Episode Details

James Dean made three films, died at twenty-four in a car crash, and became the most enduring symbol of youthful rebellion in American culture. Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden, and Giant were all that he left behind — and they were enough to create a mythology so powerful that Dean's image has been selling products and shaping attitudes for over seventy years. He invented a way of being young that the world had not seen before.

This episode traces Dean from his Indiana farm childhood through the New York acting scene, the three films that made him immortal, and the Porsche crash that turned a promising career into an eternal symbol.

• Dean's midwestern childhood, the mother's early death, and the emotional wounds that fed his performances
• The Actors Studio training and the Method approach that electrified Hollywood
• Three films in two years — East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, Giant — and instant icon status
• The Porsche crash at twenty-four and the posthumous mythology that never faded