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Live Fast, Die Young: Remembering the Short Life of James Dean
Live Fast, Die Young: Remembering the Short Life of James Dean is a first — revealing James Dean from the inside out by someone who knew him intimately. Author John Gilmore recalls his first meeting with Dean in New York, their fast friendship, their riding motorcycles together, and their sexual encounters with women, men and each other. Dean’s insights into his own Broadway success and the films that followed are revealed through Gilmore’s story as well as Dean’s feelings of hatred toward a disapproving father; his intimacy with his mother and their secret games that later led to Dean’s sexual confusion in Hollywood; Dean’s obsession with death; and, finally, the posthumous rise of the legend.
Confused and antagonized by the immediate celebrity that descended on him following the release of his first feature film, East of Eden, Dean chose to protect himself against Hollywood and the world by surrounding himself with a handful of “malcontent oddballs.” John Gilmore was among the privileged few. Gilmore says, “Jimmy was obsessed with riding the ‘black ship to hell,’ and for that quick time I was on board with him.”
Through letters, diaries, tape-recorded conversations with the actor, and private remembrances by those closest to him — including Rock Hudson, Sal Mineo, Elizabeth Taylor, Eartha Kitt, Natalie Wood and Sammy Davis, Jr. — Gilmore constructs a seldom-seen portrait of the star. Contains over fifty choice photos and the complete Coroner’s Report into Dean’s fatal car crash.
Gilmore succeeds at conveying the sources of Dean's vulnerability and his preoccupation with death, elements that fueled both Dean's screen persona and his personal life. — Kirkus Reviews
Confused and antagonized by the immediate celebrity that descended on him following the release of his first feature film, East of Eden, Dean chose to protect himself against Hollywood and the world by surrounding himself with a handful of “malcontent oddballs.” John Gilmore was among the privileged few. Gilmore says, “Jimmy was obsessed with riding the ‘black ship to hell,’ and for that quick time I was on board with him.”
Through letters, diaries, tape-recorded conversations with the actor, and private remembrances by those closest to him — including Rock Hudson, Sal Mineo, Elizabeth Taylor, Eartha Kitt, Natalie Wood and Sammy Davis, Jr. — Gilmore constructs a seldom-seen portrait of the star. Contains over fifty choice photos and the complete Coroner’s Report into Dean’s fatal car crash.
Gilmore succeeds at conveying the sources of Dean's vulnerability and his preoccupation with death, elements that fueled both Dean's screen persona and his personal life. — Kirkus Reviews
Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1997
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About the author
John Gilmore
80 books38 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.
John Gilmore was born in the Charity Ward of the Los Angeles County General Hospital and was raised in Hollywood. His mother had been a studio contract-player for MGM while his step-grandfather worked as head carpenter for RKO Pictures. Gilmore's parents separated when he was six months old and he was subsequently raised by his grandmother. Gilmore's father became a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officer, and also wrote and acted on radio shows, a police public service (the shows featured promising movie starlets as well as established performers like Bonita Granville, Ann Rutherford, the "jungle girl" Aquanetta, Joan Davis, Hillary Brooke, Ann Jeffreys, Brenda Marshall and other players young John Gilmore became acquainted with. As a child actor, he appeared in a Gene Autry movie and bit parts at Republic Studios. He worked in LAPD safety films and did stints on radio. Eventually he appeared in commercial films. Actors Ida Lupino and John Hodiak were mentors to Gilmore, who worked in numerous television shows and feature films at Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, and Universal International studios. During the 1950s, through John Hodiak, Gilmore sustained an acquaintanceship with Marilyn Monroe in Hollywood, then in New York, where Gilmore was involved with the Actors Studio, transcribing the lectures of Lee Strasberg into book form. Gilmore performed on stage and in live TV, wrote poetry and screenplays, directed two experimental plays, one by Jean Genet. He wrote and directed a low-budget film entitled "Expressions", later changed to "Blues for Benny." The film did not get general release but was shown independently. Gilmore eventually settled into a writing career; journalist, true crime writer and novelist. He served as head of the writing program at Antioch University and has taught and lectured at length.
