“We are as caught up by James Dean as was the first generation, experiencing that tender, romantic, marvellously masochistic identification with the boy who does everything wrong because he cares so much. And because Dean died young and hard, he is not just another actor who outlived his myth and became ordinary in stale roles. He is the symbol of misunderstood youth.” Pauline Kael
“The acting of James Dean is more animal than human. For this reason, it is unpredictable: what will happen next?” Francois Truffaut, Cahier du Cinema
“Jimmy may have had crabs, but he also had durable charisma.” Kenneth Anger
Born on this day: happy 94th birthday to cinema’s quintessential doomed bongo drum-playing 1950s bad boy and personification of teenage angst, James Byron Dean (8 February 1931 – 30 September 1955) – one of the most lusciously photogenic actors of all time. Pictured: Dean during production of Giant (1955), his last film.
