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I, James Byron Dean, was born February 8, 1931, Marion, Indiana. My parents, Winton Dean and Mildred Dean, formerly Mildred Wilson, and myself existed in the state of Indiana until I was six years of age. Dad's work with the government caused a change, so Dad as a dental mechanic was transferred to California. There we lived, until the fourth year. Mom became ill and passed out of my life at the age of nine. I never knew the reason for Mom's death, in fact it still preys on my mind. I had always lived such a talented life. I studied violin, played in concerts, tap-danced on theatre stages but most of all I like art, to mold and create things with my hands. I came back to Indiana to live with my uncle. I lost the dancing and violin, but not the art. I think my life will be devoted to art and dramatics. And there are so many different fields of art it would be hard to foul-up, and if I did, there are so many different things to do -- farm, sports, science, geology, coaching, teaching music. I got it and I know if I better myself that there will be no match. A fellow must have confidence. When living in California my young eyes experienced many things. It was also my luck to make three visiting trips to Indiana, going and coming a different route each time. I have been in almost every state west of Indiana. I remember all. My hobby, or what I do in my spare time, is motorcycle. I know a lot about them mechanically and I love to ride. I have been in a few races and have done well. I own a small cycle myself. When I'm not doing that, I'm usually engaged in athletics, the heartbeat of every American boy. As one strives to make a goal in a game, there should be a goal in this crazy world for all of us. I hope I know where mine is, anyway, I'm after it. I don't mind telling you, Mr. Dubois, this is the hardest subject to write about considering the information one knows of himself, I ever attempted.

"My Case Study" to Roland Dubois, Fairmount High School Principal, 1948

James Dean was born February 8, 1931, in Marion, Indiana, to Winton and Mildred Dean. His father, a dental technician, moved the family to Los Angeles when Jimmy was five. He returned to the Midwest after his mother passed away and was raised by his aunt and uncle on their Indiana farm. After graduating from high school, he returned to California where he attended Santa Monica Junior College and UCLA. James Dean began acting with James Whitmore's acting workshop, appeared in occasional television commercials, and played several roles in films and on stage. In the winter of 1951, he took Whitmore's advice and moved to New York to pursue a serious acting career. He appeared in seven television shows, in addition to earning his living as a busboy in the theater district, before he won a small part in a Broadway play entitled See the Jaguar.
 

In a letter to his family in Fairmount in 1952, he wrote:

"I have made great strides in my craft. After months of auditioning, I am very proud to announce that I am a member of the Actors Studio. The greatest school of the theater. It houses great people like Marlon Brando, Julie Harris, Arthur Kennedy, Mildred Dunnock...Very few get into it, and it is absolutely free. It is the best thing that can happen to an actor. I am one of the youngest to belong. If I can keep this up and nothing interferes with my progress, one of these days I might be able to contribute something to the world." [He worked with Arthur Kennedy in See the Jaguar; he would later star with Julie Harris in East of Eden and Mildred Dunnock in Padlocks, a 1954 episode of the CBS television program Danger.]

Dean continued his study at the Actors Studio, played short stints in television dramas, and returned to Broadway in The Immoralist (1954). This last appearance resulted in a screen test at Warner Brothers for the part of Cal Trask in the screen adaptation John Steinbeck's novel East of Eden. He then returned to New York where he appeared in four more television dramas. After winning the role of Jim Stark in 1955's Rebel Without A Cause, he moved to Hollywood.

In February, he visited his family in Fairmount with photographer Dennis Stock before returning to Los Angeles. In March, Jimmy celebrated his Eden success by purchasing his first Porsche and entered the Palm Springs Road Races. He began shooting Rebel Without A Cause that same month and Eden opened nationwide in April. In May, he entered the Bakersfield Race and finished shooting Rebel. He entered one more race, in Santa Barbara, before he joined the cast and crew of Giant in Marfa, Texas.

James Dean had one of the most spectacularly brief careers of any screen star. In just more than a year, and in only three films, Dean became a widely admired screen personality, a personification of the restless American youth of the mid-50's, and an embodiment of the title of one of his film Rebel Without A Cause. En route to compete in a race in Salinas, James Dean was killed in a highway accident on September 30, 1955. James Dean was nominated for two Academy Awards, for his performances in East of Eden and Giant. Although he only made three films, they were made in just over one year's time. Joe Hyams, in the James Dean biography Little Boy Lost, sums up his career:
 

"..There is no simple explanation for why he has come to mean so much to so many people today. Perhaps it is because, in his acting, he had the intuitive talent for expressing the hopes and fears that are a part of all young people... In some movie magic way, he managed to dramatize brilliantly the questions every young person in every generation must resolve."