John Gilmore was born in the Charity Ward of the Los Angeles County General Hospital and was raised in Hollywood. His mother had been a studio contract-player for MGM while his step-grandfather worked as head carpenter for RKO Pictures. Gilmore's parents separated when he was six months old and he was subsequently raised by his grandmother. Gilmore's father became a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officer, and also wrote and acted on radio shows, a police public service (the shows featured promising movie starlets as well as established performers like Bonita Granville, Ann Rutherford, the "jungle girl" Aquanetta, Joan Davis, Hillary Brooke, Ann Jeffreys, Brenda Marshall and other players young John Gilmore became acquainted with. As a child actor, he appeared in a Gene Autry movie and bit parts at Republic Studios. He worked in LAPD safety films and did stints on radio. Eventually he appeared in commercial films. Actors Ida Lupino and John Hodiak were mentors to Gilmore, who worked in numerous television shows and feature films at Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, and Universal International studios. During the 1950s, through John Hodiak, Gilmore sustained an acquaintanceship with Marilyn Monroe in Hollywood, then in New York, where Gilmore was involved with the Actors Studio, transcribing the lectures of Lee Strasberg into book form. Gilmore performed on stage and in live TV, wrote poetry and screenplays, directed two experimental plays, one by Jean Genet. He wrote and directed a low-budget film entitled "Expressions", later changed to "Blues for Benny." The film did not get general release but was shown independently. Gilmore eventually settled into a writing career; journalist, true crime writer and novelist. He served as head of the writing program at Antioch University and has taught and lectured at length.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 13, 2023
This is my second James Dean biography and I really enjoyed it! I find it is fascinating how each author provides a different perspective on Dean. It’s like the scene that Christine White wrote for her and James’ Actor’s Studio audition, Pulling Back Layers to Find Roots, but no matter how many layers you peel back there are always more. It shouldn’t be surprising (people are onions) but it is. It may be because of the picture that has been painted of Dean after his death—the silent black-and-white photograph, the perfect American teenager, a symbol of red-blooded, heterosexual masculinity. Back when men were men and women were women and gay people weren’t to be invented for at least another decade. All that sounds ridiculous in 2023, but you’d be surprised how many people spend their lives longing for the decade free of “modern degeneracy” that in reality never existed. Throughout reading this biography in particular I found myself marveling at how contemporary Dean seemed, traipsing through NYC getting high and experimenting with sex. He felt so different from the shiny, brightly colored advertisements of mid-century wives in poodle skirts and polka-dotted aprons that one normally pictures when asked to think of the 1950s. Turns out, the more you read about history, the more you realize that people have always been people. We’ve always been looking for ways to push boundaries, strike out from what we feel we’re ‘supposed’ to be. And James Dean is no different.
Jonathan Gilmore, the author of Live Fast Die Young, was James Dean’s—for lack of a better term—friend with benefits from 1952 to Dean’s death in 1955. This book is very honest. It’s not full of the same level of romantic affection that Surviving James Dean by William Bast was, but this biography was still an amazingly insightful look into Dean’s life. One thing that John Gilmore did that I loved was focusing on Dean’s early childhood in Fairmount. He talked a great deal about what it was like for Dean to loose his mother at such a young age. The interviews with the Winslows were a nice touch. Additionally, Gilmore suggested that James may have had a reading disability, something that I hadn’t heard before. I was surprised at how much sense it made. Most other biographies and articles that I’ve read characterized him as someone who simply wasn’t very learned or well-read but who desperately wanted to be. Gilmore claims that James expressed a lot of frustration when it came to reading, confessing to him one day that he was a “slow reader”. It apparently took him ages to get through even one page of text and that he “thought in pictures”. He included a quote from Geraldine Page, a good friend of Dean’s who co-stared with him in The Immoralist, where she cited Dean’s “difficulty with the printed page” as one of the reasons he “had one of the most intense concentrations [she’d] ever worked with”. It kind of recontextualizes some of the things he did, like his refusal to memorize his lines. Most people took it as arrogance or perhaps he figured he worked better when he improvised—all that very likely was a part of it, don’t get me wrong—but with Gilmore’s revelation part of me thinks that maybe he found a script hard to memorize, that it took him twice the amount of time to get through compared to his co-stars. Additionally, when he had to read the book East of Eden to prepare for his role in the movie, he had one of his friends, Jack Simmons, read the whole thing aloud to him. I’m no expert and Dean is sixty-five years passed so this is nothing but an interesting thought. Still, I think it makes a lot of sense and it’s something I didn’t piece together before I read this book. That’s one of the things I really liked about this biography. It put things together; Gilmore takes all the little bits and pieces of information that other biographers overlook and he presents it in a new and interesting way.
