r/OldSchoolCool • u/eaglemaxie • 2d ago

1950s James Dean visibly resentful of a studio-mandated date to escort Academy Award-nominated actress Terry Moore to the premiere of Sabrina in Los Angeles, 1954

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u/IHavePoopedBefore 2d ago

I've read a lot of James Dean books. Including ones written by people close to him.

He hated stuff like this, he liked to chill and goof around with his friends but absolutely HATED pretention. Anything fancy made him feel like a fish out of water. And his agent was actually always making him do stuff like this, and it was always awkward for him.

He was a farm boy in the most literal sense, was famous for a year or so and died at 24. He never got time to be comfortable with fame and the hollywood scene

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u/Mevile 1d ago

I had no idea he was famous for such a short period before his death! Wow

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u/IHavePoopedBefore 1d ago

He was famous for exactly one movie in his lifetime. East of Eden released in March of 1955, he crashed in Sept of that year, Rebel Without A Cause came out in October. Giant a year later in 1956.

In his lifetime he was the exciting young actor getting buzz everywhere because he landed a huge role with the biggest director out of relative obscurity. Then the movie came out, was absolutely massive, people were calling him the next Brando, and then months later he was gone.

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u/Praetor_6040 1d ago

To be fair, calling him the next Brando was both an insult and criticism. Both their careers were started by Kazan and both played a similar persona, so he was often criticized for imitating Brando. Supposedly he even called Brando once, and Brando told him off for it. At the same time, he was poised to be the star Brando was going to be.

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u/rynthetyn 1d ago

Also, depending on what the specific people saying it knew at the time, it could have also been a snide allusion to their sexuality given that both of them were bi.

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u/Praetor_6040 1d ago

People vastly overestimate how public either of them were about their sexuality at this time lol

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u/Outrageous-Opinions 1d ago

Yeah but Brando has always had a stick up his ass

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u/sjorbepo 1d ago

Lmao what

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u/Jazzlike-Joke-1389 1d ago edited 1d ago

It’s insane how rebel without a cause, which is his most inconic movie I’d say, was when he was already dead.

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u/muhammad_oli 2d ago

In all those books did you find any proof that would back this caption for this particular photo? Bc it very much feels like its being added bc of the look he has in this photo.

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u/IHavePoopedBefore 1d ago

No. But Ursula Andress talks about what it was like to try to get him to go to premiers and award shows with her.

And his expression matches up with how she says he felt about it

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u/PerfumePoodle 1d ago

Which book would you recommend?

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u/IHavePoopedBefore 1d ago

Either book written by Bill Bast who was his close friend right up until his death.

One was written like a year after Dean's death and the memories and pain feel fresh.

One was written many years later and included a lot of gay stuff the previous book couldn't

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u/Fanboycity 6h ago

Considering how I went to a birthday party and sat on my phone until the herd thinned to just the core group to which I immediately started yapping, I 150% understand 😂