Is Jimmy Dean Dead?
Posted August 1998

That’s a big question if you think about it ... Back on September 30, 1955, a young and talented spirit was killed on that highway near Cholame, California, when Jimmy Dean’s Porsche Spyder unceremoniously crashed into Donald Turnupseed’s Ford Sedan. That moment of instant, tragic death caused minor ripples that quickly gushed into a flood of astronomical proportions as movie-goers turned fans and then frenzy with the release of Rebel Without A Cause, Jimmy’s second major motion picture released shortly after his death. What these early fans realized was that Jimmy Dean the actor represented themselves – the disparate teenager, unloved and misunderstood by not just his or her family or teachers, but by the macrocosm of society. Just as Cal Trask and Jim Stark yearned for love and understanding in their lives, so too did these young fans. And just as Jim, Judy and Plato created their own self-supportive family towards the end of Rebel, so did Jimmy’s fans when they emulated the man they turned into a god.

So, did Jimmy Dean die on that fateful September day?

Many back in the late 1950’s didn’t think so. Scandal/rumour magazines, popular in their time, spread lurid tales about a living James Dean locked away in some lost asylum or roaming the streets anonymously. Death cults arose, believing that either James Dean was alive but not well or communicating from beyond the grave [David Dalton’s excellent book, James Dean Revealed! has full magazine excerpts detailing the various responses to Jimmy Dean’s death]. Thousands flocked to Fairmount, Indiana, Jimmy’s home town, to bid farewell to their tragic hero. But in the midst of denial and tears, one fact remained: Jimmy Dean, actor, was dead.

Death is an indefinable fact for most people. What happens after one dies is a great mystery. But the aftereffects of one’s death isn’t. Jimmy Dean may have died physically, but the spirit of his work has kept his spirit alive and strong in the hearts and minds of his fans. Death may of conquered Jimmy, but Jimmy certainly conquered Death.

Rather than allowing their hero to ride off into the sunset like one of Hollywood’s typically tragic young stars, fans of Jimmy Dean latched onto the personification of his characters. Their identification with what they considered to be Jimmy's symbols and adoration with the actor who created them became like blood pulsing through one’s veins – the very essence of life after death. Whether it was through copying his mannerisms, his hair style, his gait, his slurred "Brando-esque" speech patterns, his beatnik lifestyle, learning to share Jimmy’s interests or hobbies, or even coping bits and pieces of his characters or personality(ies), Jimmy Dean’s fans kept Jimmy Dean alive. And as long as one remembers and admires James Dean the actor or his characters, James Dean is not dead.