James Dean made seven films, his most well-known being East of Eden (1955, from the novel by John Steinbeck), Rebel Without a Cause (1955, with Natalie Wood) and Giant (1956, with Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson). Thrust into stardom almost immediately after his first big role, Dean was a sexually ambiguous, sensitively intelligent, Angry Young Man whose dramatic intensity lit up a generation of filmgoers. His untimely death, in a high-speed car crash, guaranteed his canonization as a tragic American cinema legend.

Both Giant and Rebel Without a Cause were released after Dean's death... Dean was driving a Porsche 550 Spyder when he died... Dean was a member of the prestigious Actors Studio in New York; his fellow alumni include Marlon Brando, Robert DeNiro and CNN anchor Andrea Thompson... Dean is no relation to country singer and sausage king Jimmy