Tag Archives: James Dean

Posthumous Oscars

This year, the forerunner for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor seems to be Heath Ledger, nominated for his searing performance as The Joke in The Dark Knight. Ledger received the nomination on January 22 – the one year anniversary of his death. (This image, by Howie Berlin, is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 License) In case you were wondering, other actors have been nominated for Oscars posthumously. In the past 81 years, 53 people have received 70 posthumous nominations with 13 of them winning. The first person nominated for an Oscar after his death was writer … Continue reading →

Iconic Sex Symbols – Part 3

Posted on by

This is my final installment of iconic sex symbols. I’ve already covered many of the obvious – Mel Gibson, Elvis, Warren Beatty, Marlon Brando, and Paul Newman. Here are a few more on my list: James Dean You know, when I was younger, I had a really hard time seeing Dean as sexy. However, as I age, I begin to get it. He is an iconic sex symbol truly frozen in time, as he died at the young age of 24, while still young and handsome. Would he have aged well? We will never know, but the whole package of … Continue reading →

Rock Star Babylon: They Did What?

I love the “Babylon” books – those named, of course, after the biblical city Babylon. These books talk about the materialistic and hedonistic pleasures of – you guessed it – celebrities and musicians. The first one I read was “Hollywood Babylon: The Legendary Underground Classic of Hollywood’s Darkest and Best Kept Secrets” by Kenneth Anger. Ah, this one dished a lot of dirt about classic Hollywood stories: Errol Flynn’s brushes with under aged girls (which lead to brushes with the law), Rudolph Valentino (was the “Latin Lover” really gay?), the Fatty Arbuckle scandal (so much for “innocent until proven guilty”), … Continue reading →

Gone Before 30

As the world still tries to recover from Heath Ledger’s untimely death, some are remembering others who died young. ABC News did a segment on stars that died before they reached age 30. I have already blogged about many of the people on the list. Some died because of violence such as the Notorious B.I.G and Tupac Shakur. Some took their own lives like Kurt Cobain. Still others succumbed to drug use like Brad Renfro, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, and River Phoenix. When I first heard of Heath’s death, I immediately thought of River. Talented yet troubled, both gave us … Continue reading →