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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This is a juicy biography that looks at the events that shaped Dean's (1931-1955) homosexuality. The death of his mother left Dean to be raised by relatives in Indiana, where he enjoyed an adolescence filled with basketball, 4-H Clubs and fast motorcycles. During this idyllic time he lost his virginity--to the local minister. After graduation from high school, Dean moved to L.A. to attend acting classes at UCLA. Unable to find film work, he slept with men (including, purportedly, Clifton Webb) who could help him to get acting jobs. Moving to Manhattan, he joined the Actors Studio to study under Lee Strasberg. After appearing on TV and Broadway, Dean returned to Hollywood to make East of Eden . Rebel Without a Cause and Giant followed, but Dean died in a car accident before their premieres. No movie critic, Alexander ( Rough Magic ) instead has written a graphic sexual biography that's likely to shock Dean fans. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
The interesting thing about James Dean is the fact that, almost 40 years after his death, he remains an icon of American pop culture. In the last chapter of this tell-all biography, Alexander takes a stab at accounting for Dean's continuing popularity, but his real interest throughout the book is in the actor's sex life. Although he devotes some attention to Dean's work as an actor and to his heterosexual liaisons, Alexander's contribution to the Dean legend is to label him as homosexual. The early death of Dean's mother; abandonment by his father; a close teenage "friendship" with an older, more worldly man; trips to the Hollywood casting couch (male version); testimony from numerous of Dean's self-proclaimed male lovers (one of whom provides a diary, complete with pillow talk)--these are only a few of the brush strokes that make up Alexander's portrait of Dean as a gay man. Contradictory evidence,like Dean's romance with actress Pier Angelli--considered by many to be the love his life--gets perfunctory treatment: ". . . the affair developed so quickly it would be hard to imagine that the love was lasting or substantial." That clears the way neatly for Alexander's conclusion: "James Dean used this sense of angst, caused by his inability to live the life he wanted to lead, to spur him on as he relentlessly pushed the boundaries of his art." Well, maybe, but by Alexander's reckoning, Dean didn't suffer from all that much repression, despite living in a 1950s closet. The point about revealing the secret sexual histories of dead celebrities, after all, isn't to prove the case as much as to raise a ruckus. Alexander ought to do just fine. Ilene Cooper --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Editorial Reviews
This is a juicy biography that looks at the events that shaped Dean's (1931-1955) homosexuality. The death of his mother left Dean to be raised by relatives in Indiana, where he enjoyed an adolescence filled with basketball, 4-H Clubs and fast motorcycles. During this idyllic time he lost his virginity--to the local minister. After graduation from high school, Dean moved to L.A. to attend acting classes at UCLA. Unable to find film work, he slept with men (including, purportedly, Clifton Webb) who could help him to get acting jobs. Moving to Manhattan, he joined the Actors Studio to study under Lee Strasberg. After appearing on TV and Broadway, Dean returned to Hollywood to make East of Eden . Rebel Without a Cause and Giant followed, but Dean died in a car accident before their premieres. No movie critic, Alexander ( Rough Magic ) instead has written a graphic sexual biography that's likely to shock Dean fans. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
The interesting thing about James Dean is the fact that, almost 40 years after his death, he remains an icon of American pop culture. In the last chapter of this tell-all biography, Alexander takes a stab at accounting for Dean's continuing popularity, but his real interest throughout the book is in the actor's sex life. Although he devotes some attention to Dean's work as an actor and to his heterosexual liaisons, Alexander's contribution to the Dean legend is to label him as homosexual. The early death of Dean's mother; abandonment by his father; a close teenage "friendship" with an older, more worldly man; trips to the Hollywood casting couch (male version); testimony from numerous of Dean's self-proclaimed male lovers (one of whom provides a diary, complete with pillow talk)--these are only a few of the brush strokes that make up Alexander's portrait of Dean as a gay man. Contradictory evidence,like Dean's romance with actress Pier Angelli--considered by many to be the love his life--gets perfunctory treatment: ". . . the affair developed so quickly it would be hard to imagine that the love was lasting or substantial." That clears the way neatly for Alexander's conclusion: "James Dean used this sense of angst, caused by his inability to live the life he wanted to lead, to spur him on as he relentlessly pushed the boundaries of his art." Well, maybe, but by Alexander's reckoning, Dean didn't suffer from all that much repression, despite living in a 1950s closet. The point about revealing the secret sexual histories of dead celebrities, after all, isn't to prove the case as much as to raise a ruckus. Alexander ought to do just fine. Ilene Cooper --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Editorial Reviews
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