# From James Dean to Paul Newman? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 27, 2013, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-james-dean-to-paul-newman/677320 "2013-12-27T22:25:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2013, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-james-dean-to-paul-newman/677320/1 "2013-12-27T22:25:29Z")
I was reading a general overview of James Dean’s life on [IMDB.com](http://IMDB.com), but the blurb was to be continued on the next screen, but it didn’t. It cut off right when the article was saying something implying the short career and tragic death of James Dean somehow gave rise to Paul Neumann’s career. Is that correct? Maybe a movie buff SDoper can fill me in! ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2013, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-james-dean-to-paul-newman/677320/2 "2013-12-28T00:11:44Z")
Found this on Newman’s IMDB page: > [@](#): > > The role of Rocky Graziano in Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) was originally awarded to James Dean, who died before filming began. Due to Dean’s death, Newman was cast in the role. Dean also was signed to play Billy the Kid in The Left Handed Gun (1958), but that role was also inherited by Newman after Dean’s death. Dean and Newman had shot their last screen tests for East of Eden (1955) together; the six-years-younger Dean got the part and Newman went on to star in The Silver Chalice (1954), a notorious turkey. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2013, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-james-dean-to-paul-newman/677320/3 "2013-12-28T00:23:53Z")
All right then, say Dean didn’t die in his car and made _Somebody Up There Likes Me_ and\* The Left Handed Gun\*. What other movies would he have made up to his death this year? ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2013, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-james-dean-to-paul-newman/677320/4 "2013-12-28T00:29:35Z")
Another path to follow in both Dean’s and Newman’s careers is how both of them were in Brando’s shadow. Most young actors were! The sullen brooding look was a dominant feature in many of the 20-30 year olds of that period. Add, if you will, to these lists of look-alikes or act-alikes: Brando Burt Reynolds Don Stroud Jean Paul Belmondo Mark Ruffalo Robert De Niro Dean Robert Culp Steve McQueen Robert Vaughn Michael Parks Tommy Sands James Franco Steven McHattie In the late 50’s and early 60’s it served actors well to resemble the giants of the era. Elvis had many look-alikes as well. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2013, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-james-dean-to-paul-newman/677320/5 "2013-12-28T02:38:13Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > All right then, say Dean didn’t die in his car and made _Somebody Up There Likes Me_ and\* The Left Handed Gun\*. What other movies would he have made up to his death this year? Who can say? He was troubled youth in Rebel and Eden, and troubled adult in Giant. That he was in line for those two other roles makes me think he was already typecast. He could have done Splendor in the Grass, but again, troubled youth/adult. I just can’t picture him as a mature actor, able to do a range of roles, which would include romance, comedy, adventure, action, westerns, war movies. Maybe some Montgomery Clift roles would have suited him, but he was always gonna look twenty years old. Giving him some gray hair in Giant didn’t age him at all. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2013, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-james-dean-to-paul-newman/677320/6 "2013-12-28T03:30:23Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > All right then, say Dean didn’t die in his car and made _Somebody Up There Likes Me_ and\* The Left Handed Gun\*. What other movies would he have made up to his death this year? Maybe he beats out Anthony Perkins for _Psycho_? Maybe he gets David Janssen’s career, playing _The Fugitive_ before asking John Wayne all those irritating questions in _The Green Berets_ and so on? That said, I guess you could do worse than Bradford Dillman. ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-james-dean-to-paul-newman/677320/7 "2014-02-26T03:00:30Z")
Just catching up on some threads…thanks! ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-james-dean-to-paul-newman/677320/8 "2014-02-26T04:32:24Z")
Nope. Dean had a career disadvantage that Newman did not: **He was gay** Not closeted Rock Hudson-style “gay”, but openly so at a time when it would have been a career killer for him. The tabloids had left Dean alone for the most part; but had he lived and his star began to rise, they would have been all over his personal life like piranhas and his career would have tanked. Looking back at Dean’s peers, the only one who had a substantial career for the majority of his entire life was Dennis Hopper. And even he fell upon hard times from the mid 1970s until his career was revitalized by _ **Blue Velvet.** _ Tab Hunter, Sal Mineo, Nick Adams and even Natalie Woods all either flamed out early, died or were reduced to secondary acting roles. While Dean may have gotten a few more major roles had he lived, a more realistic career arc would have been him ascending until the late 1950s and then being outed and his career fizzling, Or he would be a star until tastes changed in the late 1960s when Method actors were starting to appear and he would have been moved to television or foreign productions.