James Dean with his Silver Porsche he’d nicknamed the “Little Bastard” (1955). Photo by Sanford Roth.
James Dean loved racing cars and he and his brand-new, $7000 Porsche Spyder convertible were on their way to a race in Salinas, 90 miles south of San Francisco. At 5:45 PM on September 30, 1955, the 24-year-old actor was killed when the Porsche hit a Ford Tudor sedan at an intersection in Cholame, California. The driver of the other car, 23-year-old California Polytechnic State University student Donald Turnupseed, was dazed but mostly uninjured. Dean’s passenger, German Porsche mechanic Rolf Wutherich was badly injured but survived.
Only one of Dean’s movies, “East of Eden,” had been released at the time of his death (“Rebel Without a Cause” and “Giant” opened shortly afterward), but he was already on his way to superstardom – and the crash made him a legend.
[Source: This Day in History at www.history.com/this-day-in-history/james-dean-dies-in-ca...]
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The photo of James Dean with his Porsche was taken at a gas station in Sherman Oaks the afternoon he was killed. It was taken by Jimmy's friend Sanford Roth who was following Jimmy to Salinas in a different car. The gas station on Ventura Blvd. is now a car wash and a flower shop called "A Touch of Romance."
James Dean with his Silver Porsche he’d nicknamed the “Little Bastard” (1955). Photo by Sanford Roth.
James Dean loved racing cars and he and his brand-new, $7000 Porsche Spyder convertible were on their way to a race in Salinas, 90 miles south of San Francisco. At 5:45 PM on September 30, 1955, the 24-year-old actor was killed when the Porsche hit a Ford Tudor sedan at an intersection in Cholame, California. The driver of the other car, 23-year-old California Polytechnic State University student Donald Turnupseed, was dazed but mostly uninjured. Dean’s passenger, German Porsche mechanic Rolf Wutherich was badly injured but survived.
Only one of Dean’s movies, “East of Eden,” had been released at the time of his death (“Rebel Without a Cause” and “Giant” opened shortly afterward), but he was already on his way to superstardom – and the crash made him a legend.
[Source: This Day in History at www.history.com/this-day-in-history/james-dean-dies-in-ca...]
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The photo of James Dean with his Porsche was taken at a gas station in Sherman Oaks the afternoon he was killed. It was taken by Jimmy's friend Sanford Roth who was following Jimmy to Salinas in a different car. The gas station on Ventura Blvd. is now a car wash and a flower shop called "A Touch of Romance."