Sal Mineo and James Dean were two iconic figures in Hollywood during the 1950s, known not only for their talent on screen but also for their impact on popular culture.
A couple of months ago, I tuned in to Turner Classic Movies to watch a James Dean double feature, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant. I’ve seen both of these films many times and yet, this particular time, I was struck by the fact that James Dean and Sal Mineo starred in both of these films, each were nominated for 2 Academy Awards a piece, and both suffered a tragic death at an early age. It gave me pause and made me curious to lean more about these two incredible talents with lasting legacies and the tragedy that befell them both so young.
James Dean (1931 – 1955)
James Byron Dean, born on February 8th in Marion, Indiana, was only 9 years old when his mother died. He was then raised by an aunt and uncle on their farm in Fairmount, Indiana. Dean move to New York City after grade school to pursue his dream of becoming an actor and studied at the prestigious Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. Dean appeared in a small role in The Immoralist on Broadway in 1954 which punched his ticket to go to Hollywood seeking roles in films. After a couple of small roles, Dean appeared in his first leading role, as Cal Trask, in Elia Kazan’s production of East of Eden, released on April 10, 1955. Dean’s true imprint on American culture came with his role as brooding teenager, Jim Stark, in Rebel Without a Cause released on October 26, 1955. His third, and ultimately final, screen role came in the form of Jett Rink in George Stevens’ epic masterpiece, Giant, released on October 10, 1956.
Tragically, Dean was killed in a car crash when his Porsche 550 Spyder collided with a Ford Tudor sedan and crashed on, then, US Route 446 near Cholame, California, on September 30, 1955. Ironically, Giant was about to wrap up filming and the crash occurred the day after Dean had completed his principal photography on the film. Dean’s passenger, and German-Porsche trained mechanic, Rolf Wütherich, who had encouraged Dean to drive from Los Angeles to Salinas to get a feel for his new car rather than tow it on a trailer, was thrown from the vehicle on impact and suffered significant injuries including a fractured jaw, fractured hip and body lacerations but ultimately survived. The driver of the Ford Tudor, a 23-year-old Navy veteran and Cal Poly student, Donald Turnupseed, received only minor injuries.
Dean’s closed casket funeral was held on October 8, 1955 at the Fairmount Friends Church in Fairmount, Indiana. It is estimated that 600 mourners attended while thousands more gathered outside during the procession. Dean is buried in Fairmount less than a mile from his aunt and uncle’s farm where he was raised.
Dean had lived only long enough to see the release of his first film, East of Eden but died less than 1 month before the release of Rebel Without a Cause and a little more than a year before the release of Giant. Subsequently, Dean received 2 posthumous Academy Award nominations, the first for Best Actor in a Leading Role in 1956 for East of Eden and the second, for Best Actor in a Leading Role in 1957 for Giant. He was the first actor to ever receive an Academy Award nomination posthumously and is the only actor to ever have received more than one posthumous Oscar nomination.
In 1977, a memorial was constructed in Cholame, California at the newly aligned roadway where the crash occurred. In September 2005, the State Route 46 and State Route 41 junction was renamed the James Dean Memorial Junction to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Dean’s death.
Despite the fact that Dean only appeared in 3 motion pictures, his impact and legacy on Hollywood has endured. His death at the age of 24 solidified his legendary status and his influence on subsequent generations of actors is undeniable.
What happened to Rolf Wütherich and Donald Turnupseed?
Although Wütherich survived the crash, his life was never the same afterwards. It is reported that he developed severe psychological problems including bouts of depression and suicidal tendencies as many of Dean’s fans blamed Wütherich for Dean’s death. Married 4 times, his fourth and final marriage to a woman named Doris ended as the result of him stabbing her while she slept in May 1967. Wütherich claimed that he was trying to commit suicide when she stopped him, resulting in her having been stabbed. He was arrested and found guilty in 1969 of attempted murder but was sent to a mental institute in lieu of prison due to his mental instability. In 1981, Wütherich signed a contract to appear on a television show in which he was going to discuss the death of James Dean; however, on July 22nd of that same year, Wütherich, intoxicated, lost control of his Honda Civic and crashed into the wall of a home in Germany. Like Dean, he had to be cut from the vehicle and was pronounced dead at the scene. He was only 53 years old at the time of his death.
