magine Brad Pitt being killed in a car accident.  That might be close to the reaction America experienced when a handsome, dashing young actor named James Dean died in a horrific car accident in 1955. 
 
Back then, James Dean was as a big a star as any, on pace to become one of the all time greats - if not arguably one already.  His death in a car accident affected a nation and cemented his status in Hollywood history as yet another sad icon that died too young, too early and for reasons that seem wholly avoidable in retrospect.  However, that seems to be the sad story for most car accidents taken after the fact.  When they involve celebrities the tragedy only seems magnified. 

RISE TO FAME
 
James Dean had appeared in a number of television shows before getting his "big break" in 1954 when he landed the role of Cal Trask, the leading role in the film East of Eden.  That was in 1955.  Interestingly, this was the only one of Dean's films that was released before his death.
 
Following East of Eden, James Dean was signed to play Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause.  This is the film for which Dean is best remembered.
 
Immediately following the filming for Rebel Without a Cause, Dean played the lead role in Giant.  
 
As his movie career began to take off, James Dean started to race cars.
 
 PASSION FOR CARS
 
Jimmy Dean had a love affair with the automobile, namely the sports car.  In March 1955, Dean raced in the Palm Springs Road Races, and that May he raced in the Minter Field Bakersfield race.  That was followed up by the Santa Barbara Road Races.
 
On September 30, 1955, Dean and his mechanic, Rolf Wütherich, set off from Competition Motors where they had prepared his Porsche 550 Spyder that morning for a sports car race at Salinas, California.
 
Dean originally intended to trailer the Porsche to the meeting point at Salinas, behind his Ford Country Squire station wagon, driven by Bill Hickman, his language coach on Giant, and his photographer Stanford Roth.  They were planning a photo story of Dean at the races.
 
However, at the last minute, Dean drove the Spyder, making the ill-fated decision that he needed more time to become familiar with the car. As luck would have it Dean was ticketed in Kern County.  He was clocked at 65 in a 55 mph zone.
 
This was not good for Dean; he had just finished a commercial for highway safety and did not need the hearsay magazines to find out about his speeding ticket, especially after his preaching about the ills of lead-footing it on the highway.
 
The ticket, however, had only succeeded in momentarily slowing Dean’s voracious need for speed.  It wasn't long before he was once again speeding and driving recklessly along California Highway 446.  
 
According to some witnesses, his car weaved in and out of traffic at an alarmingly high rate of speed.  Some claim he narrowly missed cars along the way.
 
On one occasion he almost drove head on into a car driven by one man, Clifford Hord, who at the time was traveling with his two young children and his wife. Hord claimed had no choice but to drive his car off the road to avoid a collision.
 
Unfortunately it would be Donald Gene Turnupseed who would find out the hard way that a speeding sports car cannot stop at a moment’s notice.   
 
THE CRASH
 
23-year-old Cal Poly student Donald Turnupseed’s 1950 Ford Tudor, coming from the opposite direction, attempted to take the fork onto California State Route 41.  This is when he crossed into Dean's lane without seeing him racing along.
 
The two cars collided almost head on!
 
As Turnupseed approached the intersection where Hwy 41 turns off, he proceeded to turn after seeing that there were no other cars in close approach. Then out of nowhere, the sports car was on top of him.
 
Turnupseed slammed on his brakes and turned his wheel to the right to avoid the crash, but it was too late. Another witness, John White, claimed to have watched the whole accident transpire right before his eyes.
 
He saw Dean’s car try to swerve to avoid the collision, but to no avail.
 
Dean’s car flipped a few times before landing next to a telephone pole, just barely missing it, he said. 
 
The other driver, Turnupseed, had minor injuries in contrast to the others; he sustained just a few cuts and bruises.
 
Dean’s companion had been thrown from the car and was lying on the ground approximately six feet from the driver’s side of Dean’s Porsche. Dean and his friend were still alive. The extent of Dean’s injuries were unknown to those at the scene, but they were clearly very serious.
 
He was scarcely conscious and bleeding. His arms were limp and twisted. A nurse that was passing by stopped to see if she could assist anyone involved the car accident.
 
Robert White an accountant from Paso Robles also witnessed the accident.
 
He remembers seeing the car speed past him at a high rate of speed, perhaps over 100 mph. He thought there would be no way someone could stop to avoid an accident while traveling at that high rate of speed, especially if someone were to turn onto the upcoming intersection ahead.  
 
According to a story in the October 1, 2005 edition of the Los Angeles Times, California Highway Patrol Officer Ron Nelson and his partner had been finishing a coffee break in Paso Robles when they were called to the scene of the accident. 
 
They saw a heavily-breathing James Dean being placed into an ambulance. Wütherich had been thrown from the car; amazingly he would survive with a broken jaw and other injuries.
 
Contrary to reports of Dean's speeding, which persisted decades after his death, Officer Nelson said "the wreckage and the position of Dean's body indicated his speed was more like 55 mph."
 
Dean was taken to Paso Robles War Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead-on-arrival at 5:59PM. His last known words, uttered right before impact, were allegedly to have been, "That guy's gotta stop... He'll see us."
 
“That guy” never did.
 
THE AFTERMATH
 
Turnupseed received a gashed forehead and bruised nose and was not cited by police for the accident. He died of lung cancer in 1995. Rolf Wütherich would die in a road accident in Germany in 1981.
 
James Dean, an American Icon, died that day in the hospital. His legendary celebrity car accident till this day is the subject of much fascination from those that recalled the young star’s handsome charm and need for speed, which ultimately proved to be a fatal combination.

Find more on James Dean at MovieActors.com