“James Dean, the young motion-picture actor killed in a car accident in 1955, was promoted throughout his phosphorescent career as the all-American ‘mixed up kid’ the symbol of misunderstood hot-rodding youth with a switchblade approach to life’s little problems. When he died, an expensive film in which he starred, Giant, had yet to be released, and the picture’s press agents, seeking to offset any ill effects that Dean’s demise might have on the commercial prospects of their product, succeeded by ‘glamourizing’ the tragedy, and in ironic consequence, created a Dean legend of rather necrophilic appeal.”
Truman Capote, “The Duke in His Domain”, 1957.
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