Donald Turnupseed faired slightly better after the Dean crash. In 1955, the sheriff-coroner called for an official inquiry were Turnupseed testified that he did not see the low-profile vehicle until after he had starting making his left hand turn onto State Route 41. Turnupseed was never charged with any offense in the accident that caused Dean’s death but the incident haunted him for the rest of his life. Granting just one interview immediately following the accident, to the Tulare Advance-Register, he never spoke again about the crash publicly. Turnupseed went on to build a successful electrical contracting business in the San Joaquin Valley and passed away from lung cancer in 1995 at the age of 63.
For a long time, many believed that Dean was speeding at the time of the crash and, therefore, was responsible for the collision partially because Dean had been issued a speeding ticket just 2 hours and 15 minutes before the fatal accident. However, the Failure Analysis Associates from Menlo Park recreated the accident scene and concluded that Dean would have only been traveling at 55-56 mph at the time of the crash and not the 70 mph as reported by officers on the scene in 1955.
Interestingly, in 2002, the 47th anniversary of Dean’s death, it was reported that many wrecks still occur on the same exact corner as Dean’s fatal collision. In fact, from 1992 – 2002, state records show that 54 people have died along the same treacherous stretch of highway heading to and from that corner and 690 were injured.
Sal Mineo (1939 – 1976)
Salvatore Mineo Jr. was born on January 10, 1939, in The Bronx, New York. Thrown out of parochial school at 8-years old, Mineo was a member of a Bronx street gang and, after an arrest for robbery at 10-years old, he was given the choice of either attending a professional acting school or going to juvenile detention. I’m not alone in saying that we are all grateful that he chose the latter. Mineo went on as a child actor to appear in the original 1951 theatrical version of The Rose Tattoo with Maureen Stapleton and Eli Wallach and as the young prince in The King and I with Yul Brenner, also in 1951. By the age of 16, he had appeared in Six Bridges to Cross with Tony Curtis and his career-making role as Plato in Rebel Without a Cause both released in 1955. Mineo received an Academy Award nomination in 1956 as Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his role as Plato in Rebel Without a Cause.
In 1956, Mineo appeared in the George Stevens epic Giant alongside screen legends Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor and, of course, James Dean, playing Angel Obregón II, the son of Mexican immigrants living and working on the Benedict’s Texas cattle ranch who, as a child, was saved by Leslie Benedict (Elizabeth Taylor) when she demanded medical care be provided for the Hispanic workers on the ranch.
Then in 1960, Mineo appeared alongside even more silver screen legends, Eva Marie Saint and Paul Newman in Otto Preminger’s epic Exodus chronicling the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 and the resulting subsequent wars with its Arab neighbors. Written by once blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, Mineo’s portrayal of Dov Landau garnered him his second Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in 1961.
Despite facing challenges in his later career, partly due to his openness about his sexuality, Mineo worked tirelessly to maintain a career both in film and television, including appearances in The Longest Day (1962), The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), The Patty Duke Show (1965), Mission: Impossible (1970), Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) and Hawaii Five-O (1968 & 1975). Mineo also had a passion for performing in front of a live audience and returned to the stage in San Francisco for a production of “P.S. Your Cat Is Dead” in 1975. It was during rehearsals for this show, preparing to bring it to Los Angeles in 1976 when Mineo, returning to his home on Holloway Drive one evening after rehearsal, was brutally stabbed to death.
Mineo died in a narrow alleyway near the carport where he had parked his ’73 Duster before starting to make his way inside his apartment. Stabbed in the heart, Mineo was attended to by 2 good Samaritans who attempted to offer comfort while desperately trying to stop the bleeding from his fatal wound. Wearing blue jeans and a blue shirt with red and white flowers, he was pronounced dead on the scene at 11:55pm on February 12, 1976, at the age of 37 years old.
Sal Mineo was laid to rest on February 17, 1976 in Mamaroneck, NY amid a crowd of about 250 mourners including his family and fans. He was buried in nearby Hawthorne. Although undercover detectives attended his funeral, there were no leads as to who had killed him or why.
Many people believed that his homosexual lifestyle or use of drugs might have played a part in is murder and the LA Sherriff’s Department honed in on those as possible reasons for his slaying. Unfortunately, the initial description of the suspect as blonde turned out to be incorrect and even when it was updated to that of a white male with dark hair, there just wasn’t much to go on, at the time.
Two weeks after Mineo’s death, the Los Angeles Police Department arrested a 19-year-old pizza delivery man named Lionel Ray Williams. Although arrested on an unrelated robbery charge and, while being interviewed, told the police that he heard Mineo was killed as the result of a drug deal gone wrong. Police seized on this lead; however, when Williams’ mother later provided an alibi, nothing further was investigated in regards to this statement.
