Chronology

1931 • February 8th, 2 a.m. James Byron Dean born to Winton and Mildred Dean, at home, Seven Gables Apartments, 320 East Fourth Street, Marion, Indiana. Given first name of attending physician, James Emmick, and middle name, it is said , for poet, Lord Byron.

1933 • July 5th Deans move from Marion to nearby farming community of Fairmount, Indiana.

1935 • June 7th Winton transferred to Sawtelle Veterans' Hospital in Santa Maria; Deans move to California.

1940 • April 14th Mildred dies of cancer in Los Angeles.

• April 20th Jimmy accompanies mother's body by train to Fairmount. Goes to live with aunt and uncle, Ortense and Marcus Winslow and their young son, Markie, on Winslows' farm just outside Fairmount.

• August 18th Adeline Nall - a major influence in Jimmy's decision to become an actor - arrives in Fairmount to teach Spanish, French, Speech and Dramatic Arts.

1947 • March 28th Plays part of John Mugford in Fairmount High School sophomore production of Mooncalf Medford. During this year, also plays part of Herbert White in The Monkey's Paw, and leading role in Apple from Coles Country.

1948 • August 30th Fairmount High baseball team, the Quakers, trounces St. Paul, 7-0, in season's final game.

• October 8th Dr. George Davis of Purdue University gives first of his rousing recitations of stories and poems by Hoosier poet laureate, James Whitcomb Riley, leaving profound impression on 17-year -old, Jimmy.

• October 29th At Halloween Carnival, plays Frankenstein monster in Fairmount High production of Goon With the Wind.

• November 2nd Fairmount High basketball team, the Quakers, over Jefferson Township Yeoman, 44-39, in first game of season.

• November 16th Quakers over Middletown, 39-30

• November 19th Quakers over Windfall, 59-31

• December 10th Quakers over Jefferson Township, 40-27

• December 23rd Featured in Fairmount High Thespians' production of two one-act-plays for Christmas program.

1949 • February 4th Quakers over St. Paul, 41-39.

• February 8th Jimmy's 18th birthday; registers for the draft. Quakers over Alexandria Tigers, 41-39

• February 13th With Barbera Leach, represents Fairmount on Grant Country Voice of Youth, WBAT radio. Together they subsequently win debate: "The United States President Should Be Elected by a Direct Voice of the People."

• February 16th Fairmount High senior class trip to Indianapolis.

• February 24th Quakers over Van Buren Aces, 41-38.

• February 26th Quakers over Mississenwa Indians, 39-37; Jimmy scores winning points at the buzzer.

• March 19th Fairmount High senior class holds "penny supper" to raise funds for trip to Washington, D.C.

• April 7th Senior class play, You Can't Take It with You, opens with Jimmy in the role of Grandpa Vanderhof.

• April 9th First place honors in National Forensic League's state contest, Peru, Indiana, with recitation of "The Madman" - from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens.

• April 22nd Fairmount High School Senior Prom.

• April 29th & 30th Accompanied by Adeline Nall, competes in National Forensic League's national contest, Longmont, Colorado. Sixth place in Dramatic Decloration competition.

• May 7th & 8th Senior class trip to Washington, D.C.

• May 16th Graduation Day.

• June 14th "JAMES DEAN HONORED AT FAREWELL PARTY MONDAY NIGHT" (Headline in The Fairmount News)

• June 15th Leaves by bus for California.

1950 • January 18th Begins freshman year at Santa Monica City College.

• October 10th Lands role in UCLA Theatre production of Macbeth: as "the world's worst" Malcolm.

• December 13th First professional acting job: Recieves $30 for Pepsi-Cola commercial in which a group of teenagers (including Nick Adams) dance around a jukebox singing "Pepsi-Cola hits the spot..."

1951 • January Withdraws from college. Begins attending drama workshop organized by James Whitmore.

• April 1st John the Apostle in Father Peyton's TV Theatre - "Hill Number One." Airs Easter Sunday. Girls at local parochial school form the Immaculate Heart James Dean Appreciation Society.

• April 9th Job at CBS radio.

