Dean was born February 8, 1931, in Marion, Indiana, but his family moved to Los Angeles when he was very young. At the age of nine, his mother died and his father sent him back to Indiana to be raised by his aunt and uncle.

Dean always wanted to make it in show business. He majored in theater at UCLA, starring in the school's production of "Macbeth." He dropped out after just a year to pursue an acting career.

Dean landed his first professional acting job as an extra in a Pepsi commercial. He did two shots, one of which featured him dancing around a jukebox.

Dean landed an uncredited role in "Fixed Bayonets!" in 1951. Four more uncredited roles followed, until he landed his first major film role in 1955.

James Dean may be a Hollywood legend, but he starred in only three movies, starting with "East of Eden" in 1955. His other two films, "Rebel Without a Cause" and "Giant," came out later in 1955 and 1956, respectively.

"East of Eden," Dean's first film, was based on a novel by John Steinbeck. The author himself approved of Dean's appearance in the film.

It's hard to believe these days, but Dean received top billing in only a single film -- "Rebel Without a Cause."

James Dean played Caleb Trask, who believes his father favors his brother, in "East of Eden." The tale of two feuding brothers shares a resemblance with Cain and Abel from the Bible.

Caleb makes his fortune by bean farming, a lucrative profession with WWI on the horizon. He borrows the money from his estranged mother to start his business.

Dean died just shy of a month before "Rebel Without a Cause" -- his most famous film -- was released on October 29, 1955. Imagine the headlines if a top-billed star died right before a movie release today, and you can understand how the news hit fans of James Dean.

Natalie Wood played Judy in the film, opposite Dean as Jim Stark and Sal Mineo as Plato.

Buzz Gunderson picks a fight with Jim at the Griffith Observatory, leading Jim to win the battle and Buzz to demand a rematch.

Buzz challenges Jim to a game of chicken, leading both men to drive stolen cars towards a cliff. Jim jumps out and survives, but Buzz gets stuck in the car and dies.

Both Natalie Wood's character Judy and James Dean's character Jim survive the film, while Plato is shot near the Observatory.

Dean played a dirt farmer named Jett Rink who falls for a socialite in the 1956 epic western "Giant."

"Giant" was a star-packed movie, with James Dean as Jett, Elizabeth Taylor as Leslie Benedict and Rock Hudson as Bick Benedict.

When Bick's sister, Luz, is thrown from a horse named War Winds, she dies, leaving Jett his very own piece of land nearby. This frustrates Bick, who tries to buy the land back from Jett.

Jett's luck gets even better after he inherits land from Luz in "Giant." Once he settles in on the land, which he names Little Reata, he strikes oil, and ends up a wealthy man.

James Dean became the first male actor to earn a posthumous Oscar nomination for Best Actor when he was nominated for "East of Eden." He earned a BAFTA nomination for his work in "Rebel Without a Cause."

Dean was a huge fan of auto racing and often went to races in his spare time. He was heading to a race in Salinas, California, when he was killed in a car crash on September 30, 1955.

Dean may have gotten all the attention, but he wasn't alone in his car when he crashed. His mechanic, who was riding with him, survived the crash -- and so did the driver of the car that Dean crashed into.

It's no secret that Dean liked fast cars. In fact, he received a speeding ticket just two hours before he was involved in the car crash that ended his life.

Dean had nicknamed the Porsche 550 Spyder "Little Bastard." The car toured the country until 1960, but its location is not known for certain today.

Dean lost his front teeth while playing on a trapeze in the barn on his aunt and uncle's property. He wore fake front teeth for the rest of his life.

Dean was just 24 when he died on September 30, 1955.

Dean was involved in relationships with plenty of women, but several men have stepped forward since his death to claim that Dean was also involved in homosexual relationships, leading some biographers to characterize him as bisexual.

Sheridan played Jerry's mom on "Seinfeld." In 2000, she published a memoir about her love affair with James Dean in the 1950s, "Dizzy & Jimmy: My Life with James Dean: A Love Story."

Despite his cool image, Dean was quite the athlete in high school. He excelled at track, baseball and basketball, and broke local records in the pole vault.

Despite the fact that he was estranged from his father, and his aunt and uncle were the ones who raised him, Dean's entire estate went to his father after the star died without a will in place.

Before he was a movie star, James Dean took a job on the game show "Beat the Clock." His role was to test stunts, but he was fired because he was so quick at completing the stunts that he couldn't provide producers with realistic times for actual contestants.