A little more than a year after Sal Mineo’s death, in May 1977, Theresa Williams, wife of initial suspect Lionel Ray Williams, shocked detectives when she claimed that her husband had, in fact, killed Mineo. She reported that her husband had returned home the night of the murder, covered in blood and when they saw a news report of the slaying, he told Theresa, “that’s the dude I killed”.
Eventually, detectives determined that Mineo’s death was the result of a robbery gone wrong. Although initially dismissed as a robbery by the police, since Mineo’s wallet hadn’t been stolen, they believed Williams attempted to rob Mineo and stabbed him to keep him quiet; however, he fled the scene after getting nothing.
Charged with the robbery and murder of Sal Mineo, along with 10 charges from a string of other crimes around the same period of time, Williams went to trial in early 1979. One major problem with the prosecution’s case was that initially, eye witness reports said the suspect was a white man with blonde hair and Willams was an African-American man with an afro. It was later determined that the white man with blonde hair was a bystander who had chased after the suspect. Williams was convicted of second-degree murder for the robbery and killing of Sal Mineo along with the other 10 charges and was sentenced to a minimum of 51 years in prison. William’s appeals were all denied.
The senseless and tragic death of Sal Mineo haunts Hollywood even today with many still questioning if Williams was his killer or if there was some other cover-up as to the real motive. Lucky for the rest of us, he left a timeless legacy of performances behind for his fans to enjoy and appreciate. In fact, at his funeral, Mineo’s brother-in-law said, “Nothing, not a person or the passage of time, can take it away from him”.
Inexplicably Linked
Although Mineo’s career lasted substantially longer than that of Dean, the two men are forever linked in time and film by their work and their tragic deaths at an early age. Mineo appeared in 2/3 of the films that ultimately were the whole of Dean’s film career and every time I watch Rebel Without a Cause or Giant, I can’t help but think of the incredible loss of talent that resulted because of their tragic deaths. What would the world of film have been like if James Dean had lived? Would they ever have reunited in another film? Would either of them have become Oscar winners and not just nominees?
I like to think that Dean and Mineo would have remained life-long friends. I believe that Dean would have come to be a source of support and loyalty when Mineo faced the backlash and animosity from Hollywood in a time when being gay was such an unacceptable taboo. Likewise, I postulate, that just like Jim and Plato in Rebel Without a Cause, they would have been great friends, who became chosen family, ultimately caring and looking out for each other until the very end.
What about that curse?
Although the focus of this post has been specific to James Dean and Sal Mineo, I can’t help but consider what, many have called the Rebel Without a Cause curse. In addition to the tragic deaths of Dean and Mineo, two other actors in Rebel Without a Cause also suffered shocking death’s that remain a mystery to this day
Natalie Wood (1938 – 1981)
An adorable and precocious child star, Natalie Wood began her career at the ripe old age of 5 years old and in 1947 cemented her place in Hollywood with her role as Susan Walker in Miracle of 34th Street (1947). Wood’s was able to successfully transition from child star, to teenage actress, to adult actress seemingly effortlessly. Her beauty, grace, charm and talent shown through in each of her roles including that of Judy in Rebel Without a Cause starring alongside James Dean and Sal Mineo, when she was only 17 years old.
At the age of 25, Wood was tied with fellow actress Teresa Wright as the youngest person to score three Oscar nominations and she retained that title until 2013 when Jennifer Lawrence achieved her third Oscar nomination at the age of 23. Natalie Wood’s nominations were as follows:
- Best Actress in a Supporting Role – Rebel Without a Cause (1956)
- Best Actress in a Leading Role – Splendor in the Grass (1962)
- Best Actress in a Leading Role – Love with the Proper Stranger (1964)
Woods faced many physical, emotional, and personal struggles in her private life over the years. She married three times, twice to actor Robert Wagner, from December 1957 – April 1962 and July 1972 – her death on November 29, 1981 at the age of 43.
On November 28, 1981 Wood joined Robert Wagner, her husband, their friend Christopher Walken, and boat captain Dennis Davern on a weekend boat trip aboard Wagner’s yacht “Splendour” to Catalina Island.
Over the years, many theories and speculations of foul play have abounded as to what exactly happened on the boat that night with many blaming Wagner for her death but, what we do know for certain, is that on the morning of November 29, 1981, Woods’ body was found 1 mile away from the the “Splendour”. The toxicology report revealed that her blood alcohol level was over the legal limit with her official cause of death ruled as “probable drowning with other undetermined factors”.
