Happy Birthday, James Dean

Today is James Dean's birthday.
He would have been 75 today.

"Dream as if you'll live forever.
Live as if you'll die today."--James Dean

Live Fast, Die Young: The Wild Ride of Making Rebel Without a Cause

Rebel Without a Cause in Entertainment Weekly

The February 10, 2006, Special Oscar Issue of Entertainment Weekly includes a piece by Live Fast, Die Young: The Wild Ride of Making Rebel Without a Cause co-author Lawrence Frascella called "Rebel Rousers: Ten Things You Didn't Know About Rebel Without a Cause." Here are just a few of the things we learned while writing the book, which he writes about in the piece and which we discuss in Live Fast, Die Young:

1. The 43-year-old director sleeps with his teenage star.
2. The studio balks at an onscreen kiss between James Dean and Sal Mineo.
3. Wild rehearsals lead to a mini-gang war.
4. Dr. Seuss takes a crack at the Rebel script.
5. Dean disappears on the first day of shooting.
6. The on-screen knife fight draws real blood.
7. Dean's classic red jacket was a last-minute inspiration.
8. An angry Dennis Hopper is stripped of his dialogue.
9. Wood was replaced by an extra in Rebel's most famous scene.
10. Jimmy Olsen is propositioned by Dean.

Rebel Without a Cause, James Dean, Nicholas Ray, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Film, Movies, Books, Oscars, Academy Awards, Entertainment Weekly