What Happened to the Stars of ‘Rebel Without a Cause’? Inside Their Deaths

James Dean

Shortly before Rebel Without a Cause’s release, Dean died in a car accident at 24 years old on Sept. 30, 1955, when he was driving his Porsche 550 Spyder to a sports car race in Salinas, Calif.

Witnesses later said a 1950 Ford Tudor turned into his path at an intersection, per History.com, and claimed Dean wasn’t speeding.

When Dean’s car was hit, he suffered massive internal injuries and a broken neck. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Paso Robles War Memorial Hospital. According to the James Dean Gallery website, over 600 mourners attended Dean’s funeral, with over 2,400 fans lining the streets before he was laid to rest in Park Cemetery, Ind.

Rebel Without a Cause came out less than a month after he died on Oct. 27, 1955, and the following year, he received a posthumous Academy Award nomination for his performance in East of Eden.

For another of his posthumously released films, Giant, he received a second Academy Award nomination. Despite his short career, Dean became an everlasting cultural icon, defining 1950s youth culture, teen rebellion and countercultural movements for years to come.

His acting style had an influence on a variety of actors, including Martin Sheen, who’s been vocal about Dean’s impact on his career.

“All of his movies had a profound effect on my life, in my work and all of my generation,” Sheen, who narrated the documentary James Dean: Forever Young, told Today in 2005. “He transcended cinema acting. It was no longer acting, it was human behavior.”

Natalie Wood

Wood received acclaim as a teen star when she received her first Academy Award nomination for Rebel Without a Cause at just 17 years old. She portrayed Judy, a popular girl who desperately seeks her father’s approval through rebellion before embracing her more self-assured side after meeting Jim.

Wood starred in acclaimed musicals like West Side Story (1961) and Gypsy (1962) and earned Academy Award nominations for her roles in Splendor in the Grass (1961) and Love with the Proper Stranger (1963). She became known as a bridge between old and new Hollywood after her performance in 1969’s acclaimed Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, as well as a 1979 Golden Globe win for her role in the miniseries From Here to Eternity.

Wood’s personal life didn’t see as much stability as her professional career — she married actor Robert Wagner in 1957 before they divorced in 1962, and she went on to have other high-profile relationships with actors Warren Beatty and Michael Caine.

She married producer Richard Gregson, with whom she had daughter Natasha, in 1969, before they divorced in 1972. Wood then remarried Wagner, with whom she had a daughter named Courtney.

In 1981, Wood died during a boat trip to Catalina Island, Calif., on her 60-foot yacht with Wagner, her Brainstorm costar Christopher Walken and their friend — and ship skipper — Dennis Davern. Wood’s death was initially ruled as an “accidental drowning,” but has now been ruled as “drowning and other undetermined factors” after a series of murky details emerged.

In 2011, Davern told authorities that Wood and Wagner had allegedly fought moments before her death — which he’d previously withheld — and the investigation was reopened. After over 100 tips, authorities cleared Wagner of any wrongdoing in 2022, saying all leads had been exhausted, but the case remains open.

Wood’s daughter, Natasha, told PEOPLE in 2024 that her mother’s impact on others looms large.

“It’s just unbelievable that there’s a relevancy to her all these years later. And that people really feel that they knew her or that they feel this protectiveness toward her,” Natasha said. “I’m proud of her that she was able to have that impact on people. Maybe it was all meant to be in some weird way. Maybe her ability to touch people is larger with her not being here on earth.”

Sal Mineo

Mineo received an Academy Award nomination for his role in Rebel Without a Cause, becoming the second youngest Academy Award nominee, before earning a second nomination for his role in the 1960 historical drama Exodus.

Part of Mineo’s legacy in his role as Plato comes from portraying an implied romantic interest in Jim, which was progressive representation for a 1950s film.

Actor Wilson Cruz cited Rebel Without a Cause as a massive influence on his life and career as a gay man portraying a gay character. He drew a parallel between both Judy and Plato crushing on Jim and Angela (Claire Danes) and Rickie (Cruz) pining after Jordan (Jared Leto) in 1994’s My So-Called Life.

“Rebel Without a Cause was a movie that I had loved growing up on, that I watched a lot, was familiar with, and I identified with the parallels pretty early on,” Cruz told PEOPLE in 2024. “You knew that Sal Mineo had a crush on James Dean, but it was never spoken about. You knew that Rickie Vasquez had a crush on Jordan Catalano, but he also honored and was sensitive to the fact that he knew how Angela felt about him.”

Mineo was in an on-and-off-again relationship with actress Jill Haworth, whom he met on the set of Exodus, for some years after the film premiered in 1960. In 1972, he confirmed his bisexuality and had a relationship with retired actor and acting coach Courtney Burr III until his shocking death at age 37 on Feb. 12, 1976.

That night, as Mineo was returning home from a play rehearsal for P.S. Your Cat is Dead at roughly 10:00 p.m., he was stabbed in the heart outside his West Hollywood apartment, per The New York Times. Mineo’s neighbors heard his cries for help and found him bleeding profusely before he succumbed to his injuries.

While there was much speculation over who killed Mineo, pizza deliveryman Lionel Ray Williams was convicted and received 51 years in prison for murdering Mineo and committing 10 robberies, per the Los Angeles Sentinel.

Despite the conviction, Williams continues to assert his innocence.