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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The good news: James Dean probably wasn't a male hustler and he didn't act in pornographic films while he was still trying to make a go of it as an actor in New York. The bad news: James Dean was pretty much of a jerk, with a penchant for urinating in public and a singular lack of personal hygiene. Donald Spoto, the biographer of, among others, Alfred Hitchcock, Marlene Dietrich, and Marilyn Monroe, takes a clear-eyed dispassionate look at the legend of James Dean and discovers that his untimely death was probably his greatest career move of all.
From Publishers Weekly
When James Dean died by smashing his Porsche into another car, the 24-year-old actor leaped from fame into legend. Ever since, according to veteran biographer Spoto (A Passion for Life, 1995, about Elizabeth Taylor), Dean has been a protean icon, serving the changing needs of subsequent generations-as a rebel, as a social outcast, as a sexual outlaw. But in this breezy bio, the author contends that "the young man adored and idolized" was, ultimately, "quite simply a boy." In demythologizing Dean, Spoto cites the lack of hard evidence to back up popular allegations about the actor's sexual misconduct, most notably his supposed adolescent involvement with an Indiana minister, his alleged forays into male prostitution and his purported posing for a notorious photo of a young man masturbating in a tree. To lend his version contextual weight, Spoto offers much socioeconomic and cultural background of Dean's time, some of it bland; and to lend it credence, he digs vigorously into the published record, including previous Dean bios like Joe Hyams's Little Boy Lost (1992). While there's not a lot here that's exciting or new, Spoto cuts and pastes smoothly, winding up with an engaging account of a human turned into "the perfect hip icon" for an age "that relies on simple visuals for easy truth." Photos not seen by PW. $125,000 ad/promo; author tour; dramatic rights: Elaine Markson.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
The good news: James Dean probably wasn't a male hustler and he didn't act in pornographic films while he was still trying to make a go of it as an actor in New York. The bad news: James Dean was pretty much of a jerk, with a penchant for urinating in public and a singular lack of personal hygiene. Donald Spoto, the biographer of, among others, Alfred Hitchcock, Marlene Dietrich, and Marilyn Monroe, takes a clear-eyed dispassionate look at the legend of James Dean and discovers that his untimely death was probably his greatest career move of all.
From Publishers Weekly
When James Dean died by smashing his Porsche into another car, the 24-year-old actor leaped from fame into legend. Ever since, according to veteran biographer Spoto (A Passion for Life, 1995, about Elizabeth Taylor), Dean has been a protean icon, serving the changing needs of subsequent generations-as a rebel, as a social outcast, as a sexual outlaw. But in this breezy bio, the author contends that "the young man adored and idolized" was, ultimately, "quite simply a boy." In demythologizing Dean, Spoto cites the lack of hard evidence to back up popular allegations about the actor's sexual misconduct, most notably his supposed adolescent involvement with an Indiana minister, his alleged forays into male prostitution and his purported posing for a notorious photo of a young man masturbating in a tree. To lend his version contextual weight, Spoto offers much socioeconomic and cultural background of Dean's time, some of it bland; and to lend it credence, he digs vigorously into the published record, including previous Dean bios like Joe Hyams's Little Boy Lost (1992). While there's not a lot here that's exciting or new, Spoto cuts and pastes smoothly, winding up with an engaging account of a human turned into "the perfect hip icon" for an age "that relies on simple visuals for easy truth." Photos not seen by PW. $125,000 ad/promo; author tour; dramatic rights: Elaine Markson.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
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