MEET JAMES DEAN

*Fact Or Fiction: "Captain Mean Dean" they call him on ice and the more you get near him, the meaner he gets and he'll keep the opposing team scoreless to the end. A true Rebel!

James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931 - September 30, 1955) was an American actor, born on a Marion, Indiana family farm to Winton and Mildred Wilson Dean. Dean began his career with a soda commercial followed by a bit part in the television series, Hill Number One. He quit college to focus on his budding career, but he struggled to get jobs in Hollywood and only succeeded in paying bills by working as a parking lot attendant. He appeared in several uncredited bit roles in such forgettable films as Sailor Beware, but finally gained recognition and success in 1955 in his first starring role, that of Cal Trask in East of Eden, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role. He followed this up in rapid succession with two more starring roles, in Rebel Without a Cause, and in the 1956 release Giant,for which he was also nominated for an Academy Award. Dean died in a road accident in a Porsche 550 Spyder, before Giant was released. He is buried in Park Cemetery in his home town of Fairmount. He is one of only five people to be nominated for Best Actor for his first feature role, and the only person to be nominated twice after his death. His very brief career, violent death and highly publicized funeral transformed James Dean into a cult object and pop icon of apparently timeless fascination.

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