In his all-too-brief life—he was just twenty-four when he died in a crash of his stylish Porsche automobile—actor James Dean came to symbolize middle-class adolescent alienation, 1950s-style. After appearing briefly on Broadway (see entry under 1900s—Film and Theater in volume 1) and television (see entry under 1940s—TV and Radio in volume 3) and playing bit parts in several films, Dean starred in three motion pictures: East of Eden (1955), Rebel Without a Cause (1955), and Giant (1956), earning Best Actor Academy Award nominations for the first and last. In each, he was the personification (human representation) of the anxious American youth of the mid-1950s. He was cast as a brooding, vulnerable adolescent whose presence was unsettling during what otherwise was an era of prosperity and conformity (acting in agreement with established social views) after World War II (1939–45).

Dean's stardom lasted a little over a...