There’s a fine line between historical curiosity and morbid fascination, particularly when it comes to a Hollywood legend like James Dean. But when 30 unpublished photos documenting Dean’s fatal crash make their way to public auction six decades after his death, it’s definitely newsworthy.
Dean, the 24-year-old actor and racer who starred in 1955’s Rebel Without a Cause and East of Eden, was killed on September 30, 1955, when his 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder collided with a 1950 Ford Custom driven by Donald Turnupseed near Cholame, California. Dean was driving the Porsche to Salinas for the upcoming Salinas Road Race, scheduled October 2, and he was accompanied by his mechanic, Rolf Wütherich, who survived the crash but suffered serious injuries.
A famous color photograph shows Dean and the car—nicknamed “Little Bastard”—at a fuel stop on that fateful day, and a few black-and-white crash-scene photos were published in newspapers and magazines at the time. But a cache of more than two dozen photographs that were used in court proceedings is expected to bring $20,000 or more at RR Auction’s Pop Culture online sale August 8–15.
