Death of James Dean

Did You Know?

• Dean's funeral was held on October 8, 1955, at the Fairmount Friends Church in Fairmount, Indiana, with an estimated 600 mourners in attendance and another 2,400 fans gathered outside.
• In 1977, a memorial to Dean was erected in Cholame, California, composed of stainless steel around a tree of heaven.
• On February 15, 2009, all three CHP officers who dealt with Dean on the day of his death participated in a documentary titled The Stuff of Legend: James Dean's Final Ride.

Racing career background

James Dean bought a 1955 Triumph Tiger T110 motorcycle and a used red 1953 MG TD sports car in April 1954, after landing the co-starring role of Cal Trask in East of Eden. He swapped the MG for a new 1955 Porsche Speedster in March 1955, and three days after finishing East of Eden, he traded the Triumph for a 1955 Triumph TR5 Trophy. Just before starting Rebel Without a Cause, Dean raced the Speedster at the Palm Springs Road Races on March 26–27, taking first overall in the Saturday novice class and second overall in Sunday’s main event.

He also raced at Bakersfield on May 1–2, winning his class and placing third overall. His last race in the Speedster was at Santa Barbara on Memorial Day, May 30, where he started eighteenth, climbed to fourth, then blew a piston from over-revving and did not finish. While filming Giant from June to mid-September, Warner Brothers banned Dean from racing. In July, he put a deposit on a new Lotus Mark IX sports racer.

On September 21, as he wrapped Giant, Dean traded the Speedster for a new 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder and entered the Salinas Road Race scheduled for October 1–2. He also bought a new 1955 Ford Country Squire station wagon to tow the Spyder to events.

Car crash

On September 30, 1955, James Dean and his mechanic Rolf Wütherich were at Competition Motors in Hollywood getting the Porsche Spyder ready for weekend races in Salinas. Since the car hadn't been driven enough miles to be eligible, Wütherich suggested Dean drive it to Salinas to build up the mileage. The group had coffee and donuts at the Hollywood Ranch Market on Vine Street, then left around 1:15 p.m. They stopped for gas at a Mobil station in Sherman Oaks around 2:00 p.m., then headed north on the Golden State Highway through Grapevine toward Bakersfield.

At 3:30 p.m., CHP officer Otie V. Hunter pulled Dean over at Mettler Station for going 65 mph in a 55 mph zone. After the ticket, Dean took SR 166/SR 33 to bypass Bakersfield's slow downtown, a route known as "the racer's road" that led to Blackwells Corner at US 466. But biographer Warren Beath disagrees, pointing to Wütherich's inquest testimony that they drove through Bakersfield and turned left onto US 466. At Blackwells Corner, Dean stopped briefly and met fellow racers Lance Reventlow and Bruce Kessler, who were also heading to Salinas. As Reventlow and Kessler left, the two groups agreed to meet for dinner in Paso Robles.

Inquest and aftermath

An inquest was convened on October 11, 1955, in San Luis Obispo’s council chambers. Donald Turnupseed testified to the jury that he hadn’t spotted the low-slung Porsche Spyder until after he began his left turn onto Highway 41. Following testimony from the California Highway Patrol and other witnesses, the coroner’s jury ruled the death accidental, with no criminal intent, and cleared Turnupseed of any blame. Although never charged, the crash haunted him for life.

He gave only one interview, to the Tulare Advance-Register right after the accident, and then never discussed it publicly again. Turnupseed later ran a successful family electrical contracting business in Tulare and died of lung cancer in 1995 at age 63. Rolf Wütherich, Dean’s passenger, underwent multiple complicated surgeries on his hip and femur before returning to West Germany in 1957, burdened by psychological and legal troubles. During the 1960s, he worked for Porsche’s testing division and on international rally and racing teams.

In July 1981, at age 53, Wütherich lost control of his car in Kupferzell, West Germany, crashed into a house, and died at the scene, much like Dean. While filming Giant, Dean recorded a public-service spot with Gig Young for the National Safety Council. Dressed as Jett Rink, he warned that highway speeding could be more dangerous than track racing. Instead of the scripted line “The life you save may be your own,” Dean ad-libbed, “The life you might save might be mine.”