Born: February 8, 1931, Marion, Indiana, United States
Died: September 30, 1955, Cholame, California, United States
Education: University of California, Los Angeles
Santa Monica College
Actors Studio
Lived: 19 W 68th St, New York, NY 10023, USA (40.7742, -73.97854)
Warwick New York Hotel, 65 W 54th St, New York, NY 10019, USA (40.76253, -73.97816)
Buried: Park Cemetery, Fairmount, Grant County, Indiana, USA, GPS (lat/lon): 40.43417, -85.64556
Height: 1.73 m
James Dean had a 12 x 12 ft room with the bathroom down the hall at 19 West 68th Street. He left New Yotk and his apartment in 1955, just 9 months before his death in a car accident.
Address: 19 W 68th St, New York, NY 10023, USA (40.7742, -73.97854)
Type: Private Property
Place
In October 1951, following the encouragement of actor James Whitmore and the advice of his mentor Rogers Brackett, James Dean moved to New York City. Screenwriter William Bast was one of Dean’s closest friends, a fact acknowledged by Dean’s family. According to Bast, who was also Dean’s first biographer (1956), he was Dean’s roommate at UCLA and later in New York, and knew Dean throughout the last five years of his life. Fifty years after Dean’s death, he stated that their friendship had included some sexual intimacy. While at UCLA, Dean dated Beverly Wills, an actress with CBS, and Jeanette Lewis, a classmate. Bast and Dean often double-dated with them. Wills began dating Dean alone, later telling Bast, "Bill, there’s something we have to tell you. It’s Jimmy and me. I mean, we’re in love." They broke up after Dean "exploded" when another man asked her to dance while they were at a function: "Jimmy saw red. He grabbed the fellow by the collar and threatened to blacken both of his eyes," she said. Dean had also remained in contact with his girlfriend in New York, Barbara Glenn, whom he dated for two years. Their love letters sold at auction in 2011 for $36,000. Actress Liz Sheridan detailed her relationship with Dean in New York in 1952. Speaking of the relationship in 1996, she said that it was "just kind of magical. It was the first love for both of us." Sheridan published her memoir, “Dizzy & Jimmy: My Life with James Dean; A Love Story” in 2000. William Bast died in May 4, 2015, at 74, after 49 years of life together with his partner Paul Huson.
Life
Who: James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955)
Early in Dean’s career, after Dean signed his contract with Warner Brothers, the studio’s public relations department began generating stories about Dean’s liaisons with a variety of young actresses who were mostly drawn from the clientele of Dean’s Hollywood agent, Dick Clayton. Studio press releases also grouped Dean together with two other actors, Rock Hudson and Tab Hunter, identifying each of the men as an “eligible bachelor” who has not yet found the time to commit to a single woman: "They say their film rehearsals are in conflict with their marriage rehearsals." Aside from Bast’s account of his own relationship with Dean, Dean’s fellow biker and "Night Watch" member John Gilmore claims he and Dean "experimented" with gay acts on one occasion in New York, and it is difficult to see how Dean, then already in his twenties, would have viewed this as a "trade" means of advancing his career. James Bellah, the son of James Warner Bellah who was a friend of Dean’s at UCLA said "Dean was a user. I don’t think he was homosexual. But if he could get something by performing an act..." Screenwriter Gavin Lambert, himself gay and part of the Hollywood gay circles of the 1950s and 1960s, described Dean as being gay. Rebel director Nicholas Ray is on record as saying that Dean was gay, while author John Howlett believes that Dean was "certainly bisexual.” George Perry’s biography reduces these reported aspects of Dean’s sexuality to "experimentation.”
Queer Places, Vol. 1 edited by Elisa Rolle
ISBN-13: 978-1532901904
ISBN-10: 1532901909
Release Date: July 24, 2016
CreateSpace Store: https://www.createspace.com/6228297
Amazon (print): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1532901909/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Amazon (kindle): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IZ1BU9K/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
The Warwick New York Hotel is a luxury hotel located at 65 West 54th Street, near Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, New York City. It is owned by Warwick International Hotels.
Address: 65 W 54th St, New York, NY 10019, USA (40.76253, -73.97816)
Type: Guest facility (open to public)
Phone: +1 (212) 247-2700
Place
Built in 1926
William Randolph Hearst built the Warwick New York Hotel for $5 million. Long catering to the elite, Hearst built the 36-story residential tower to accommodate his Hollywood friends as well as his mistress, the actress Marion Davies, who had her own specially-designed floor in the building. The hotel’s restaurant, Murals on 54, features the 1937 murals of illustrator Dean Cornwell. The famed murals were fully restored following a 2004 renovation of the restaurant. The Warwick is also home to Randolph’s Bar & Lounge, whose rosebud leitmotif references Hearst’s purported nickname for Marion Davies.
Notable queer residents at Warwick Hotel:
• James Dean (1931–1955) was a frequent guest.
• Cary Grant (1904-1986) resided at the Warwick and lived in the hotel for 12 years.
Queer Places, Vol. 1 edited by Elisa Rolle
ISBN-13: 978-1532901904
ISBN-10: 1532901909
Release Date: July 24, 2016
CreateSpace Store: https://www.createspace.com/6228297
Amazon (print): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1532901909/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Amazon (kindle): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IZ1BU9K/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
At Park Cemetery (Fairmount, IN 46928) is buried James Dean (February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955). Dean is often considered an icon because of his "experimental" take on life, which included his ambivalent sexuality. There have been several claims that Dean had sexual relationships with both men and women. When questioned about his sexual orientation, he is reported to have said, "No, I am not a homosexual. But I'm also not going to go through life with one hand tied behind my back." In 2005, Germaine Greer wrote, "Looking back over half a century to the meteoric career of James Dean, the one thing that now seems obvious is that the boy was as queer as a coot." She based her opinion partly on the then-new revelations of William Bast, one of Dean's closest friends.
Queer Places, Vol. 1 edited by Elisa Rolle
ISBN-13: 978-1532901904
ISBN-10: 1532901909
Release Date: July 24, 2016
CreateSpace Store: https://www.createspace.com/6228297
Amazon (print): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1532901909/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Amazon (kindle): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IZ1BU9K/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
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