James Dean – Happy Birthday To An Icon

James Dean, who first wowed audiences on Broadway before moving onto television roles and then finally to those 3 iconic films, continues to be a strong influential figure for many. As today marks his 81st birthday, we pay tribute to him and the roles he played. Though he died young, at the age of 24, he achieved a level of immortality that many stars who live longer only dream of. Join us now as we remember him and wish him a “Happy Birthday!”

Tyson James Yates

It begins with the sound of police sirens and a drunken Jim Stark lying face down in an alley as he watches a discarded toy monkey clasp its symbols together. After being escorted to the station, he is reluctantly reunited with his parents who appear to be more concerned with arguing than recognising their own troubled son. However, Jim is not alone. His soon-to-be friends Judy (Natalie Wood) and John ‘Plato’ Crawford (Sal Mineo) are also at the station, each bearing different issues of a young generation.

He may have been without a cause but James Dean’s role as the teenage rebel has certainly had a lasting effect on the once new age concept of the delinquent teen. Nicholas Ray’s 1955 film Rebel Without A Cause led audiences beyond the white picket fences, clean cut lawns and Father Knows Best ideology that was American suburbia. Instead, Rebel paints a less idealistic portrait of underage drinking, knife fighting, gang like social structures, death races, abandonment issues and the overwhelming sense of boredom that fuelled a young generation’s discontent with the complacency of their parents.

Perhaps it was this same spirit of youthful rebellion that saw the up- and-coming generation of talent, the likes of Brando, De Niro, and Dean himself, adopt a style of improvisational acting that broke the boundaries of their theatrically trained predecessors. This type of method acting replaced the traditional theatrics that were key throughout the classic Hollywood era, enabling actors to explore the subtleties of a character’s movement or stumble over dialogue to deliver a more realistic portrayal. Rebel Without A Cause makes use of this contrast between James Dean’s method acting and the classic style of Jim Backus and Ann Doran as the rigid parents, perfectly demonstrating the generation gap that is at the films core.

Despite a short career and a notoriously bad-ass off-screen persona resembling his most iconic role as the red jacket wearing, tall haired, mumbling delinquent Jim Stark, James Dean will always be recognised as belonging to that exclusive club whose members are made up of talented young artists that never had the chance to reach their full potential. ‘You can wake up now,’ Jim says to Judy as the two sit side by side in the Planetarium ‘the universe has ended’.

Mark Patton

I first saw James Dean in East of Eden at the Tivoli Theater in Kansas City, Missouri. I was 16 years old and had big dreams of being an actor. Sitting in the theater my friend Susan whisperers in my ear “If they ever make a movie of his life…you could play him, you are just like him”.

I took that to heart as I moved off to New York City. I never did play James Dean but I got as close as one could without actually being him. On February 18, 1982 I opened on Broadway in Come Back to the Five and Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, Directed by Robert Altman. I played Joe Qualley, at one point in the play my friend Mona (Sandy Dennis) whispered in my ear…”you could be just like him Joe” so off we ran to try and be extras in the film Giant.

Jimmy Dean has become a film icon, we move in the aura of the Cult of James Dean. I feel extremely lucky to have had this experience. I had the great fortune of meeting many stars from the Actors Studio (most, male and female alluded to the fact that they had slept with James and that he was a good lover…the young me was slightly repulsed that my beautiful James would sleep with all these “Old People”, silly youthful me.)

I met many of the folks from Fairfield, Ind. including his Drama Teacher. I was given a piece of his clothing. That said, I always feel close to James, like a friend, although of course I never met him. I always call my friends from the James Dean Fan Club of Marfa, Texas (Cher, Karen Black, Kathy Bates, Marta Helflin ) around the time of his birthday and reminisce about being in the World of James Dean, how we are forever connected to a Super Nova.

Rohan Mohmand

I believe I was about 15 years old when I noticed a black and white image of James Dean in a book, at that time I had no idea who he was. Underneath the image read, “James Dean An Icon.”

I took his name, and later I commenced my research on him, the amount of information I found gave me enough insight on his life, his quotes, his status in Hollywood, and his contribution to cinema. His work truly inspires me, the passion he had truly changed the cinema for better. He has inspired many great artists of our generation, and his name and legacy will continue to inspire artists around the world.

Today we remember him for the legacy that he left behind. His name is alive, for who he was. He was an icon, a legend, and an artist. My favorite quote of his is, “If a man can bridge the gap between life and death, if he can live on after he’s dead, then maybe he was a great man.”

Patrick Samuel

As a kid, my mother would always tell me about stars like Marilyn Monroe and James Dean, the ones who died before their time and how there would never be anybody like them again. As I got older, James Dean fascinated me and more, he seemed like a boy who could do with a few friends, something I could definitely relate to, and it wasn’t until my early teens that I finally and fully understood East of Eden, Giant and Rebel Without A Cause.

Perhaps it was simply because I was at the right age to empathise with those feelings of alienation and the rebellious urges brought to life on screen in Rebel, or maybe it was because he embodied everything I wanted to be right at that very moment. Whatever the reason, Jimmy became the world to me in those years I spent as a teenager when all I did was silently scream at the world “YOU’RE TEARING ME APART!”

Devouring every biography I could find and eagerly waiting for his films to be screened at the BFI, it wasn’t long before I was reading Lorca, Hemmingway and Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, watching Montgomery Clift in A Place In The Sun and dreaming of studying at UCLA, being discovered at Schwab’s Pharmacy and making my debut on Broadway. While neither of those things actually happened (yet!) Jimmy continues to be strong influence in my life and odd as it might seem, it was him who nurtured my creative soul when there was nobody else to. That’s why on this day I always him a “Happy Birthday”. He might have lived fast and died young but his star burns ever so bright.

Barbara Diril

I’m glad that I had the opportunity to see my favorite film with James Dean Rebel Without a Cause at a one night only screening at The Castro Theatre in San Francisco. I experienced what it must have been like to see James in 1955 on the big screen, and was totally amazed by his performance and how he was able to express every emotion, making it very real.

One of my favorite quotes is “Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.” by James. He definitely went after his dreams, becoming one of the most famous and important actors in film history.

Even though he had a short life and was only able to play in three films, it was an intense one. He was able to become an icon because of his extraordinary acting talent that impacts other artists still today. James is definitely an artist that I adore and look up to as well.

Happy Birthday James!