Focus Features

James Dean was born on February 8, 1931. The son of an Indiana dental technician, Dean’s first acting job was in a Pepsi commercial followed by bit parts on TV game shows and dramas. It wasn’t until 1951 that Dean moved to New York from L.A. and joined the Actor’s Studio, studying under Lee Strasberg, that his career began to flower. He got gigs in different television shows, but his big break came when director Elia Kazan, looking for a “young Brando,” cast him in the 1995 film East of Eden. The film made him an instant star. Dean’s next film, Rebel Without a Cause, in which he played an angst-ridden teenager, turned him into a sensation, propelling him into Giant (also 1955), a big-budget feature also starring Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor. Shortly after filming Giant Dean died in a car accident when the vehicle he was driving was hit full-on by an errant driver who crossed the center line of the twisting California highway. His two Academy Award nominations, for both Rebel without a Cause and Giant, were issued posthumously.

James Dean was born on February 8, 1931. The son of an Indiana dental technician, Dean’s first acting job was in a Pepsi commercial followed by bit parts on TV game shows and dramas. It wasn’t until 1951 that Dean moved to New York from L.A. and joined the Actor’s Studio, studying under Lee Strasberg, that his career began to flower. He got gigs in different television shows, but his big break came when director Elia Kazan, looking for a “young Brando,” cast him in the 1995 film East of Eden. The film made him an instant star. Dean’s next film, Rebel Without a Cause, in which he played an angst-ridden teenager, turned him into a sensation, propelling him into Giant (also 1955), a big-budget feature also starring Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor. Shortly after filming Giant Dean died in a car accident when the vehicle he was driving was hit full-on by an errant driver who crossed the center line of the twisting California highway. His two Academy Award nominations, for both Rebel without a Cause and Giant, were issued posthumously.