• July 22nd First bit part in movie, Fixed Bayonets, directed by Sam Fuller. His one line, "it's a rear guard coming back," is later cut. This summer he also gets bit part in the Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis comedy, Sailor Beware; works as an extra in Trouble Along the Way with John Wayne, and, in Has Anybody Seen My Gal? with Rock Hudson, gets to deliver this immortal line to Charles Coburn: "Hey, Gramps, I'll have a choc malt, heavy on the choc, plenty of milk, four spoons of malt, two scoops of vanilla ice cream, one mixed and one floating...."

• September 1st On advice of drama coach, James Whitmore, leaves for New York to look for work in the theatre.

• November Gets job as stunt tester on TV game show, "Beat the Clock."

1952 • February 20th Appears in TV drama, "The Web."

• May 11th NBC's U.S. Steel Hour: "Prologue to Glory."

• August Dramatic reading of Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" at the Village Theatre, New York.

• October Lands first leading role on Broadway (in See the Jaguar. Plays a sixteen-year-old boy who has been locked in an ice house all his life by a demented mother.

• November 12th With Christine White auditions for Actors Studio in scene they have written themselves: "Ripping Off Layers to Find Roots." Dean and White among the seven selected.

• November 30th Home to Fairmount for Thanksgiving.

• December 3rd See the Jaguar opens at New York's Cort Theatre. Closes three days later.

1953 • January 15th NBC's Kate Smith Hour: "Hound of Heaven."

• January 29th NBC's Treasury Men in Action: "The Case of Watchful Dog."

• February 8th TV drama, You Are There!: "The Capture of Jesse James."

• March 14th CBS's Danger series: "No Room."

• March 16th Featured role in The Scarecrow at the Theatre DeLys.

• June 16th NBC's Treasury Men in Action: "The Case of the Sawed-Off Shotgun."

• July 17th NBC's Campbell Sound Stage: "Something for an Empty Briefcase."

• August 17th CBS's Studio One Summer Theatre: "Sentence of Death."

• August 25th "Death Is My Neighbor." on CBS.

• September 11th "The Big Story." on NBC.

• October 4th "Omnibus" on NBC, with Alistair Cooke, Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy and Carol Channing.

• October 14th NBC's Kraft TV Theatre: "Keep Our Honor Bright" and "Long Time Till Dawn," written by Rod Serling.

• October 16th NBC's Campbell Sound Stage: "Life Sentence."

• November 11th NBC's Kraft TV Theatre: "Long Time Till Dawn," written by Rod Serling.

• November 17th NBC's Armstrong Circle Theatre: "The Bells of Cockaigne."

• November 23rd NBC's Johnson's Waz Program: "Robert Montgomery Presents: Harvest," with Dorothy Gish.

• December Drives Triumph 500 motorcycle to Fairmount.

1954 • February 8th On Broadway as Bakir in The Immoralist, with Louis Jordon, Geraldine Page. "I am now a colorful, thieving, blackmailing Arab boy played by James Dean." Hands intwo weeks notice.

• February 12th Rehearses Women of Trachis, Ezra Pound's translation of Sophocles, at Cherry Lane Theatre - with Eli Wallach and Julie Harris.

• March 6th The New York Times: "Immoralist Star Signed By Kazan for Eden."

• March 8th First flight - to Hollywood with Elia Kazan. Clothes in a brown paper bag.

• April 7th Signs contract with Warner Brothers for role of Cal Trask in East of Eden. Advance of $700.

• May Buys first sportscar, a used MG TA.

• May 27th Eden begins shooting in Mendocino, California.

• June 4th Eden shoots in Salinas for a week. Returns to Warner Brothers for indoor scenes.

• July 6th Gets California driver's license.

• August 13th Eden filming ends.

• September 5th NBC's Philco TV Playhouse: "Run Like a Thief."

• September 27th Director Nicholas Ray moves into office at Warner Brothers to start work on script for Rebel Without a Cause.

• October 7th Warner Brothers exercises right to extend Jimmy's contract.

• November 9th CBS's Danger series, "Padlocks," with Mildred Dunnock.

• November 24th Former girlfriend, Pier Angeli, marries Vic Damone at the Westwood Church; Jimmy guns motorcycle from across the street.

• December Plays a "hep-cat" killer subdued by a country doctor, Ronald Reagan, in CBS's General Electric Theatre: "The Dark, Dark Hours."

• December 17th Appears in General Electric's "I Am a Fool," with Natalie Wood and Eddie Albert.

