No more than a promising actor with a handful of films to his name when he died in 1955, James Dean has since been elevated to an iconic status surpassed only by Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe. And his image — a blend of '50s cool and tough-guy charm — has been vigorously marketed in the race to cash in on a legend that, forty years later, shows no sign of abating.

But until now, no serious biography has looked beyond the studio-manufactured cliches to the volatile polarities of this complex star. Was he bisexual or gay? A neurotic con-man or a lost boy trying to find himself? And to what extent did his sexuality fire his performances?

Drawing on many new and documented sources, and featuring previously unpublished photographs, Paul Alexander's revisionist and passionate biography will explode many people's myths about a rare acting genius.