Fans Honor James Dean 40 Years After Death -- Actor's Fame Grew From 3-Film Career

FAIRMOUNT, Ind. - The "Rebel Without a Cause" is not without his fans. Forty years after his death, they refuse to let his memory fade.

Hundreds of them gathered in James Dean's hometown yesterday to help dedicate a park in his name.

Dean died at age 24 in a car wreck in Southern California on Sept. 30, 1955. His legacy of just three feature films - "East of Eden" "Rebel Without a Cause" and "Giant" - captured an image of a brooding sex symbol that continues to attract a worldwide following.

Fairmount, a farm town of 3,200 about 50 miles northeast of Indianapolis, has encouraged the legend of the man locals called Jimmy.

The centerpiece of James Dean Memorial Park is a larger-than-life bronze bust of Dean that captures his characteristic swooped-back hair, cocked head and mischievous grin.

Much of the $25,000 collected for the park's construction was donated by Masao Hayashi, a Japanese businessman whose son died before realizing a longtime dream of visiting Fairmount.

Dean lived in Fairmount with his parents, Winton and Mildred Dean, for a few years, then the family moved to Los Angeles in 1936, so the elder Dean, a dental technician, could take a job at a VA hospital.

When Mrs. Dean died in 1940, the 9-year-old Dean was sent back to Fairmount to live with his aunt, Ortense; her husband, Marcus Winslow Sr., and their 13-year-old daughter, Joan. Marcus Winslow Jr. was born three years later.

Marcus Winslow Jr. recalls the two ice-fishing and Dean's love for reading, drawing, cars and motorcycles.

After graduating from Fairmount High School, Dean returned to California in 1949. He studied acting at UCLA before he moved to New York, where he soon landed television roles.

Dean would return to Fairmount a half-dozen times over the years.

Winslow said Dean's father was bitter that the Hollywood media branded him a coldhearted man who abandoned his son after his wife died of cancer. Winton Dean died in February at age 88.

"The truth was that he'd spent all his financial resources on his wife's illness and he thought it was the best thing for his son that he come to Indiana," said Winslow. "Winton was very proud of Jimmy. We all were."

What Winslow finds particularly unpalatable are stories that Dean was bisexual, a reckless lost soul, a difficult actor. Those just aren't true, he says.