An excerpt from the book, The Intimate Sex Lives of Famous People,
written by Irving Wallace, Amy Wallace, David Wallechinsky, and Sylvia
Wallace:
The great debate over Jimmy Dean's sex life centers on whether he was gay, straight, or bisexual. Actually, though he dabbled in sex with both females and males, he was ambivalent sexually. One friend went so far as to say that he didn't think Dean enjoyed sex, that he only wanted to be mothered. Another said that he was asexual in his needs and drives, that acting and car racing came first.
The crushing loss of his mother seems to have infused him with a kind of little-boy quality that both women and men found very attractive. His favorite seduction technique, which he claimed never failed him, was to curl up with his head in a woman's lap and let her cuddle him. "All women want to mother you. Give them a chance to, and before you know it you're home free." By the time he was 21 he discovered that he scored most successfully with older women. Sometimes he would date a girl for sex alone, and just as often he would date a girl repeatedly without ever making advances. As with every other aspect of his life, he was capable of yo-yo emotions and behavior. When he was courting a girl, he would take her on a hair-raising motorcycle ride as a kind of initiation rite. He often went on such rides with his very close friend Eartha Kitt, who called him "Jamie."
Naturally, as the god of a death cult that fed on hysterical teenage worship, he inspired some weird rumors about his sex practices. The rumor that he was a masochist who enjoyed being burned with cigarette butts and thus was dubbed "the Human Ashtray" is completely false. Also, the fabled pornographic photos of a young man-allegedly Jimmy-sitting nude in a tree with a huge erection show no evidence of really being Dean.
The rumors of his bisexuality do have a basis, although
they are often greatly exaggerated. He probably did a bit of hustling
in his early Hollywood days, when he was practically starving, calling
his gay dates "free meal tickets." For a time he was "kept" by Rogers
Brackett, a Hollywood ex-producer, but this was probably the only real
affair he had with a man. Mostly what he did with men he did dispassionately-for
the experience, for the money, or for the connections, until he found out
the connections never came through. He told a friend, "I've had my
cock sucked by five of the big names in Hollywood, and I think it's pretty
funny, because I wanted more than anything to get some little part,
something to do, and they'd invite me for fancy dinners...." When
asked if he was gay, he replied, "Well I'm certainly not going through
life with one hand tied behind my back."