Rebel from Back Creek: James Byron Dean (1931-1955)

James Dean was one of the most mesmerizing and controversial actors of all time who died in a car crash September 30, 1955 at the age of twenty-four. Yet since his death, he has maintained a word-wide following. This book is the result of a ten-year search by the author into the genealogical background of the actor. Extending her thesis from her previous work that we are all the sum total of our ancestors, she provides an in depth look at some of his ancestors, and the way or ways they influenced him. A child of the 1950s, Barbara Inman Beall remembered the actor, James Dean, from his early television dramas and his movies. In 1955, she was listening to a news account of his death when her father entered the room and asked her what happened. When she told him that James Dean died, he responded by saying, “Well, he was related to your grandmother!”

To purchase the book from Amazon or Barnes & Noble and for more information about the book–go to Books by Beall