Gay Icons Of The Past #3: His Hands Were Free

[PeterRS]

Is he perhaps the youngest of all gay icons? Even today we don't really know if the moody, rebellious actor with whom so many disaffected, misunderstood, sexually confused teenagers around the world of the 1950s identified so closely was really gay. He could have been bisexual, or even - horror of horrors! - straight. Yet James Dean is now regarded as one of the great gay icons of all time. In his first two films, "East of Eden" and "Rebel Without A Cause", the angst-ridden, complex, outcast misfits he played sprang out from the screen and gripped audiences in a way no other young actor had achieved.

During his short career, Dean's name was linked to a number of actresses, notably Pier Angeli who would write lovingly of her "affair" with "Jimmie" before she committed suicide at the age of 39. For a while they dated in California. Yet when he was on a visit to New York after completing “East of Eden”, she shocked the media by announcing her engagement to the singer Vic Damone. At the time, few had reason not to believe her story. Yet William Bast, who had been Dean’s roommate in Los Angeles and New York for five years and was Dean’s first biographer, believes the relationship with Angeli was a mere PR stunt. Doubts only began to appear some decades later when it was realized how strictly the Hollywood studio system controlled the public images of their stars. If it could keep the openly gay life of matinee idol Rock Hudson secret for decades, partly through sham affairs, a staged marriage and partly by insisting he was working too hard, it's surely easy to believe it would have little difficulty shaping a wholesome image for its rebellious younger star.

Was he gay? Bast, who later came out of the closet, claims that he and Dean experimented sexually. In an article in Britain’s The Guardian he reminded readers that homosexuality then was so far off the suburban radar that someone like Jimmie could give off all kinds of gay visual clues without anyone realizing.  When you look at the scenes in "Rebel Without A Cause" where he and the younger mid-teen, cherubic-faced Sal Mineo are together, many in the gay community now consider these could definitely be two gay young lovers, the more so as Mineo eventually came out as bisexual (in those days as good as saying he was homosexual). Mineo was murdered outside his home at age 37.

Screen Test “Rebel Without a Cause” with James Dean, Sal Mineo and Natalie Wood

Elia Kazan, the director of "East of Eden", noted in his autobiography that Dean could not possibly have had successful relationships with girls. After spending several months in close proximity to Dean, surely he would be more likely to know than some of the early hagiographers who were paid to tow the studio line?

Five years ago the latest of a whole series of books that has placed ever more lurid so-called facts into the public domain was published. In "James Dean: Tomorrow Never Comes" the author alleges lurid sexual relationships with a host of well-known names, including Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and even the (closet gay) director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover! Inevitably, Dean's sexual escapades have been embellished as the years have passed and the growing worldwide gay community yearns for more gay icons. Who better than the fiery rebel James Dean whose good looks smoulder so passionately on the screen? Obviously much of what has been written is drivel; but as they say, can there be smoke without fire?

Dean only starred in three feature films. On the basis of these alone, he deserves his place in the pantheon of great movie stars. Yet it was his untimely death at the age of just 24 that has resulted in his memory living on as more of a cult hero and icon. One of Dean's passions was cars and speed. Five weeks before "East of Eden" opened and just after "Giant" had wrapped, he was driving his new Porsche 550 Spyder at speed in California when it skidded head-on into a small truck. Dead was trapped in the wreckage and died within minutes.

That untimely death certainly added to his legendary status, especially amongst millions of grieving teenagers - of whom a good proportion were no doubt themselves gay and, these being the 1950s, still in the closet. Of his sexuality, Dean himself went as far as to say, "No, I am not a homosexual," adding almost conspiratorially, "But I'm also not going to go through life with one hand tied behind my back." In the early 1950s and with studio executives breathing down his neck, that was I suspect as much as he could possibly say. 

Some have suggested that like many hot-blooded young men he enjoyed experimenting with sex. Not so the feminist author Germaine Greer who wrote in 2005, "Looking back over half a century . . . the one thing that now seems obvious is that the boy was as queer as a coot." Whatever the truth, Gay Times' Readers' Awards had no hesitation citing him as "the male gay icon of all time."

[TotallyOz]

I honestly don't know much about him but I have seen this movies. It did not cross my mind that he was gay until after I saw them years ago.

It is quite sad how closeted people had to be back then (and some still feel the same today) in order to work in Hollywood.

On reading this, I do wonder which star changed the perception that it was OK to be gay and they got work?  I know some have come out and it negatively affected their careers. I am curious how many regret it and how many wish they could live their truth.