James dean biography photos new york

The picture, shot by Dennis Stock in early 1955, shows Dean walking alone in an eerily empty Times Square. It’s a lousy day. Wearing a long, wool coat, hunched against the chill, a cigarette loosely clamped in his lips, the actor is seen in mid-stride, stalking through the bleak Manhattan rain.

At first glance, it might be a portrait of isolation, or even downright despair.

James Dean in New York City, 1955.

When the Magnum photographer Dennis Stock met actor James Dean in Hollywood in 1955, something about the rising star caught his attention.

James dean biography photos new york city

The young actor had yet to make what would be the defining film of his short career – Rebel Without a Cause– and, while not completely unknown, he was not the iconic figure he would soon become. Yet Stock, who at the time was making a steady living as a photographer for LIFEmagazine, couldn’t get the actor out of his head.

He saw something in Dean – charisma certainly, an untapped star quality