James Dean: comedian and impersonator

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 he was famous among friends for his complex impersonations of Brando, such as Brando mimicking Charlie Chaplin, or Chaplin doing Brando!

The "team" of Dean and Adams was such a hit that they flirted with putting an act together. In a 1955 Warner Bros. press release, Dean stated: "I shall be busy for the rest of 1955, and Nick will be doing film work for the next six months. Come 1956, however, I wouldn't be surprised to find myself with Adams doing a two-a-night nightclub routine--or acting in a comedy by William Shakespeare." Backus left the "Rebel" production convinced that his talented friend's "real ambition" was to be a nightclub comic. As he pondered the subject in his 1958 autobiography, Rocks on the Roof, Backus was certain the mimicking James would have "'killed' the people."

With Dean's 1955 death, any teaming with Adams always will remain conjecture. It seems undeniable, however, that Dean felt compelled In try some sort of comedy. In the aforementioned press release, the actor added that he soon would be in three consecutive "emotional dramatic roles. I think no actor should tie himself to one particular brand of acting." Who knows, maybe he even would have worked with his comedy favorite, Chaplin. After all, Dean's acting idol, Brando, to whom he often was compared, would team with Chaplin in 1967 on "A Countess from Hong Kong." (Beyond the comedy, the always controversial Dean also was probably attracted to Chaplin's forever provocative private life.)

Nonetheless. in a closing footnote to mimicry, Dean and Adams would have a final bizarre impersonation collaboration ... after Dean's death. That is, while Dean had completed his scenes on "Giant" before his fatal car crash, technical sound problems on his character's drunken banquet speech necessitated that it be "looped" (re-recorded by the actor as he watched the projected picture). Since that was impossible, Adams now became the voice of his friend for that one scene.

For all the fun of revealing the comic Dean, it is more important to correct the aforementioned misperception about the actor's alleged tormented youth after the death of his mother and estrangement from his biological father. He was raised on the Indiana farm of his aunt and uncle, Ortense and Marcus Winslow, an hour's drive northeast of Indianapolis. As his surrogate father figure, Marcus later (1973) told the Philadelphia Inquirer: "Jimmy Dean was just like any other kid who grew up in this town [of Fairmount]. He played basketball, he went to Sunday meeting at Beck Creek Quaker Church and he did his chores on the farm. He used to tag around after me opening gates so I wouldn't have to get off the tractor. And he loved to ride that little black cycle.... But Hollywood and the rest of the world refuse to believe may of that. So we've just about quit saying it."