James Dean

On March 27, 2004, JAMES DEAN MEEKS of Baltimore, Md. Predeceased by his Mom and Dad, Alice C. Meeks (nee Williams) and Herman F. Meeks, Sr.; loving father of Lisa M. Meeks Angeles (Jose L.), Stacy R. Meeks; loving grandfather of Dale, Devin, Daysha and Orlando; brother of Carol, Junior and the late Bonnie. Also survived by several nieces and nephews. Relatives and friends are invited to call at the GARY L. KAUFMAN FUNERAL HOME SOUTHWEST, INC., (corner of Pratt and Stricker Streets) on Friday, from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 and to attend funeral services on Saturday, at 11 A.M.

The AFI-Silver's simultaneous tributes to Orson Welles and Elia Kazan celebrate the sizzling theatrical instincts of two creative marvels of the stage who transformed the face — let's make that faces — of American films. Kazan and Marlon Brando forged one of the most influential director-actor partnerships in American movies, but James Dean, too, made his name with Kazan, in the 1955 film version of John Steinbeck's "East of Eden" (Saturday at 4:30 p.m and Sunday at 7:20 p.m.)

"Rebel: The Life and Legend of James Dean," by Donald Spoto. HarperCollins. 306 pages. $25He made only three movies before he died at the age of 24, yet James Dean's sullen image is indelibly etched into the public's mind's eye. Within nine months of his death, more than 400 fan clubs celebrated Dean's ephemeral career. "He was a limited talent," writes Donald Spoto in this rather limited biography. Dean had less interest in bucking the system than in drawing attention to himself; he represented "the safest kind of rebellion."

STEFFI SIDNEY-SPLAVER, 74 'Rebel Without a Cause' actress Steffi Sidney-Splaver, who as a young actress appeared in "Rebel Without a Cause," then gave up acting to become a Hollywood writer, publicist and producer, has died. She was 74. Sidney-Splaver died Monday of kidney failure at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, said her husband, Rick Splaver. Her first movie role was in "The Eddie Cantor Story," in 1953. Two years later the dark-haired actress landed the role of Mil in "Rebel Without a Cause."

Rebel James Dean didn't have a cause, but he did have a fashion statement.Wearing a plain white T-shirt with the sleeves rolled up, he brought the undergarment out in the open in 1955 and created an image that captivated teen-agers.Since then, Americans have dyed, painted, silk-screened, embroidered and ripped T-shirts. We parade our politics, amuse, promote products and musicians, show where we've been, and even sleep in them.The T-shirt as we know it today was born by accident.In 1960, Rick Ralston, a skinny California kid just out of high school, decided to spray-paint designs on beach towels and sell them.

All these years later -- almost 40 years later -- the guys from the pool hall showed up again, and they were all young, good-looking and lean, and some of them sexy in that 1950s Sal Mineo-James Dean way. Here they were again, the boys from Benny's, bending over pool cues, hovering over cards, all brought to life when a fellow named Mike Lang decided to print some photographs he'd snapped in 1957 on a Leica 3C.Amazing. Lang, who was born in 1942, had contracted polio when he was 7. He took up photography as a way of getting in touch with the world.

BOSTON -- It couldn't have been scripted more horribly: A Mercedes racing a princess and her lover through the darkened streets of Paris. A gaggle of photographers on motorcycles pursuing their prey like international hounds after the last British fox. A thunderous crash against a tunnel wall. And finally, the unforgivable flash of a camera as the 36-year-old woman lay dying.Diana Spencer, so shy that she would take only nonspeaking parts in school plays, came into the public eye at 19. What a public eye it was!

Live fast, die young, leave a good-looking corpse." The postwar hipster slogan that director Nicholas Ray popularized in his 1949 picture Knock On Any Door applied with startling directness to Ray's most famous star, James Dean, who played the title role in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), the filmmaker's epochal misunderstood-youth movie. Dean died 50 years ago today at age 24 when his Porsche 550 Spyder crashed into a Ford. Roughly two hours before, Dean had been cited for driving 65 in a 45 mph zone.

