September 30, 1955: James Dean is killed in a car crash.
James Dean was twenty-four-years old when he crashed his Porsche nearly head-on with another car on the way to an auto rally in Salinas. He was not killed on impact, but the crash crushed his foot and broke his neck. When he was taken to the hospital thirty-five minutes later, he was pronounced dead on arrival. The other driver, Donald Turnupseed, survived, as did Dean’s passenger, Rolf Wütherich. Dean’s car, which he’d nicknamed “Little Bastard”, was rumored to be cursed because it had been loosely involved in fatal accidents both before and after Dean’s death.
Although he was a rising star at the time, having that year starred in his first lead role as East of Eden’s Cal Trask, his premature death cemented his status as a cultural icon. Two of Dean’s three total films, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant were released posthumously in October of 1955 and October of 1956; for the latter, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, making him the only actor to have ever been posthumously nominated for two acting Oscars. Although Donald Turnupseed would never be relieved of the guilt of having been involved in the actor’s death, it was the car crash that (by killing him) immortalized him.