| Today, 30th September 2015, is the 60th anniversary - 60 YEARS, can you believe that? - of the tragic death in a car crash of film actor James Dean, aged only 24. Still an icon today running Marilyn Monroe a close second at 53 years gone. James only made three major films, "East of Eden", "Rebel Without A Cause" and "Giant" but he can also be spotted (if you don't blink) in a very minor role in a 1952 film called "Has Anybody Seen My Gal?" starring his "Giant" co-star Rock Hudson. All three of his main films are totally different and it is only "Rebel Without A Cause", made the year he died (1955), that identified him with turbulent youth and for which he is best remembered. In the later scenes in "Giant", released posthumously in 1956 and which also starred Elizabeth Taylor and an actress with the fabulous name of Mercedes McCambridge, James is made up to look old, something we never got to see in real life. Let's hope he's been resting in peace these past six decades, especially as his death could not have been less peaceful. |