James Dean, master actor? Just when you think every angle of a short, lavishly documented life has been explored, television supplies another facet. American Masters, the PBS series that has profiled long-lived legends Lucille Ball, Julia Child and Ella Fitzgerald, tonight turns its attention to Dean, although his legacy is built on just three films: East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant. "Quite honestly, he's in the series because he's an icon, and it's the 50th anniversary of his death," says Susan Lacy, executive producer of American Masters.

FAIRMOUNT, Ind. -- They didn't get enough of James Dean when he was alive.Dean made just three movies in a span of 18 months. But he concentrated the intensity of a frustrated, misunderstood young man like no star before him. And then he died, 40 years ago today.The cult that sprouted from his death has grown shoots, and now people who have been alive only half as long as Dean has been dead join the 25,000 who descend on his hometown this time of year.Grunge-rock teens walk the streets of Fairmount along with slick-haired middle-age men reliving the 1950s in their custom 1949 Mercury sedans, just like the one Dean drove in "Rebel Without a Cause."

MONTE HALE, 89 Singing cowboy in films Monte Hale, a singing cowboy who had dozens of roles in Westerns during the 1940s, died Sunday in Studio City, Calif. Mr. Hale starred in almost 20 of his own films, including 1946's Home on the Range. He also appeared in 1956's Giant with James Dean and 1966's The Chase with Marlon Brando.

Myth-charged, elemental images bring Tristan & Isolde within hailing distance of real magic. Bereft knights send their moribund champion, Tristan (James Franco), across the sea amid bouquets of flaming arrows. A tremulous bride, Isolde (Sophia Myles), stands grimly upright in a boat as she glides on a river to a politically motivated marriage. Unfortunately, in the end, all you get are magic's distant echoes. Parts of this ultimate doomed-love story have an enjoyable sweep and thrust.

NATIONAL Roberts is new chief justice John G. Roberts Jr. was sworn in yesterday as the nations 17th chief justice, succeeding the man he once called "Boss," after the Senate voted by a wide margin to confirm him. Attention quickly shifted to the next vacancy on the Supreme Court. pg 1a N.Y. Times reporter released Judith Miller, the New York Times reporter who has been jailed since July 6 for refusing to testify in the CIA leak case, was released from a Virginia detention center yesterday afternoon after she and her lawyers reached an agreement with a federal prosecutor to testify before a grand jury investigating the matter, the newspaper's publisher and executive editor said.

Live fast, die young, leave a good-looking corpse." The postwar hipster slogan that director Nicholas Ray popularized in his 1949 picture Knock On Any Door applied with startling directness to Ray's most famous star, James Dean, who played the title role in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), the filmmaker's epochal misunderstood-youth movie. Dean died 50 years ago today at age 24 when his Porsche 550 Spyder crashed into a Ford. Roughly two hours before, Dean had been cited for driving 65 in a 45 mph zone.

Several films starring three legendary actors - Gary Cooper, Marlon Brando and James Dean - arrived recently on DVD. Universal's "The Gary Cooper Collection" ($27) features five entertaining films that the lanky star made for Paramount. In 1933's ribald comedy Design for Living, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, Cooper shows his sophisticated side as a struggling painter in Paris. In 1935's lush romantic fantasy Peter Ibbettson, he plays an architect who enters into an affair with his married former childhood sweetheart; 1936's thriller The General Died at Dawn finds Cooper as an American in China trying to smuggle funds to help downtrodden Chinese.

James Dean, master actor? Just when you think every angle of a short, lavishly documented life has been explored, television supplies another facet. American Masters, the PBS series that has profiled long-lived legends Lucille Ball, Julia Child and Ella Fitzgerald, tonight turns its attention to Dean, although his legacy is built on just three films: East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant. "Quite honestly, he's in the series because he's an icon, and it's the 50th anniversary of his death," says Susan Lacy, executive producer of American Masters.

The star of "East of Eden" is causing a stir west of Towson.Ever since promotion of the new James Dean stamp started at the Riderwood post office last week, patrons have been asking for the life-size poster of the '50s teen idol that stands in the post office lobby."

DENNIS STOCK, 81 Photographed famous James Dean portrait Dennis Stock, a photographer best known for his iconic Life magazine photo of film legend James Dean walking through a rainy Times Square in a dark overcoat, died Monday night of complications from pneumonia and cancer in Sarasota, Fla. "His singular most iconic image would definitely be his James Dean walking down Times Square with a cigarette in his mouth, because James Dean...