James dean: hollywood rebel who slept his way to the top

East Of Eden would make him a superstar in 1955 but he could not escape his volatile insecurities. “He had a violent streak in him,” said the fi lm’s director Elia Kazan. “He seemed

threatening as if at any minute he could turn into a serial killer. He was a little nuts. Maybe a lot nuts.” Dean’s friend, composer Leonard Rosenman, said he “had a reputation for beating

up his girlfriends”. Natalie Wood, his co-star and lover while filming Rebel Without A Cause, revealed: “Sometimes Jimmy liked to hurt his partner and be hurt. I don’t go in for that.” Dean

routinely carried a flick-knife and performing a scene at the Actor’s Studio in New York slashed both his wrists while on stage. “He was actually committing suicide in front of the entire

class,” recalled Shelley Winters. “I ran to the stage to stop him.” That night they became lovers. Dean was born in Marion, Indiana, and raised in a farmhouse by his aunt after his mother

died and father abandoned him. He lost his two front teeth falling from a trapeze as a child and his dental technician father made him false teeth. “Dean liked to take them out at parties to

shock,” says Porter. His mentor was the family’s Methodist preacher Dr James DeWeerd who introduced the youngster to Shakespeare, yoga and sex, the book claims. “I lost my virginity to

him,” Dean told a friend. “Dean was omnisexual,” says Porter. “His affairs were often opportunistic and designed to further his career.” He was an unknown actor when introduced to Spencer

Tracy who took Dean to bed only to burst into tears. “I don’t like who I am,” sobbed Tracy, who at the time was involved with Katharine Hepburn. In the morning Dean slipped away taking

Tracy’s wallet and cash. He was soon hailed as a “new Marlon Brando” provoking a lovehate rivalry with the original, though they too became lovers. “Brando was sadistically using Jimmy who

followed him around like a love-sick puppy,” claimed friend Stanley Haggart. Dean met Paul Newman in 1952, both chasing the same roles, and quickly seduced Newman. Eartha Kitt claimed she

enjoyed a threesome with Dean and Newman, saying the romp “ranks as one of the most celestial experiences of my life”. Rock Hudson and Dean were lovers while filming Giant together in 1955

until Hudson dumped him. “He turned on me,” Dean complained. “Hudson is nothing but a piece of ****.” But fame undermined Dean, said his friend William Bast: “It was a disintegration, a

splintering of an to whom,” Dean admitted.  “Judy gave Daily Express Saturday March 19 2016 25 already multifaceted personality into a fragmented jigsaw puzzle.” The rising star increasingly

sought thrills recklessly riding his motorbike or driving his car, though it horrified friends. Eartha Kitt called a spin in his Porsche Spyder “the nightmare ride of my life”. On September

30, 1955, Dean was speeding to a race in Salinas, northern California, when he struck a car turning across his path. His Porsche flew 50 feet into the air, somersaulted and crashed into a

telephone pole. He died with a broken neck, his forehead and chest caved in. Yet Porter insists: “Dean didn’t have a death wish. He had too much to live for. Every studio was offering him

scripts and he was becoming Hollywood’s biggest leading man. “But he was a thrillseeker with a love for speed and liked to tempt death so that he could experience life all the more. He paid

the ultimate price.”  _? TO PRE-ORDER JAMES DEAN – TOMORROW NEVER COMES BY DARWIN PORTER & DANFORTH PRINCE, PUBLISHED ON JULY 1 BY BLOOD MOON PRODUCTIONS, £17.99, CALL THE EXPRESS

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