Sal Mineo: His Life, Murder, and Mystery [Hardcover]

H. Paul Jeffers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2000

Sal Mineo grew up cough and moved fast -from the Bronx to Broadway to Hollywood, from street crimes to stage plays to an Oscar nomination, at the age of sixteen, for his portrayal of the doomed teenager in the 1955 James Dean film Rebel Without a Cause. His role in Exodus won him 3 second Academy Award nomination in 1961, but ten years later he was a movie has-been. As this carefully and caringly researched biography shows, Sal Mineo talents far exceeded the limits typecasting imposed upon a career that saddled him with the nickname, the Switchblade Kid. It also demonstrates that, Clineo's decline had less to do with the loss of the baby-face good looks that quickened the heartbeat of teenage girls than it did with his unwillingness to deny his homosexuality. Still tough, though, Mineo refashioned his career, as a stage actor and director, but he was not tough enough to survive the shocking encounter with the man who nabbed him to death. Investigating the mystery that continues to surround Sal Mineo's tragic death and sifting the facts from the fictions that shroud his private life, this long-overdue serious study of the man and the star sympathetically chronicles the thirty-seven years that made an "erotic politician" and gay icon of 3 street kid and teen idol.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Small, sinuous and sensuous, Mineo is best remembered for his Academy Award- nominated performance as Plato, the troubled gay teen in love with James Dean in the famed 1955 cult film Rebel Without a Cause, though Mineo's career was far more extensive. His life, which ended in a mysterious street stabbing in 1976 when he was 37, is an emblematic story of early childhood success and a faltering later career. Born in 1939 to immigrant Italian parents in the Bronx, Mineo possessed extraordinary star quality. At age 11, he landed a Broadway role with one line in Tennessee's William's The Rose Tattoo; two years later, he was the understudy for the part of the Crown Prince of Siam in The King and I. After just two films, he was catapulted into stardom in Rebel. But except for an Academy Award nomination for his performance in Exodus in 1960, Mineo's film career was spotty and didn't build momentum. With an easy style and sound reporting, Jeffers (a personal friend of Mineo's and author of numerous books including An Honest President: The Life and Presidencies of Grover Cleveland) has recreated the performer's life with verve and insight. He also provides delicious, though sometimes extraneous, gossip (16-year-old Mineo most probably had affairs with both James Dean and director Nicholas Ray on the set of Rebel). Jeffers's insights into the complicated Hollywood politics that controlled Mineo's up-and-down career will appeal to older film buffs and Rebel fans who will recognize him in the movie still on the jacket, while gay (and straight) readers will be wholly absorbed by his account of how homophobia impeded the search for Mineo's murderer. Targeted marketing to gay readers should boost sales (as it will the title reviewed directly below.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Sal Mineo was gay and initially unhappy about it, Jeffers says. Although his family never accepted it, he eventually embraced his homosexuality, which allowed him to understand his feelings for James Dean during the filming of Rebel without a Cause , which even included a scene, cut before release, in which the two men kissed. At his death in 1976, Mineo was best remembered for that film. Some fans may have known he had come out, but few knew he had become a successful stage director of the gay-themed play Fortune and Men's Eyes , which New York gays rallied round as a kind of liberation statement. Jeffers was closely associated with Mineo, and his warmth toward the one-time "Switchblade Kid" is patent. Mineo's late night murder behind his LA apartment gave the tabloids something to scream about, and it remains unsolved. By that time, the former teenage movie star was, at 37, almost destitute. Its violent end just then made Mineo's story a sad one, told with feeling by an author who cared about him. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers (October 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786707771
• ISBN-13: 978-0786707775
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,224,407 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "A Gay Icon Lives On", April 23, 2001

By 

Joseph J. Hanssen "Joe" (Upstate New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sal Mineo: His Life, Murder, and Mystery (Hardcover)

Finally! Finally! Someone has written a biography of Sal Mineo's career and his personal life. This is a long over-due book. I think Paul Jeffers has done a wonderful job in giving us Sal Mineo's career every step of the way, and also in writing about his personal life. Yes, this book may be one-sided by only talking about Sal's gay relationships, and not mentioning his heterosexual affairs with women. However, the last years of his life he admitted he was gay, and that's all I expected from this author.

I will always remember my introduction to Sal Mineo. I happened to catch a movie on late night TV called "Who Killed Teddy Bear" and couldn't believe how erotic this young actor was who was stalking this woman name Norah Dain. There Sal was lying on the bed, very muscular, in white briefs (a first for TV in 1965) making a sexy phone call to an unsuspecting Norah. I couldn't believe my eyes, who is this actor? Well, ever since then I followed his career like a true devoted fan. I don't think anyone could ever forget "Rebel Without a Cause"after seeing it. Sal & James Dean & Natalie Wood's acting performance made history with this movie & will always be remembered. Finally, young people and their trouble lives were being recognized.

