In 2015, Vanitatis spoke with one of his filming partners and reviewed what many of those who came across his life thought of him.
A Little Bastard led the biggest teen star of all to death but also to glory. This was the nickname of the Porsche 550 Spyder that James Dean was driving and which, after colliding sideways with a Ford Custom Coupé that was coming from the opposite direction, caused him a very serious neck fracture from which he ended up dying.
As it happens with so many other myths, that September 30, 1955, that car with the aura of an accursed sowed the seed of a legend that never ends, an eternal symbol of rebellion and youthful dissatisfaction, an everlasting image that by force of being repeated has become a cliché: that of the actor and his red jacket, his toupee, his nonconformist and clueless boyish face. A face that, if he were still alive, would have reached 90 years of age.
In 2015, Vanitatis obtained, exclusively, some statements from the veteran actress Noreen Nash, who shared filming with him in the mythical 'Giant' (1956): "I met Jimmy through my second husband, James Whitmore, who studied acting together with him". The actress is also the author of one of the most revealing phrases from the filming of the George Stevens film about Dean's debated S-: "Elizabeth (Taylor) and Rock (Hudson) made a bet about who would take him to the house first." bed. I thought it would be him, but Elizabeth wasn't so sure."
The veteran actress, who is 96 years old today and has participated in countless secondary productions, also recalled that the director of what would be Dean's last film did not like the whispers with which he recited each dialogue: "One day he yelled at him, telling him that this script cost a lot of money. 'I want to hear those words well!' he told him."
Noreen isn't the only one who has something to say about Dean, that boy born in Indiana in 1931 whose mother died when he was barely nine years old; the shy nearsighted son of a doctor who wanted to be an actor and moved to New York as soon as possible. For example, when it comes to talking about her childhood, about which thousands of anecdotes have been written, perhaps the one that Elizabeth Taylor narrated to a journalist in exchange for telling it once she was not in this world stands out. "When Jimmy was eleven years old, he began to suffer abuse from his church pastor. I think that followed him for the rest of his life," the violet-eyed actress recounted years before she died in February 2011.
Although almost all of those who coincided in a shoot with him are no longer around, many lived long enough to remember his quality as an interpreter. Despite the excellence of his style, he soon earned a certain reputation for being intractable. After all, he came from the Actor's Studio and, like Brando or Clift, his acting style was a turning point concerning everything that had been done up to then. Part of that difference was that any character could shake the sentimental foundations of the one who embodied him. Dean, a somewhat overprotective child due to the death of his mother, had a lot to deal with. "We read 'The Little Prince' and 'Romeo and Juliet' together... He was terribly sensitive," recalled Arlene Martel a couple of years ago, who shared those early years with him at an acting school that would end up going down in history.
After succeeding on Broadway with the play 'El Immoral', he participated in several television programs and in movies such as 'Has anyone seen my girl?' (1952) led him to what would be his great supporter: Eli Kazan who chose him to star in 'East of Eden' (1955). In the movie, his hyperactivity, his energy, and his misanthropic character wouldn't always go down well with the rest of the cast. With Raymond Massey, who played his tyrannical father, he almost came to blows. "You never know what he's going to do during a scene. Please, make him read his lines exactly as they are written!" the veteran actor growled at the director of all that one day.
