I have seen several of his movies (“REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE”, “GIANT”, etc.), and I find him a competent,but not outstanding actor. Yeah, I know he symbolized teen alienation in the 1950’s, and he was the epitomy of “cool”. But, other than hi trademark smirk, what was so outstanding about the guy? :rolleyes:
He died young. That’s one trait that pushes an actor/public figure into the “icon” column. Marilyn Monroe, JFK (young for a politician), James Dean, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix…they may have talent, they may have fame, but they’re not icons if they’re still alive at age 60.
Dean owes his immortality more to that Spyder than to his talent.
Context. He brought a raw emotionality to his performances that was unique in its day. Watch a bunch of other movies from the same period for a sense of how revolutionary he was as a screen presence.
He was also quite popular as an actor even before his death. In his first major role East of Eden), he was voted “Best Actor” by Picturegoer magazine and an Oscar nomination. Hedda Hopper – a force in Hollywood at the time and not a young woman said, "“I couldn’t remember ever having seen a young man with such power, so many facets of expression, so much sheer invention as an actor.” Granted, she was not the best regarded critic of the time, but the New York Times review of East of Eden had a photo of Dean (and no one else), though Bosley Crowther didn’t much care for his performance, saying it was too derivative of Brando.
So Dean was clearly an actor who was on the verge of stardom even before his death. Of course, that sort of method acting is somewhat passe today, but it was well regarded back then. Once he died, of course, it became a cult, but there’s no reason to think he wouldn’t have been a major star – at least, for a little while.
It’s hard to come up with a more recent example, since we don’t idolize stars in the same way any more.
Heath Ledger? I think it has begun…
Now days he may seem “competent”, because you are viewing him in the context of all the actors who built upon him as an actor. Watch him in the context of those actors who came before him, and you will be stunned by the power and honesty of his performances.
His stage work was also highly regarded. Read what Houghton, Webster, Logan and others who worked with him on stage had to say and you will see he was highly regarded there also as a talent and innovator in spite of his youth.
And just a small blurb on the person who hit him in the fatal accident.
It seems unlikely, I think. Ledger wasn’t iconic enough. Do a Google image search: he’s all over the place. He has no definitive screen persona, even now. Compare with James Dean, with Marilyn Monroe, with Elvis… their identity is encompassed neatly by their image. Fifty years from now, the average person won’t recognize Heath Ledger’s name the way they recognize James Dean today. Plenty of other promising actors will have died young in that time. (River Phoenix? Only been 15 years, folks…)
He was a naturalistic actor at a time when acting tended to be very mannered and theatrical. It’s commonplace now, but it was groundbreaking in the context of his era. He was the guy who broke movie acting out of the ridiculous kind of speech affectations you see in old movies.
There is a difference between being revered, being outstanding, and being iconic.
James Dean is iconic.
Kevin Spacey is outstanding
James Stewart is revered
His sausage empire also has a lot to do with it.
I thought that was Abe Froeman
The amazing James Dean Car Accident Re-Enactment from the film Crash (the good one - not Paul Haggis’s hackneyed piece of garbage from 2005.)
“Don’t worry, that guy’s gotta see us.”
Love it.
Bentley Little has a great short story called “The Idol” about these two teenage boys who get it into their heads that the lug-wrench that Dean threw off of the cliff in Rebel Without A Cause must still be down there somewhere in the woods, that the prop department would just have had multiple wrenches for the different takes and that they never would have bothered going back down and getting it. They figure that they could sell the wrench as a collectible on eBay and make a lot of money. So they find that exact spot, from the movie, and they go hiking down in the woods, and they come upon a shed. Inside the shed, the lug-wrench is embedded in a concrete floor and sticking up vertically. The walls of the shed are completely covered with Polaroid pictures of women fucking the lug-wrench. (A little detail that I love - there are so many photos that when you peel back one photo from the wall, there are other layers underneath it, and the kids can see different hairstyles from different generations and it’s obvious that this practice has been going on for a long time.) It turns out there’s some bizarre nation-wide cult of women who ritualistically fuck themselves with the lug-wrench as a form of James Dean-worship.
Just one of the many reasons why Bentley Little is the most delightfully twisted, and yet completely unknown horror writers. Steven King even claims to be a fan of his - I think he’s better than King, honestly.
I think a relevant point is most of those people are from the same brief era. The “young death” celebrities before or since haven’t had this “iconic” nature thrust upon them in the same way, probably for some generational “fame is fleeting” reason. It’s much easier to forget and move on to the next new thing when most celebrities’ fame only lasts a year or three if they’re lucky.
Nah, that’s George Foreman.
But it’s not entirely his youthful death, because Marlon Brando is in the same league, and he didn’t die young.
Dean’s death was the icing on the cake, though, I’ll grant you. He never had a chance to become mundane or simply to age.
Several? Etc.? :dubious:
3 is several. Isn’t it?
He only made 3. I guess that could be called “several,” but it could also be called “all.”
Sigh.
He was hot.
He was vulnerable.
He died.
He got the press.
(And, according to the google ads, he must have had a flat stomach.)