James Dean & Pier Angeli at the Re-release of "Gone with the Wind"

            August 1954:

James Dean and Pier Angeli (1932-1971) are attending the 'premiere' of a re-release of the 1939 epic, "Gone with the Wind."

Born Anna Maria Pierangeli in Italy, Pier seems to have been Jimmy's main true love;  he was heartbroken when she gave into her mother's demands that she stop seeing him because he was not Catholic, and then swiftly married Italian American singer Vic Damone. Jimmy is alleged to have been outside the church during their wedding, occassionally gunning his motorcycle (though he denied this). Her marriage only lasted 4 years, followed by bitter custody battles. But by then Jimmy was dead. Pier stated that he was "the only man [she] ever loved." 

How fleeting fame can be--though not for Jimmy, even if he did not live long enough to see the release of his last 2 films, "Rebel Without a Cause" and "Giant." But for Pier...recognized at 19 by the Hollywood Foreign Press--i.e., the Golden Globe Awards-- as Young Star of the Year after her American film debut in the drama "Teresa,"  fame, unlike in Jimmy's case, never turned into legend. At the start of her Hollywood career, she was signed to Warner Bros, the studio for which Jimmy worked, and he supposedly met her when visiting Paul Newman on the set of "The Silver Chalice," a film that was an awful, quasi-religious costume drama which Paul would make fun of after he became famous. (Paul did a screen test with Jimmy to play his brother in "East of Eden" but was not cast) ... Back to Pier: her career in America floundered by the late 1950s though she still made films. She died of a barbiturate overdose at the age of 39--some say suicide, some say accident.

Though so much has been written about Jimmy's life, including incredible and lurid (and some fake) accounts of his love life, according to his friends, and director Elia Kazan, with whom he worked on "East of Eden," Jimmy and Pier were certainly more than a publicity item but had an intense, if too brief, romance.

Pier, don't listen to your mother!!!!

***I think this Barbie actually looks like Pier!

Taken on: September 27, 2022

Tags:

Backdrop from fengdanhua1977

Barbie gown

Mattel Barbie doll

part of my white gloves refashioned into a fake fur stole

James Dean

Pier Angeli « less

Groups appears in: • "Plastic People" or mannequins, dolls and more • Toys Toys Toys more » • Barbie • Dollz • Dollz Planet • Nice pictures • Life in Plastic • Toysaholic Anonymous • Tributes to the Famous • Constructed Narratives Using Toys • Toys - What's in your collection? • Toy Stories • Beautiful Barbie Shots • Toy Show • Toy obsessions • 娃娃國 kingdom of dolls • Emotion in the Inanimate • All Kinds of dolls, cualquier tipo de muñeca • toy or toys • World of Dolls • DOLLS DOLLS DOLLS ... ALL WELCOME • Doll Mania • Male Doll Lovers! Ken, Hommes, Fashion Royalty. • Amazing Capture ***No Rules, No Banning, No Sweepers*** • Lets Hear It For The Boys • Doll Collectors Anonymous • We Love all kind of Dolls!!! • Barbie Collector • Celebrity toy dolls • Toys, Toys Toys =) • Toy Photographers • Dolls...!! • Barbie & Friends • Muñecas, Dolls, Poupées, Bonecas... • ♥ The plastic Love ♥ • Handsome Actors • Dolls Emotions • Dolls & Posing • Your Celebrity Dolls • Barbie Doll Club • Doll Collections • Destined Dolls,All Dolls Welcome! • DOLL LOVERS <3 • ツDoll Circusツ • Toys Aren't Just For Kids :) • Toys, Toys, Toys! • Never to old for dolls • I♥Dolls • Dolls story • Doll obsession • Doll Photographer • ❤ Dolls, dolls, nothing but dolls... ❤ • Doll World • Barbie Planet • Daniel Darg Dolls Club • Doll Lovers Unite! • Barbie Fashion Model • ♥ World full of Dolls ♥ • ♡♥ Doll Lovers ♥♡ • Dolls Around The World • Stylish Dolls on Flickr • *Handsome men, guys, boys male DOLLS homme • FLICKR INTERNATIONAL - No 30/60 Groups Limit • DOLLS!! (No 30/60 Limit) « less

Stats: 2,353 views / 4 comments

go back

Link to this photo view:
Link to this photo large view: