"My candle burns at both ends. It will not last the night. But, ah, my foes, and, oh, my friends, it gives a lovely light." --- Edna St. Vincent Millay.
James Franco, playing James Dean, won an award for Best Actor in a T.V. movie.
Perry Damone, above, who some thought might be James Dean's son. James Dean fell in love with Pier Angeli, a young starlet from Italy who was born on the island of Sardinia. Pier had a very dominant and controlling mother, who disliked James. She discouraged James again and again, who wanted to marry Pier, saying that James was not a Catholic, or of Italian heritage, and Pier, --- an obedient daughter, married Vic Damone, a singer who was considerably older than her, an arranged marriage. Pier said she was raised to believe that family was very important in a person's life. A sullen James was outside the church when they were married, taking off on his motorcycle after the wedding was over, roaring away. Pier announced her engagement to Damone in October of 1954; she married him in November of 1954. Pier gave birth to a son on February 4, 1955.
Joe Hyams stated in his biography of James Dean, --- "Little Boy Lost," that the night before Pier's marriage James was very upset, angry, sad, crying bitterly. James Dean died September 30. 1955 when his aluminum Porsche Spyder , called --- "The Little Bastard," collided with a Ford sedan. Sir Alec Guiness had seen James with the car and had told him, "You'll die in that if you keep driving it." James died when he was 24, almost immediately after the Porsche crashed, --- of two broken arms, a broken leg, a broken jaw and internal injuries. The smashed Porsche was put on display around the United States, then it suddenly disappeared. James Dean's mechanic, who was riding in the car with him survived, but also died in a car crash years later.
After her son's birth Pier went to Europe to act in films there. She said later in her life that James Dean was the only man she ever loved.
She divorced Damone after four years of marriage. Pier Angeli died of an overdose of drugs when she was 39, some said a suicide. Perry Damone died childless when he was 59 of a stroke.
Pier Angeli & James Dean, above. There was some speculation that James Dean was bi-sexual, but that he had been homosexual for most of his life. He was very troubled, an insomniac, with a cold and distant father; his beloved mother died of cancer when he was nine. James was born and raised in Fairmount, Indiana, where he is buried. He acted in plays which were shown on T.V. and made only three movies. Of the three he saw only one, --- "East Of Eden".
