James Dean: comedian and impersonator.

• Author: Gehring, Wes D.
• Position: Reel World - Biography

NEXT YEAR WILL MARK the 50th anniversary of the death of Hollywood's signature antihero, James Dean. Perhaps it is time for a revisionist biography of the actor that attempts to present a more balanced picture of Dean--versus the overplayed past emphasis on an angst-ridden youth.

For example, at the time of his death in a car accident, Dean had done three melodramatic films in quick succession: "East of Eden" (1955), "Rebel Without a Cause" (1955, though not yet released), and "Giant" (to open in 1956). Yet, he was primed to flex his comedic muscles. Though not commonly known, Dean was a master mimic, a talent he inherited from his beloved mother, who died when he was nine. She would regale her young son with a litany of impersonations, just as he later would do among his friends. His impersonations were so larcenous that when friends and fellow actors saw him doing them, they sometimes felt oddly violated. As one friend said of him, "There goes my personality!"

A tantalizing snippet of Dean's mimicry skills are preserved in the celebrated "Rebel." The scene is at an empty mansion, where the three neglected teenagers (Dean, Natalie Wood, and Sal Mineo) form their own surrogate family. Just as they go to explore the estate's drained pool, Dean improvises a brief verbal impersonation of the cartoon character Mr. Magoo. The line delivered as Magoo is the darkly comic, "Drown them like puppies." As random as mimicking Magoo sounds, it was not inconsistent for a 1950s teenager to impersonate the then-popular cartoon figure. Of course, the in-joke bonus here is that the real voice of Mr. Magoo was provided by actor Jim Backus, who plays Dean's father in "Rebel." This was not a random humor homage, either. The young actor actually went to Backus for tips on doing Mr. Magoo.

In a perversely comic manner, maybe Dean's fascination with Magoo and other cartoon characters contributed to his real life sense of cocky invincibility, since cartoon figures are bulletproof--inhabitants of a realm without consequences, in a permanent present tense. Regardless, while an impersonating Dean on film is rare, stories of his mimicking abound. One such example occurred on the set of "Rebel," when the young actor and supporting player Nick Adams entertained the cast and crew with their take on Marion Brando and film director Elia Kazan, who had megaphoned Dean in "East of Eden." Adams played Brando and Dean "essayed" Kazan. This demonstrated Dean's versatility, since...