It’s been over a month since it was announced that a new James Dean biopic is in the works, which will explore his rumored gay romance. Now, more details about the Old Hollywood superstar’s alleged gay affair are surfacing!
Author James Colavito reveals in a new biography titled ‘Jimmy: The Secret Life of James Dean’ new information based on exhaustive research that sheds light on the actor’s life as a queer man. According to the book, Dean’s “gay affair” was a mix of love, blackmail, and betrayal between him and another man, Rogers Brackett, a closeted radio director and TV producer who allegedly “discovered” Dean.
The story began when Dean dropped out of the UCLA theater program and worked as a parking attendant at the CBS Studios lot. There, Brackett took notice of him and became “smitten” with the young man who would soon become a superstar. Brackett offered Dean a role in a radio series and later took him into his home when he learned that Dean was about to become homeless.
Their relationship was both paternal and sexual in nature. Brackett once referred to Dean, whom he affectionately called “Jimmy,” as “like a child” who “behaved badly just to get attention.” He admitted to loving him “sometimes paternally, sometimes not paternally.”
Brackett also allegedly helped Dean avoid military service when he received his draft letter in 1951. He encouraged Dean to tell the authorities he was gay, even conspiring with a psychiatrist to sign papers to “prove” his homosexuality. However, as Dean’s career skyrocketed, tensions grew between them, and Brackett became less central to Dean’s life.