James Dean Icon of a Generation This Week at LiveAuctionTalk.com

In death, James Dean became a global megastar.

When he passed away in 1955 he had only completed three movies. He was 24-years-old and died in a car accident near Paso Robles, Calif., on the way to a sports car meet.

Only one of his movies “East of Eden” loosely based on the novel by John Steinbeck, had been released. After his death two more appeared, “Rebel Without a Cause” and “Giant.”

As the rebellious youth on screen, Dean touched something real in himself that in turn touched something real in his audiences.

His role in “East of Eden” just happened to be a photograph of his own life and struggles with his father. Dean played a young man crying out for help. His sadness and alienation were no act.

“God he gave everything he had. There wasn’t anything he held back,” Kazan said. “Only at the very, very end—the last few days when you felt that a star was going to be born, and everybody smelled it, all the publicity people began to hang around him—then he began to spoil.”

On April 21, Swann Auction Galleries, New York, featured a selection of celebrity photos in its Autographs auction. Included in the sale was a scrapbook with original photos of Dean and his grandparents, circa 1950s-60s. The lot sold for $10,200.

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Rosemary McKittrick is a storyteller. From fine art to comic books, her weekly column is a great source of interesting information about the world of collecting. Visit the site. Sign up for a free weekly subscription.

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