The Real James Dean: Intimate Memories from Those Who Knew Him Best

The Real James Dean: Intimate Memories from Those Who Knew Him Best

The Real James Dean: Intimate Memories from Those Who Knew Him Best

The Real James Dean: Intimate Memories from Those Who Knew Him Best

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Overview

In the decades following his death, many of those who knew James Dean best––actors, directors, friends, lovers (both men and women), photographers, and Hollywood columnists––shared stories of their first-person experiences with him in interviews and in the articles and autobiographies they wrote. Their recollections of Dean became lost in fragile back issues of movie magazines and newspapers and in out-of-print books that are extremely hard to find. Until now. 

The Real James Dean is the first book of its kind: a rich collection spanning six decades of writing in which many of the people whose lives were touched by Dean recall their indelible experiences with him in their own words. Here are the memorable personal accounts of Dean from his high school and college drama teachers; the girl he almost married; costars like Rock Hudson, Natalie Wood, Jim Backus, and Raymond Massey; directors Elia Kazan, Nicholas Ray, and George Stevens; entertainer Eartha Kitt; gossip queen Hedda Hopper; the passenger who accompanied Dean on his final, fatal road trip; and a host of his other friends and colleagues.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781613734728
Publisher: Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
Publication date: 08/01/2016
Pages: 368
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Peter L. Winkler is the author of Dennis Hopper: The Wild Ride of a Hollywood Rebel. His writing has appeared in Filmfax, the Huffington Post, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and Playboy. He lives in Valley Village, California. George Stevens Jr. is a writer, director, and producer who founded the American Film Institute. He has won seventeen Emmys, two Peabody Awards, and an Honorary Academy Awar. 

Table of Contents

Foreword George Stevens Jr. ix

Introduction: Rescued Memories xiii

1 James Dean-The Boy I Loved Emma Woolen Dean 1

2 "My Jim Is a Tough Boy to Understand": James Dean's Father Talks About His Son Richard Moore 9

3 My Case Study James Dean 13

4 Grant County's Own Adeline Nail as told to Val Holley 15

5 The Man Who Would Be 50: A Memory of James Dean Mrs. Gene Nielson Owen 29

6 There Was a Boy… William Bast 33

7 There Was a Boy… Part II William Bast 44

8 There Was a Boy… Part IIII William Bast 55

9 The Great White Way John Gilmore 66

10 Blindside John Gilmore 93

11 Almost Married Jimmy Dean Beverly Wills as told to Helen Weller 108

12 James Dean at UCLA James Bellah interviewed Ronald Martinetti 116

13 James Dean, The Hungry Matador Peter L. Winkler 119

14 Life with Rogers: James Dean's Gay Mentor Tells All Ronald Martinetti 127

15 In Memory Of Jimmy Elizabeth Sheridan 138

16 What Jimmy Dean Believed Jack Shafer 150

17 The Little Prince Frank Corsaro 152

18 Bottle, Bottle, Who's Got The Bottle? Hume Cronyn 155

19 Drawing Blood Shelley Winters 159

20 A Serpent in Eden Elia Kazan 163

21 Just Lousy With Rapport Raymond Massey 170

22 Demon Dean Sidney Skolsky 175

23 "I Was James Dean's Black Madonna!" Vampira as told to Robert Rees 183

24 Kindred Spirits Eartha Kitt 189

25 When James Dean Charmed the Gossip Queen Hedda Hopper James Brough 197

26 James Dean: Rebel with a Cause Joe Hyams 209

27 Romeo and Juliet in Burbank Peter L. Winkler 226

28 A Kind Of Loving Toni Lee Scott Curt Gentry 232

29 Jimmy Dean: Giant Legend, Cult Rebel Leonard Rosenman 239

30 Chickie Run on the Sunset Strip Shelley Winters 242

31 James Dean: The Actor as a Young Man Nicholas Ray 246

32 James Dean Jim Backus 261

33 You Haven't Heard the Half About Jimmy! Natalie Wood 268

34 A Tenderness Lost George Stevens 278

35 Trapped in Marfa Mercedes McCambridge 285

36 The James Dean I Knew Bob Hinkle 294

37 Some Unsentimental Memories of James Dean by Rock Hudson Ray Loynd 298

38 This Was My Friend Jimmy Dean Mike Connolly 301

39 Along Came a Spyder Alec Guinness 315

40 The Rebel and the Mogul Dore Senary 315

41 The Assignment I'll Never Forget: Jimmy Dean Sanford H. Roth 317

42 Death Drive Rolf Wiitherich 321

Epitaph 329

Acknowledgments 331

Credits and Permissions 333

Bibliography 337

Index 341

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