The Death of James Dean

With extensive research, this account of the Hollywood star and his legion of fans offers "the best narrative yet of Dean's final ten hours" ( San Francisco Examiner).   Just before sunset on September 20, 1955, James Byron Dean's Porsche 550 Spyder collided with Donald Gene Turnupseed's Ford Tudor on California Highway 46. At age twenty-four, America's newest screen idol was dead. But what really happened? Drawing on original documents, including the coroner's inquest and other previously unpublished material, author Warren Newton Beath provides a painstakingly accurate reconstruction of Dean's final hours and tragic death.   In addition, Beath explores Dean's life and his enduring status as a cultural icon, including Elvis Presley's worship of him; Hitchcock's use of Highway 46 in the famous crop-dusting scene in North by Northwest; death threats against Giant director George Stevens if he dared excise a single frame of Deans' final performance; and many more fascinating facts about the enigmatic screen legend.   Beath's definitive account concludes with a memorable portrait of the James Dean cult, a strangely moving record of his posthumous life in the hearts of his adoring fans.