I was a teenager in the '50’s and discovered Dean after he was already dead. To me he was the symbol of that decade, but I can’t think of parallels in other decades with his power and longevity.
If Dean wasn’t your symbol of the '50’s, who was?
Who represents the 40s? 50s? 60s? 70s? 80s? 90s? 00s? 10s?
60s - Steve McQueen
70s - John Travolta
80s - Tom Cruise
90s - Brad Pitt
00s - Leonardo DiCaprio
10s - Ryan Gosling
I assume by longevity you mean that his image is still viable even his personal longevity was quit short,
Exactly.
Gah! Wrong button. Let’s try that again…
70’s John Beluishi
80’s River Phoenix
90’s Kurt Cobain
30s: Clark Gable or Errol Flynn
40s: Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant or Jimmy Stuart; take your pick
70s – Al Pacino
80s – Robert Downey, Jr.
90s – Johnny Depp
00s – Heath Ledger
As a friend of mine put it, “I wanted Heath Ledger to be the Robert Redford of my generation, and instead, he’s James Dean.”
Tie between Steve McQueen and Paul Newman in the late 1960s-early 1970s – I think that’s fair.
McQueen had the relatively early death going for him, though, in addition to the fast living, alleged prodigious drug and alcohol use, and love of speedracing on the Dean scale of relativity.
I think the 1940s belonged to Bogey.
1930s? Yeah, Errol Flynn is a great choice, but so is The King. By the end of the 1930s, though, Cary Grant was I think one of the very few big-time actors who had amassed enough power to escape the binding, exploitative studio contracts and call his own shots, choose his own pictures.
Less convincing ideas: Bart Marshall as 1930s iconic sums-it-up male actor known for being a man’s-man type, though, and even David Niven goes in that pot, speaking of Brits. More convincing idea: Cagney in the 1930s. Not really a James Dean type, though.
I’m not sure about the premiss that Dean was the Dean of the 1950s, though – maybe Rock Hudson, maybe Glenn Ford or comparatively old Randolph Scott or Monty Clift.
Early-late 1960s? Kirk Douglas? Brynner? Not sure.
For the early 80s, I’d vote for Harrison Ford. Between Han Solo and Indiana Jones, Ford was THE quintessential depiction of the rebellious sexy manly man that every guy of that time wanted to be.
Compared to Sean Connery in a tuxedo?
Good one.
Maybe Kurt Russell, though – and that guy really was, in life, a pretty serious macho man, with his ball playing and everything. Of course he pretty much grew up in the studios as a child actor, so Ford has more of the everyman making it big thing going for him.
Not sure, but I’d give a slight edge to Kurt Russell. Harrison Ford was tough to beat, though – he was the man in a lot of ways. Really close call.
ETA yeah, I forgot Sean Connery. He was the man, no doubt, even before his triumph in Highlander. I think he’s a better choice than Douglas or Brynner. James Coburn could be his sidekick, maybe. Lee Marvin maybe his evil twin.
Different media, but like James Dean, a lot of people don’t realize that Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin were only around for a few years from the time they became popular (in a mainstream sense) until the time they died.
Are You Experienced and Big Brother and the Holding Company both came out in '67. Jimi and Janis both died in '70.
1920s- Rudy Valentino.
Good call - I woulda gone with Jim Morrison. Fiery, handsome to the point of being mislabeled a teen heartthrob, some interesting work that captures a level of rebellion and trying to find your own path. I’m not up on my JD, but wasn’t he known as having a difficult personality, like Morrison? To the point of being an asshole to some?
1780s Wolfgang Mozart
1840s Felix Mendelsohn
1910s Maybe Florence Lawrence, better known as “The Biograph Girl”. In the early days of film, studios tried to discover giving actors credits, feeling they would become famous and demand more money.
1860s maybe Edwin Booth, of a famous acting family and brother of John Wilkes Booth. In one of those amazing coincidences Edwin saved Robert Lincoln from serious injury or death months before John Wilkes killed Abraham Lincoln
Kenny G was the James Dean of the 80s.
Not quite sure that quality was (is) unique to Dean, but he was labeled “a rebel” by columnists like Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons (and others) which in those days wasn’t a common label for young actors.
One of the amazing things about Dean in those years was how many young actors (most perhaps) modeled their behavior and looks on his. Martin Sheen is an excellent example. The beatnik/hippie culture was in large part a follow-up to the eccentricities Dean established.
He may have been the best commercial for Levi’s (jeans in general) and t-shirts and red windbreakers. I know almost every kid in my school followed that dress code.
Paula Deen, maybe.
Blasphemy! 