He died young and became a myth. James Dean, that rebel without a cause, remains an icon of youthful nonconformity. In just three films, he reached the top of Hollywood when his letters were written in gold. He only had time to shoot three films before dying in a car accident when he was only 24 years old. But three films that have made history, like the actor himself.
It was just before the premiere of the first one, East of Edenwhen he suffered an episode that has remained hidden until now and that reveals a new biography about the actor that will be published next Tuesday, The secret life of James Dean. Its author, Jason Colavito, claims that Dean was blackmailed by a former lover who asked him for money in exchange for keeping his homosexuality a secret, according to what was revealed exclusively to Daily Mail.
James Dean in his Porsche 550 Spyder
In those homophobic United States of the 1950s, this revelation would have meant a scandal and surely the end of his budding career. For this reason, Dean agreed to the demands of her former boyfriend, who was Rogers Brackett, a wealthy and older advertising executive.
A turbulent relationship
Their relationship began when Dean was destitute and subsisting as a valet. It was while practicing this profession when she met Brackett, who was impressed by her beauty. Soon, they began a romance that lasted a year and in which the executive provided him with some work as an actor and even offered him his house to live in. It also helped him get out of the army when he was drafted. “Brackett used his power and wealth to keep Dean safe. He sent him to a compliant psychiatrist for a series of simulated sessions to prove his homosexuality, but this tore apart Dean’s fragile masculinity,” Colavito explained to the Maily Dail.
James Dean, in one of his most commercialized portraits
Despite everything, their relationship was turbulent and worsened when Brackett moved to Chicago for work and Dean to New York, where he was struggling without financial resources. To improve her situation, her lover decided to cover part of her expenses, such as hotel bills, and to grant her loans. He spent more than a thousand dollars at the time.
In the end, the relationship broke up and Dean managed to make a name for himself as an actor to the point of filming East of Eden by Elia Kazan that earned him his first Oscar nomination. That’s when Brackett reappeared in his life demanding the money he had invested in him.
Still from ‘East of Eden’ directed by Elia Kazan in 1955. The film based on Steinbeck’s work marked James Dean’s film debut.
Their situation had changed. Now it was the actor’s former lover who was going through a bad economic time after being fired from his job. He filed a lawsuit against Dean in New York Municipal Court for $1,100, including $450 in hotel bills. In the end, both reached an agreement. The actor finally agreed to pay $800 in weekly installments of $100 to “avoid a scandal when he could least afford it,” detailed the author of his upcoming biography.
Additionally, Dean’s agent got Warner Bros. to give Brackett a “brokering fee” to ensure his “continued silence,” Brackett added. A silence that has now come to light thanks to the documents that that agent kept for decades.
Source: www.lavanguardia.com
