James Dean’s Five Best TV Performances… That You Can Watch On YouTube Right Now

James Dean Week: Day One

This week, leading up to the 60th anniversary of James Dean’s death, I’ll be posting an article each day on a different facet of Dean’s life and legend. Today’s installment: a roundup of James Dean’s best television performances, available on YouTube right now!

In his excellent biography James Dean: The Mutant King, David Dalton reports having seen bags in Tokyo bearing Jimmy’s likeness alongside “worshipful inscriptions” such as “IT IS FACT JAMES DEAN PLAYED ROLES OF THREE.” Everyone always seems to say this in mourning James Dean, almost an incantation of sorts, as a way of marveling at the size of his legend in relation to the length of his too-short career. “He’s so famous… And he only ever appeared in three movies!”

While it’s true that James Dean only had three starring roles — in East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, and Giant — he was actually in a few other films, and he also starred in numerous teleplays, on such programs as General Electric Theater, The United States Steel Hour, Kraft Theater, and Lux Video Theatre.