An actor must interpret life, and in order to do so must be willing to accept all the experiences life has to offer. In fact, he must seek out more of life than life puts at his feet.

Joe Hyams says that Dean was "one of the rare stars like Rock Hudson and Montgomery Clift whom both men and women find sexy. He is a cultural icon of teenage disillusionment as expressed in the title of his most celebrated film Rebel Without a Cause (1955) in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark.

100 Stars list.