January 4th: Warner
Brothers announces that
James Dean will play the
role of Jim Stark in Rebel
Without A Cause. Jimmy
appears on ABC's U.S.
Steel Hour: The Thief,
co-starring Mary Astor.

January 18th: Dean
begins pre-production
meetings with Rebel
director, Nick Ray.

February: Ray holds
juvenile delinquency
"classes" for actors
playing gang members.
Warners' wardrobe
department soils and
launders more than 400
pairs of Levis for stars
and extras in the movie.

February 14th: Jimmy,
along with photographer
Dennis Stock, returns to
Fairmount and attends the
Sweethart Ball at
Fairmount High School.

March 1st: Dean buys a
1500cc Porche Super
Speedster. He wins races
at Pacific Palisades and
Pasadena. He enters the
prestigious two-day meet
at Palm Springs.

March 7th: Dennis
Stock's photo essay,
"Moody New Star,"
appears in Life Magazine.

March 8th: Jimmy
returns to Hollywood.

March 9th: Marilyn
Monroe hands out
programs at the celebrity
preview of East of Eden
at New York's Astor
Theater. Jimmy does not
attend.

March 13th: The
interview by Howard
Thompson, "Another
Dean Hits the Big
League," appears in The
New York Times.

March 14th: Jimmy stars
in NBC's Lever Brothers
Lux Video Theatre: Life
of Emile Zola, and an
interview with him follows
the broadcast.

March 21st: A rave
review of Jimmy's
performance in East of
Eden appears in Time
Magazine.

March 27th: Hedda
Hopper praises Jimmy's
performance in Eden.

March 28th: Rebel
Without A Cause begins
shooting. In the opening
sequence, Natalie Wood's
five-minute-long crying
scene beats Bette Davis'
all-time crying record set
in Winter Meeting (1948).

April 2nd: Warner
Brothers again extends
Jimmy's contract. He is
slated to play Jett Rink in
the movie version of Edna
Ferber's epic novel,
Giant.

April 4th: Screenwriters
Fred Guiol and Evan
Moffat finalize the script
for Giant.

April 10th: Eden opens
nationwide.

April 14th: Warner
Brothers announces:
"Dean to play Graziano
role in Somebody Up
There Likes Me."

May 1st: Night shooting
of Rebel begins at Griffith
Park Planetarium.
Switchboards of
downtown Los Angeles
papers flooded with
callers (who've spotted
the glare of arc and spot
lights) reporting a raging
forest fire.

May 6th: Jimmy appears
on CBS' Schlitz
Playhouse: The
Unlighted Road with Pat
Hardy.

May 21st: Shooting
begins on Giant.

May 25th: Rebel filming
ends.

May 28th and 29th:
Jimmy races his car in
Santa Barbara, California.

June 3rd: Dean joins the
Giant filming already in
progress.

July 8th: Giant cast and
crew leave for Marfa,
Texas.

August 1st: Jimmy takes
a one year lease on a
house in Sherman Oaks,
California.

August 12th: The
Hollywood Reporter says:
"Jimmy Dean studying
German so that he can
fight with [girlfriend]
Ursula Andress in two
languages."

September 16th: Press
release: "James Dean
plans to go on racing kick
when Giant ends."

September 17th: Dean
makes 30-second
commercial for the
National Highway Safety
Committee with actor Gig
Young. He signs off with:
"And remember...drive
safely becasue the life you
save might be mine."

September 21st: Jimmy
trades in his Porche
Speedster for a Porche
Spyder 550. Custom car
artist, George Barris,
paints "130" and "Little
Bastard" on it.

September 22nd: Dean
finishes the "Last Supper"
scene in Giant.

September 29th: Jimmy
visits his friend, Jeannette
Mille, and gives her his
Siamese cat, Marcus, a
gift from Elizabeth Taylor.
He attends a party in
Malibu.

September 30th, 8:00
a.m.: Jimmy arrives at
Competition Motors to
check out the new Porche
with his mechanic, Rolf
Wutherich. 10:00 a.m.:
Jimmy's father, Winton,
and uncle, Charlie Nolan
Dean, pay him a visit.
Together they have an
early lunch at Farmer's
Market. 1:30 p.m.: Jimmy
and Wutherich pick up
Sanford Roth and Bill
Hickman. The group
departs for Salinas in two
cars. 3:30 p.m.: Outside
of Bakersfield, Jimmy
receives a ticket for
speeding. 5:45 p.m.: At
an intersection of routes
466 and 41, near
Cholame, Jimmy's Porche
collides with a Ford sedan
driven by Donald
Turnupseed. Wutherich is
thrown free; Jimmy dies
within seconds.