Biografía

Frequently played angry youths

Squinty, sleepy blue eyes

Light brown hair greased back

Impulsive emotional acting style

Known for playing well-meaning but deeply troubled characters

Rolf Weütherich, the German auto mechanic who was riding with Dean in the passenger seat during his fatal auto crash, was thrown from the car by the impact and received multiple injuries. After Dean's death, he fell into a depression from the trauma of the incident and made several suicide attempts. He died in West Germany in 1981 in an auto accident similar to the one that James Dean died in.

He is the only actor in history to receive more than one Oscar nomination posthumously.

He was terribly nearsighted and wore thick eyeglasses when not on camera.

On the night Dean was killed, four of his co-stars: Sal Mineo, Natalie Wood, Nick Adams and Richard Davalos, were all having dinner together in New York. The conversation turned to Dean, his new Porsche, and speculation that his speeding would cause him to have an accident during the coming year.

He met Alec Guinness in Hollywood while the actor was filming El cisne (1956). Guinness later recalled that when Dean showed him his newly-bought Porsche, he advised him to "Get rid of that car, or you'll be dead in a week!" Unfortunately, Guinness' advice turned out right.

Only the gentle are ever really strong.

Gratification comes in the doing, not in the results.

Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today.

An actor must interpret life and, in order to do so, must be willing to accept all the experiences life has to offer. In fact, he must seek out more of life than life puts at his feet. In the short span of his lifetime, an actor must learn all there is to know, experience all there is to experience, or approach that state as closely as possible. He must be superhuman in his efforts to store away in the core of his subconscious everything that he might be called upon to use in the expression of his art.

It was an accident, although I've been involved in some kind of theatrical function or other since I was a child: in school, music, athletics. To me, acting is the most logical way for people's neuroses to manifest themselves, in this great need we all have to express ourselves. To my way of thinking, an actor's course is set even before he's out of the cradle.