This book is an unflinching look at the life of James Dean and the author’s relationship to him. It’s one of the best if your looking for an objective look at the man from someone who knew him so closely. There are some loose ends left untied, which did peeve me because they were too obscure to Google and clear up for myself. Overall, though, this book is essential to anyone looking to learn more about James Dean.
Jonathan Gilmore, the author of Live Fast Die Young, was James Dean’s—for lack of a better term—friend with benefits from 1952 to Dean’s death in 1955. This book is very honest. It’s not full of the same level of romantic affection that Surviving James Dean by William Bast was, but this biography was still an amazingly insightful look into Dean’s life. One thing that John Gilmore did that I loved was focusing on Dean’s early childhood in Fairmount. He talked a great deal about what it was like for Dean to loose his mother at such a young age. The interviews with the Winslows were a nice touch. Additionally, Gilmore suggested that James may have had a reading disability, something that I hadn’t heard before. I was surprised at how much sense it made. Most other biographies and articles that I’ve read characterized him as someone who simply wasn’t very learned or well-read but who desperately wanted to be. Gilmore claims that James expressed a lot of frustration when it came to reading, confessing to him one day that he was a “slow reader”. It apparently took him ages to get through even one page of text and that he “thought in pictures”. He included a quote from Geraldine Page, a good friend of Dean’s who co-stared with him in The Immoralist, where she cited Dean’s “difficulty with the printed page” as one of the reasons he “had one of the most intense concentrations [she’d] ever worked with”. It kind of recontextualizes some of the things he did, like his refusal to memorize his lines. Most people took it as arrogance or perhaps he figured he worked better when he improvised—all that very likely was a part of it, don’t get me wrong—but with Gilmore’s revelation part of me thinks that maybe he found a script hard to memorize, that it took him twice the amount of time to get through compared to his co-stars. Additionally, when he had to read the book East of Eden to prepare for his role in the movie, he had one of his friends, Jack Simmons, read the whole thing aloud to him. I’m no expert and Dean is sixty-five years passed so this is nothing but an interesting thought. Still, I think it makes a lot of sense and it’s something I didn’t piece together before I read this book. That’s one of the things I really liked about this biography. It put things together; Gilmore takes all the little bits and pieces of information that other biographers overlook and he presents it in a new and interesting way.
This book is an unflinching look at the life of James Dean and the author’s relationship to him. It’s one of the best if your looking for an objective look at the man from someone who knew him so closely. There are some loose ends left untied, which did peeve me because they were too obscure to Google and clear up for myself. Overall, though, this book is essential to anyone looking to learn more about James Dean.
July 14, 2014
A classic case of family of origin issues. Dean, narcissistic and angry, had few moral boundaries. Mature subject matter. No inspiration for daily living here. Like other celebrity tales, this one de-glamorizes Hollywood and its players. Tragic tale of self-destruction of a troubled soul.
August 28, 2009
When I finished with this book, I was left feeling as if a bubble had just burst;yet at the same time a feeling of unsuprise.
September 19, 2013
Pretty decent.
January 29, 2016
What?!? James Dean was bi-sexual?!?
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews