Hollywood’s late icon James Dean would have been 94 years old on Saturday, February 8, if his life had not been tragically cut.
Dean became an icon of the rebellion of adolescents of the 1950s for its electrical representation but sensitive to youth in difficulty Jim Stark in the years 1955 Rebel without causewho was nominated for the best Oscar in the history of cinema the following year (but lost to Love me or leave me). The actor appeared only in eight films before his tragic death at the age of 24 in 1955, after his Porsche 550 Spyder was involved in a frontal collision near Cholame, California. Dean in layers and often poignant by acting in Rebel without cause And East of Eden continues to inspire stars of subsequent generations, with the two aforementioned films, as well as the posthumous release of 1956 GiantBeing inducted at the National Film Registry by the Congress Library.
While we celebrate Dean on this date of the stage, continue to scroll to see the legendary actors that he continues to inspire almost a century after his birth.
Leonardo DiCAPRI
THE Titanic Star said Deadline In 2016 that he felt “incredibly moved by Jimmy Dean” East of EdenThe drama of the First World War in which Dean played the discontented teenager Caleb Trask.
“There was something so raw and powerful in this performance. His vulnerability … his confusion over his whole history, his identity, his despair of being loved. This performance broke my heart, “said DiCaprio.
DiCaprio was attached to play Dean in a biopic of Heat director Michael Mann In the 1990s, but the project never took off.
“We have seen clips of Giantand then [Mann] Put me in the back of the car with this cowboy hat, “he confirmed in 2016.” But I was a very young child, even when I was young. He decided to wait a few years, but I looked really young.
Johnny Depp
Depp has often credited his discovery of Dean as a “catalyst” for abandoning his musical career to become an actor. He became fascinated by the deceased Idol Teen after receiving a copy of the Dean biography The mutant king by a group comrade in the 1980s.
“By reading the book, I looked at Rebel without causeAnd I thought “wow, this guy really has something”, and I was addicted, “said Depp in a 2005 BBC Radio 2 documentary.
The future Edward Scissorhands Star discovered that Dean was an adopter of the Agir method, where he used a set of physical and sociological techniques developed by the Russian actor Konstantin Stanislavski and popularized by teachers Lee Strasberg,, Stella Adler And Sanford Meisner In the United States.
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“I was not really doing to act at the time, but as I read the Book Dean. I also picked up An actor is preparing By Stanislavski and has become fascinated by the whole concept of “the method”, said Depp. “When I read that Dean was also from the” Method “school, everything met for me. It was therefore a really important period for me, about three or four years before deciding to become an actor – and James Dean was the catalyst. »»
Robert Pattinson
THE Batman The actor played in the 2015 biopic LifeWhere he played Dean’s best friend Dennis stock opposite Dane Dehaan like the Giant star.
Pattinson addressed his personal feelings about Dean while promoting Life at the 2015 Berlin International Film Festival, where it mentioned Feel a kinship with the screen legend at the start of your career.
“I think a lot of [young] The actors have them, in a way, the phase of James Dean where each hearing, whatever the game, they come and make an impression of James Dean. I had definitely one, ”he joked. “It is definitely emblematic.”
THE Dusk Star later confessed The guardian that he never pressure to play Dean Life Because “he” didn’t even know where to start “to prepare the role. Pattinson said he recognized that there were similarities in the way the two actors avoided intrusive media coverage.
“”[When] the first Dusk Released, I would certainly say stupid stuff just so that I don’t seem to cookie or part of the machine, “admitted Pattinson.
Dane Dehaan
Pattinson Life Costar confirmed at the time of the release of the biopic that Dean had “always been a model” for him. Dehaan played Dean towards the end of his life in the drama of 2015, when he traveled to the United States with his photographer Pal Dennis Stock (Pattinson).
“”[Dean] has always been one of my favorite actors, so when I was at the actor school, I watched his films. He was incredible, “said Dehaan in an interview with Television When Life was released. “This is what he has always been for me, an actor inspiration.”
Dehaan underlined East of Eden Like his favorite dean performance, but recognized that Rebel without cause And Giant were also important influences on his style of action. He worked with a dialect coach and a make -upman in the construction of his Life Performance, in addition to carrying a wig and fake ear lobes in order to correspond to Dean’s physics.
“The physics of [the performance] The most comes to try to understand who he was as a person, “said Dehaan. “If I have a strong and specific internal life, I think physicity follows.”
Robert de Niro
The double winner of the Niro Oscars distinguished Dean, as well as Montgomery Clift And Marlon Brandoin a 2015 interview with Cigar AFICIONADO As three actors, he was “affected by” growing up.
THE Taxi driver Star even studied “ `method at Studio Stella Adler in Acting and the studio of the actors of Lee Strasberg, where Dean had perfected his job in the early 1950s.
In a Interview from 1994De Niro suggested that Dean’s performance was particularly bewitching for young actors because they seemed entirely unrivaled by someone else.
“When you saw James Dean do East of EdenHe was great, but you can’t do what he could do, “said Niro.
Nicolas cage
Like Depp, Cage has often quoted Dean as an early crucial influence to help him decide to continue the theater. Cage comes from a distinguished Hollywood family – Coppolas – but said 60 minutes This work of Dean inspired it above all.
“It was a question of wanting to be James Dean Rebel without cause And bearing this red jacket, “said Cage about his teenage ambitions.
At a conference in Sxsw in 2014, Cage distinguished Dean’s performance in East of Eden as particularly significant for him.
“I started playing because I wanted to be James Dean. I saw it in Rebel without cause,, East of Eden“, Reiterated Cage. “Nothing affected me – no rock song, no classical music – the way Dean affected me Eden. It fled me. I said to myself: “that’s what I want to do.” “”
Martin Sheen
The three times winning of Emmy Emmy West wing The actor was the main lecturer of the world event of the James Dean 50th anniversary in 2007, where he suggested the Giant Star “transcended” the art of acting.
“”[In 1955]I went to see a film called East of EdenAnd I did not know that he had already been killed ”, Sheen recalled. “I have been deeply affected by his performance and I have had it since summer. … His three films had a deep effect on my life, my work and my generation. »»
Sheen has shared his conviction that the “core of [Dean’s] The influence “was that” he no longer active, it was a behavior “in his projects.
“”[His acting] was deeply, deeply personal. This is what seduced me and all those who were influenced by him, ”added Sheen. “”[He had] This deeply, deeply personal involvement in what he was doing and that led us to … really understand[ing] That if it is not personal, it is impersonal and if it is impersonal, nobody really cares about it. »»