What made the situation all the more mysterious was that it was well-known that Natalie Wood had a life-long fear of the water. So bad was her fear, in fact, that she refused to even go in her own swimming pool. Many who knew her personally believe that she never would have attempted to leave the yacht for the shore unaccompanied let alone in her nightgown. Although the case has been officially closed, the mystery of what truly happened on that boat and how Natalie Wood wound up dead continues to confound many of her family and fans.
Nick Adams (1931 – 1968)
Nick Adams met James Dean in December 1950 when they both were working on a soft drink commercial being filmed in Griffth Park. Five years later, the two would work together again in Griffith Park but this time on the film set of Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Adams had a small role in the film as Chick but went on to appear in other films including Picnic (1955), Our Miss Brooks (1956), No Time for Sergeants (1958), Teacher’s Pet (1958) and Pillow Talk (1959). In addition to his on-screen appearances, he was cast to be the voice of James Dean’s character Jett Rink in the post-production of Giant (1956) for the banquet speech scene after Dean had been killed in a car wreck after he had concluded principal photography on the film.
Beginning in 1959, he starred in the ABC series The Rebel as Johnny Yuma for a total of 76 episodes until it was cancelled in 1961. In addition to The Rebel, Adams had an extensive television career and even earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his role as Ben Brown, an unlikeable murder suspect, in the film Twilight of Honor (1963) which also starred Richard Chamberlain and Claude Rains.
On February 7, 1968, Adams was due to meet his attorney for dinner but failed to show up. Concerned about his client, his attorney, Ervin “Tip” Roeder, drove to Nick’s home and, after seeing his car in the garage, decided to break into the home to check on Adams. Roeder discovered Adams’ fully dressed body slumped against a wall in his bedroom with a phone well within reach. Roeder, who happened to be a former LAPD officer, saw some papers on Adams’ desk which he thought needed safe-keeping and took them home.
During the autopsy, paraldehyde, a drug used to treat alcoholism, nervous and mental conditions, was found throughout Adams’ body. Traces of sedatives and other drugs were also detected but no needle marks were present on the body. The coroner listed the death as an accidental suicide.
Interestingly, Nick Adams’ attorney, Ervin “Tip” Roeder, who removed those papers from Adams’ home after he discovered his body, was gunned down and murdered in his driveway, along with his wife, Jenny Maxwell, who appeared in Blue Hawaii (1961) with Elvis Presley. Both Ervin, aged 60, and Jenny, aged 40, were killed on June 10, 1981, 10 years after the death of Nick Adams.
A crazy Hollywood mystery all it’s own…..
Although believed to have been an attempted robbery gone wrong (even though nothing was actually stolen), many who knew Ervin, a sheriff’s deputy-turned-lawyer, were also aware that he was a somewhat shady character. In addition, Maxwell was planning to divorce Roeder once she hit their 10-year anniversary so she could get a larger settlement and had already secured her own condo. Both were engaging in extra marital affairs at the time and Roeder had gotten wind of Maxwell’s 10-year plan and removed her from his will. However, three separate associates of Roeder had shared that in the months prior to their deaths, Roeder had approached them about retaining a person to kill Jenny and one of her “lovers”. Another associate claimed that Roeder wanted a person to kill both he and Maxell but each of those associates went on to state they had rejected Roeder’s request but, perhaps, he ended up finding someone who would take the job.
A few months before his death, Roeder claimed that he had been shot in his backyard. The wound was just a superficial graze and he didn’t want to report it to the police leading many to believe it had been self-inflicted.
On June 9, 1981, Maxwell had minor surgery at Cedar-Sinai, only a block from her condo. Roeder had offered to drive her home, which her friends found worrying and, despite her friend’s concern, Maxwell accepted the ride. She enjoyed lunch with Roeder at a nearby restaurant and, by 3:15pm that day, they were both dead.
Maxwell’s family was never convinced that an attempted botched robbery was the true motive behind her death. In 2018, a retired LAPD Detective named Mike Theis believed that he had discovered the real motive about the 40-year-old case as he had long considered the original conclusion that it was a burglary to be “bunk”. Theis’ opinion is that the motive for the “hit” on Maxwell was both revenge for her behavior and so that Roeder could avoid paying spousal support. He feels that Roeder’s “backyard shooting incident” was staged to provide plausible deniability in the killing of Jenny; however, for Roeder, “the hit man did his job too well”.
Police have never been able to locate a suspect and the leads on the decades old case have long dried up and gone cold.
Crazy! You can’t make this stuff up.
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