Sal Mineo is probably most well-known for his
unforgettable, Academy Award-nominated turn opposite
James Dean in "Rebel Without a Cause" and his tragic
murder at the age of thirty-seven. Finally, in this
riveting new biography filled with exclusive, candid
interviews with both Mineo's closest female and male
lovers and never-before-published photographs, Michael
Gregg Michaud tells the full story of this remarkable
young actor's life, charting his meteoric rise to fame
and turbulent career and private life. One of the
hottest stars of the 1950s, Mineo grew up as the son of
Sicilian immigrants in a humble Bronx flat. But by age
eleven, he appeared on Broadway in Tennessee Williams's
"The Rose Tattoo, " and then as Prince Chulalongkorn in
the original Broadway production of "The King and I"
starring Yul Brynner and Gertrude Lawrence. This
sultry-eyed, dark-haired male ingenue of sorts appeared
on the cover of every major magazine, thousands of
star-struck fans attended his premieres, and millions
bought his records, which included several top-ten hits.
His life offstage was just as exhilarating: full of
sports cars, motor boats, famous friends, and some of
the most beautiful young actresses in Hollywood. But it
was fourteen-year-old Jill Haworth, his costar in
"Exodus"--the film that delivered one of the greatest
acting roles of his life and earned him another Academy
Award nomination and a Golden Globe win--with whom he
fell in love and moved to the West Coast. But by the
1960s, a series of professional missteps and an
increasingly tumultuous private life reversed his
fortunes. By the late sixties and early seventies,
grappling with the repercussions of publicly admitting
his homosexuality and struggling to reinvent himself
from an aging teen idol, Mineo turned toward
increasingly self-destructive behavior. Yet his creative
impulses never foundered. He began directing and
producing controversial off-Broadway plays that explored
social and sexual taboos. He also found personal
happiness in a relationship with male actor Courtney
Burr. Tragically, on the cusp of turning a new page in
his life, Mineo's life was cut short in a botched
robbery. Revealing a charming, mischievous, creative,
and often scandalous side of Mineo few have known before
now, "Sal Mineo" is an intimate, moving biography of a
distinctive Hollywood star. "From the Hardcover
edition." |
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