Mysteries & Scandals: James Dean

Source:IMDB- I don't know who is in this photo.

"E! Mysteries & Scandals: James Dean (1998)

Marcus Winslow (Dean's cousin), David Loeh (Dean curator), Darlene Campbell (historian), Julie Harris, Vampira, David Dalton (biographer), Kenneth Kendall (sculptor) and Warren Beath (author) are interviewed about the short life of James Dean.

If you're a fan of Dean then you'll enjoy this episode as you get a pretty good bio of the actor before getting into his tragic death. We hear from friends of his as well as historians who discuss the events of that day. People also talk about who was to blame for the wreck and we also hear from a couple of the police who were on the scene that day. There are a lot of great interviews here that make this worth watching to both fans of Dean as well as fans of the show. We also get clips from his movies but there's no question that the highlights are the interviews... 

From IMDB

I guess I sort of see James Dean as the male version of Jayne Mansfield. (No, I’m not trying to be insulting) As a very talented entertainer, but someone who lacked personal discipline and self-confidence.

I believe another good comparison to Jim Dean would be Jim Morrison. Again, talented entertainer who got as most out of their young lives as they could until they died. The Lizard King, was an alcoholic and probably addicted to illegal drugs as well and Dean was more of an adrenaline junky I guess who was always moving fast and couldn’t slow down.

A Rebel Without a Cause, a famous movie. but it could be the biography of Jimmy Dean. He was way ahead of time culturally and when it came to style was probably born ten years too early as far as the lifestyle that he lived.

I’m not an expert on James Dean, but the information I’ve seen on him is that he’s a pop culture superstar. People love him, because he was cool. I mean let’s face it, he died at 24 and had just three film credits under his belt. Not exactly a deep resume to go on and to judge his life by.

People like Dean because he was cool, he was real, he was honest, he played himself in his movies, he seemed like he wasn’t acting, but being a real person instead.

In many ways reminds me of the great actress Kim Novak who had the ability to literally become the person that she was playing. She also had some luck there, because a lot of the roles she had were very similar to who she was in real-life. Jim Dean is a lot like that, but of course without as deep of a resume. So there’s a lot to like about Dean and easy to see why so many people still love him. 

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