I know I'm going to get shit for saying this, but here it goes: James Dean is terrible.

Okay, that was a mild exaggeration, but he's far from the iconic, amazing actor that some people think of him as. I will admit, having two Academy Award nominations by the time you're 24 is pretty amazing, but both of his performances were mediocore at best. Here's a quote I like, from IMDb.

Director Elia Kazan did not believe that Dean would have been able to sustain the momentum of his career. He felt that Dean's career, had he lived, would have sputtered out, as he was not well-trained and relied too much on his instincts, as opposed to his idol Marlon Brando, who, contrary to what people believed, had been very well-trained by his acting teacher Stella Adler and relied on that training to create his characters.

It's pretty well-known that Dean idolized Brando (any aspiring actor should, since Marlon Brando is pretty much the best actor ever), and also pretty well-known that he would just do his thing, and not rely on actual talent or direction. Dean had a very momentary, free-flowing style of acting. Dean also had a really screwed up personal life (which I won't go into details about, just wikipedia it), which naturally makes it tought to maintain a professional career. But real-life details aside, my whole point is this: You can't base someone's status as a 'legend' on three performances, and think that if they had lived, they would've been the best thing ever. It's been amazingly good for his career that he died how he did.

Now, let's compare this to Marilyn Monroe (this is a loose comparison, but bear with me [plus I love Marilyn Monroe, but this is unbiased, I assure you]). Marilyn Monroe died when she was 36, and I think a lot of her appeal would be gone had she lived a normal lifespan (let's say she lived to be 70), because she would've taken roles as an older woman, and not been so much the sex symbol she was. The fact that she died so young stuck her in history as a permanent super-star and cultural icon, much like James Dean; however, Marilyn Monroe made about twenty movies, and as her career progressed, she became more involved, eventually owning her own production company, taking acting lessons, and by the end, other than her notorious unreliability (sickness, missing work, etc.), she was growing immensely as an actress, and genuinely wanted to improve her life.

James Dean was not--he was too busy making freakish phone calls to Marlon Brando in the early morning hours, had already reached a career high point (he didn't win any Oscars [and rightfully so]), and the only place for him to go was down.

If you're someone looking for an idol, or just looking for a great actor who has a good career that spanned more than two decent movies, don't be lazy--watch the works of any number of other legendary actors: Marlon Brando, William Holden, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracey, James Stewart, Clark Gable, Gregory Peck... that's a short list, and only males. There's also plenty of females, probably even more than the guys.

Alright, end of rant.