Our Beloved Rebel — James Dean

James Dean was born February 8, 1931, in Marion, Indiana, to Winton and Mildred Dean. His father was a dental technician. He moved the family to Los Angeles when James was five. Unfortunately, his mother passed away. James Dean returned to the Midwest and was raised by his aunt and uncle on their Indiana farm. During this time, Dean sought counsel from his pastor, the Rev. James DeWeerd, who influenced his later interest in car racing and theater.

In 1949, Dean graduated from high school and moved back to California. He attended Santa Monica City College for a time, but eventually transferred to University of California, Los Angeles, and majored in theater. In January 1951, he dropped out of UCLA to pursue a full-time career as an actor.

Dean's first television appearance was in a Pepsi Cola commercial. He was cast in his first speaking part, as John the Beloved Disciple, in “Hill Number One”, an Easter television special dramatizing the Resurrection of Jesus. To make ends meet, Dean worked as a parking-lot attendant at CBS Studios, where he met Rogers Brackett, a radio director who became his mentor.

In July 1951, Dean appeared on “Alias Jane Doe”, which was produced by Brackett. In October 1951, following the encouragement of actor James Whitmore and the advice of his mentor Rogers Brackett, Dean moved to New York City. Proud of this accomplishment, Dean referred to the Actors Studio in a 1952 letter to his family as "the greatest school of the theater. It houses great people like Marlon Brando, Julie Harris, Arthur Kennedy, Mildred Dunnock, Eli Wallach... Very few get into it ... It is the best thing that can happen to an actor. I am one of the youngest to belong." There, he was classmates and close friends with Carroll Baker, alongside whom he would eventually star in “Giant” (1956).

Dean starred in three major motion pictures, beginning with the 1955 film adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel “East of Eden”. In his next film, Dean starred as the agonized teenager Jim Stark in 1955's “Rebel Without a Cause”, a part that would define his image in American culture. Dean then landed a supporting role to Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson in the epic, intergenerational family saga “Giant”. James Dean was the only actor in history to receive more than one Oscar nomination posthumously.

When Dean wasn't acting, he was a professional car racer. Just before filming began on Rebel Without a Cause, he competed in his first professional event at the Palm Springs Road Races. Dean achieved first place in the novice class and second place at the main event.

Shortly after completing the film “Giant”, the restless Dean drove off in his silver Porsche to compete in a sports car rally in Salinas, California. Speeding down the highway, he crashed headlong into a Ford sedan. The two cars hit each other almost head-on. Dean was pronounced dead on arrival shortly after he arrived by ambulance at the Paso Robles War Memorial Hospital at 6:20 p.m. Dean's funeral was held on October 8, 1955, at the Fairmount Friends Church in Fairmount, Indiana. The coffin remained closed to conceal his severe injuries.