In little more than a year's time and after appearing in only three feature films, James Byron Dean became one of the most admired screen stars of all time, achieving cult status and becoming an icon of American culture. The son of a dental technician, Dean was born in Marion, IN, an unprepossessing Midwestern burg that has since become a shrine to Dean aficionados. At five, Dean moved to Los Angeles with his family. Four years later, his mother died, and he was returned to the Midwest, to be cared for by relatives on their Fairmount, IN, farm. Upon graduation from high school, he returned to California and attended Santa Monica Junior College and U.C.L.A., later gravitating to acting, first with James Whitmore's workshop group, then in television commercials. His earliest existing film appearance was as one of Christ's apostles in "Hill Number One," a 1951 episode of the TV religious series Family Theatre. Working as a busboy between acting engagements in New York, he was given his first Broadway break in the short-lived The Jaguar. Dean soon began receiving uncredited bit parts in Hollywood films, the most prominent of which was his tongue-twisting turn as a soda emporium customer in Universal's …  » Read more