s difficult to watch. The actor creates a reality that any teenager in 1955 or 2015 can identify with.
It was all part of James Dean’s acting philosophy. “An actor must interpret life,” Dean once said, according to Paul Alexander. “In order to do so [he] must be willing to accept all the experiences life has to offer. In fact, he must seek out more of life than life puts at his feet. In the short span of his lifetime, an actor must learn all there is to know, experience all there is to experience…”
James Dean short life span lasted 24 years. He had just finished shooting the film, “Giant” and was out for a ride in his new Porsche Spyder 550. It was a two-lane highway in California and some guy in a Ford sedan made an illegal left hand turn in front of Dean. The actor died on impact.
The rock band the Eagles offered a tribute in a song called “James Dean.”
One lyric goes like this: “You were too fast to live/Too young to die.”
Tony Violanti writes for Villages-News.com