1955 • January 4th Warner Brothers announces James Dean to play role of Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause. ABC's U.S. Steel Hour, "The Thief," co-starring Mary Astor.

• January 18th Returns to Hollywood. Begins pre-production meetings with director, Nick Ray.

• February Ray holds juvenile delinquency "classes" for actors playing gang members. Warners' wardrobe departments soils and launders more than 400 pairs of Levis for stars and extras in the movie.

• February 14th With Dennis Stock attends "Sweetheart Ball" at Fairmount High School. Sits in on bongos.

• March 1st Buys 15000cc Porche Super Speedster. Wins races at Pacific Pallisades and Pasadena. Enters prestigious two-day meet at Palm Springs.

• March 7th Dennis Stock's photo essay, "Moody New Star," appears in Life magazine.

• March 8th Jimmy returns to Hollywood.

• March 9th Celebrity preview of Eden at New York's Astor Theatre. Marilyn Monroe hands out programs. Jimmy does not attend.

• March 10th Eden opens at the Astor.

• March 13th Interview by Howard Thomson, "Another Dean Hits the Big League," appears in The New York Times.

• March 14th NBC's Lever Brothers Lux Video Theatre, "Life of Emile Zola." Interview with Jimmy follows broadcast.

• March 21st Rave reviews of Jimmy's performance in Eden appears in Time magazine.

• March 27th Heldda Hopper, reversing previous opinion, praises Jimmy's performance in Eden.

• March 28th Rebel begins shooting. In opening sequence, Natalie Wood's five-minute crying scene beats Bette Davis's all-time record set in Winter Meeting (1948).

• April 2nd Warner Brothers again extends Jimmy's conract. Slated to play Jett Rink in movie version of Edna Ferber's Giant.

• April 4th Screenwriters Fred Guiol and Evan Moffat finalize script for Giant.

• April 10th Eden opens nationwide.

• April 14th Warner Brothers announces: "Dean to play Grazziano role in Somebody Up There Likes Me.

• May 1st Night shooting begins at Griffith Park Planetarium. Switchboards of downtown Los Angeles papers flooded with callera (who've spotted glare of arc and spot lights) reporting raging forest fire.

• May 6th CBS's Schlitz Playhouse, "The Unlighted Road," with Pat Hardy.

• May 21st Giant begins shooting.

• May 25th Rebel filming ends. Jimmy and Ray are last to leave set.

• May 28th & 29th Races car in Santa Barbara, California.

• June 3rd Joins Giant filming in progress.

• June 8th Giant cast and crew leave for Marfa, Texas.

• August 1st Takes one year lease on house in Sherman Oaks.

• August 12th The Hollywood Reporter: "Jimmy Dean is studying German so that he can fight with Ursula Andress in two languages."

• September 16th Press release: "James Dean plans to go racing kick when Giant ends."

• September 17th Makes 30-second commercial for National Highway Committee with Gig Young. Signs off with: "And, remember... drive safely... because the life you save may be... mine"

• September 21st Trades in Porche Speedster for Porche Spyder 550, Custom car artist, George Barris, paints "130" and "Little Bastard" on it.

• September 22nd Finishes "Last Snupper" scene in Giant.

• September 29th Visits friend, Jeannette Mille, and gives her his Siamese cat, Marcus, a gift from Elizabeth Taylor. Attends party in Malibu.

• September 30th a.m. 8:00 a.m.: arrives at Competition Motors to check out Porche with mechanic, Rolf Wutherich. 10:00 a.m.: Jimmy's father, Winton, and uncle, Charlie Nolan Dean, pay him a visit. Together they have an early lunch at Farmer's Market.

• September 30th p.m. 1:30 p.m.: Jimmy and Rolf Wutherich, pick up Sanford Roth and Bill Hickman. Group departs for Salinas in two cars. 3:30 p.m.: outside Bakersfield, Jimmy, in Porche, recieves ticket for speeding. 5:45 p.m.: at intersection of routs 466 and 41, near Cholame, Porche collides with Ford sedan driven by Donald Turnupseed. Wutherich is thrown free; Jimmy dies within seconds.

• October 26th Rebel Without a Cause opens in New York.

1956 • Novemeber 10th Giant opens in New York.