On a Friday night in September 1955, Alec Guinness looked at a young actor's brand new Porsche 550 Spyder outside the Villa Capri and warned him he would be dead within a week. Exactly one week later James Dean was gone. This deep dive strips away the myth to examine how a kid from Indiana with a five-year career and three major films rewired American pop culture.

We begin with the death of his mother Mildred when he was nine and his father sending him by train to a Quaker farm, the disputed mentorship of Reverend James DeWeerd, high school success, the failed reunion with his father, and early jobs from parking attendant to Beat the Clock stunt tester. Then we follow the move to New York, the clash with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio, the improvised hug with Raymond Massey in East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, the aged tycoon of Gian ...