James Byron Dean

James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955) was a two-time Oscar-nominated American
film actor. Dean's status as a cultural icon is best embodied in the title of his most celebrated
film, Rebel Without a Cause, in which he starred as troubled stereotypical high school rebel Jim
Stark


On September 30, 1955, Dean and his mechanic Rolf Wütherich set off from Competition Motors, where
they had prepared his Porsche 550 Spyder that morning for a sports car race at Salinas, California.
Dean originally intended to trailer the Porsche to the meeting point at Salinas, behind his new Ford
Country Squire station wagon, crewed by Hickman and photographer Stanford Roth, who was planning a
photo story of Dean at the races. At the last minute, Dean drove the Spyder, having decided he
needed more time to familiarize himself with the car. At 3:30PM, Dean was ticketed in Kern County
for doing 65 in a 55 mph zone. The driver of the Ford was ticketed for doing 10 mph over the limit,
as the speed limit for all vehicles towing a trailer was 45 mph. Later, having left the Ford far
behind, they stopped at Blackwell's Corner in Lost Hills for fuel and met up with fellow racer Lance
Reventlow.

Dean was driving west on U.S. Route 466 (later State Route 46) near Cholame, California when a
black-and-white 1950 Ford Custom Tudor coupe, driven from the opposite direction by 23-year-old Cal
Poly student Donald Turnupseed, attempted to take the fork onto State Route 41 and crossed into
Dean's lane without seeing him. The two cars hit almost head on. According to a story in the October
1, 2005 edition of the Los Angeles Times, California Highway Patrol officer Ron Nelson and his
partner had been finishing a coffee break in Paso Robles when they were called to the scene of the
accident, where they saw a heavily-breathing Dean being placed into an ambulance. Wütherich had
been thrown from the car, but survived with a broken jaw and other injuries. Dean was taken to Paso
Robles War Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival at 5:59 p.m. His last known
words, uttered right before impact, were said to have been "That guy's gotta stop... He'll see us."


While completing Giant, and to promote Rebel Without a Cause, Dean filmed a short interview with
actor Gig Young for an episode of Warner Bros. Presents in which Dean, instead of saying the popular
phrase "The life you save may be your own" instead ad-libbed "The lives you might save might be mine
."

James Dean is buried in Park Cemetery in Fairmount, Indiana