It's just so sad that Sal's life had to end at such an early age, when his career was looking up again. Hollywood was not kind at all to Sal. However, he will always be with us through his movies that we certainly will never forget. I enjoyed this biography of Sal's career and life, and thank Paul Jeffers for this well-researched book. Sal was a talented & very original type of actor who will never be forgotten by his fans, and especially by me. Highly Recommended!!!

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Bio reveals the voice of the real Sal Mineo, October 28, 2000

By 

Joseph H. Bonelli (Jackson, Ms. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sal Mineo: His Life, Murder, and Mystery (Hardcover)

H.Paul Jeffers biography of the talented, uncompromisingtheatre and film professional that was Sal Mineo, is a fascinatinglook at the "forgotten star" (who just happened to benominated for Academy Awards twice by the age of 21!) that is longoverdue. My "review" must be qualified by the fact that Iknew Sal and, indeed, am an interview-ee in the book. I worked on theN.Y.& L.A. productions of the play FORTUNE AND MEN'S EYES, asasst stage manager, director of understudies (in L.A.), and in othercapacities, including actually performing in the show. Acting andrehearsing with Sal and with the understudies, was a great learningexperience, as the man had, in the productive twenty of his thenthirty years, become a polished professional who communicatedbeautifully as a director with his cast, and electrifyingly in his ownon-stage performance, with both actors AND audience. Working with himwas sometimes frustrating, always productive. Socializing with himwas sometimes puzzling, but always fun. The most fascinating aspectof Mr. Jeffers' bio is that in it Sal simply rings true!! The voice ofMineo, both as directly quoted, and as heard through the musings ofothers like myself who knew and worked with him over the years, ringsTOTALLY true!! This IS Sal Mineo!! I enjoyed reading about the career,learning a great deal that helped me to fill in holes in myunderstanding of this complex man. Whereas I always thought that Salhad been mismanaged careerwise by others, Jeffers' book makes merealize at long last, that the mismanagement was always with Salhimself. Career choices, including AND ESPECIALLY personal choices(revelations?) that affected his career, were Sal's alone. There isno question that Sal Mineo decided that, as long as he wasn't going tobe the big star that he had once been, that he would just be himself.Paul Jeffers' book lets both the casual, interested reader and theperson like me, a good acquaintance--not a close friend-- put Sal inperspective. Slight controversy seems to be stirring up over certainrevelations in the Jeffers bio about the sexuality of Sal, the authorand others, yet these things are simply the truth. Hardly a one-nightstand, H.Paul Jeffers was a close friend of Sal Mineo's from Fortune'sNew York run until his death. And though Sal had certain closerelationships with members of the opposite sex (most notably hisExodus co-star Jill Haworth, a truly lovely person and his close andcaring friend for the rest of his life) he was, as far as I couldascertain, basically and unashamedly homosexual. Sal urged H.PaulJeffers to write his life story. And Jeffers has done just that,unsparingly and with fascinating results for those intersted in Salboth as the fine, though wasted and sadly unfulfilled talent he wasand as the proud gay man he also was. If you want to know Sal Mineo(as closely as you probably will ever have the chance) as bothprofessional and person, then buy this book and read it now. It willbe talked about, and you might as well be prepared to join in. As forSal, I have no doubt he is sitting in some celestial space, smoking afilter-tipped Kool, toasting Jimmy with his tenth cup of coffee--blackwith sugar, giving Natalie a wink, and smiling that quiet, enigmaticsmile that only tells that, once again, he is thoroughly enjoyingbeing the center of controversial attention.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Noble Effort, November 24, 2006

By 

Readers Reader (Sayreville, New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sal Mineo: His Life, Murder, and Mystery (Hardcover)

As a big movie buff, especially of classic films from Hollywood's Golden Age, I have always had an interest in Sal Mineo's life career and untimely death. And I found it sad that he seemed to be slipping into oblivion in the past decade or so. He had a very complex and fascinating screen presence--particularly in his earlier films--and he carved out his place in immortality with his excellent work in Rebel Without a Cause. So I was delighted to come across this book by Paul Jeffers. I commend him for writing about someone who is not a current A-List celebrity...and exploring the many mysteries about Mineo's life and death. However, I must admit I found this book somewhat disappointing. It's not at all scholarly, exhaustively researched or even very detailed and you do get the feeling that it's a "cut and paste" job with a lot of the material coming from previously published sources and the internet. It would have certainly benefited from more leg work--interviews with Mineo's surviving contemporaries and colleagues. I found the chapters concerning his death especially weak. Still, I feel that this book is worth reading for any Hollywood film buff. And if you have no knowledge of Mineo's life at all--you will certainly walk away from it with a somewhat better understanding. In that regard I recommend it and I salute Mr. Jeffers for a very noble and well intentioned effort.