Television
"Hill Number One," Family Theatre (Easter special, broadcast on all stations nationwide), 25 March 1951. Cast: James Dean as John the Beloved; also Regis Toomey, Gene Lockhart, Joan Leslie, Ruth Hussey. Director: Arthur Pierson. Producer: Father Patrick Peyton. Writer: James D. Roche.
"T.K.O.", Bigelow Theatre (Dumont), 29 October 1951. Cast: James Dean, Martin Milner, Jack Bernardi, Carey Loftin. Director and Producer: Frank Woodruff. Writer: Ted Thomas.
"Into the Valley," CBS Television Workshop (CBS), 27 January 1952. Cast: James Dean as a G.I.; also George Tyne, Robert Baines, Michael Higgins, John Compton. Director: Curt Conway. Producer: Norris Houghton. Story: John Hersey. Adaptation: Mel Goldberg.
"Sleeping Dogs," The Web (CBS), 20 February 1952. Cast: James Dean as a boy trying to solve his brother's murder; also Anne Jackson, E.G. Marshall, Robert Simon, Nancy Cushman. Director: Lela Swift. Producer: Franklin Heller. Writer: Marie Baumer.
"Ten Thousand Horses Singing," Studio One (CBS), 3 March 1952. Cast: James Dean as a bellhop; also John Forsythe, Catherine McLeod, Vaughn Taylor, Joe Morass. Director: Paul Nickell. Producer: Worthington Minor. Writer: Karl Tunberg.
"The Foggy, Foggy Dew," Lux Video Theatre (CBS), 17 March 1952. Cast: James Dean as Kyle McCallum; also James Barton, Muriel Kirkland, Richard Bishop. Director and Producer: Richard Goode. Writer: J. Albert Hirsch.
"Abraham Lincoln," Studio One (CBS), 26 May 1952. Cast: James Dean as court-martialed soldier William Scott; also Robert Pastene. Director: Paul Nickell. Producer: Donald Davis. Story: John Drinkwater. Adaptation: David Shaw.
"The Forgotten Children," Hallmark Hall of Fame (NBC), 22 June 1952. Cast: James Dean as Bradford; also Cloris Leachman, Nancy Malone, Don McHenry, Lee Lindsey. Director and Producer: William Corrigan. Writer: Agnes Eckhardt.
"The Hound of Heaven," short dramatic presentation on The Kate Smith Hour (NBC), 15 January 1953. Cast: James Dean as an angelic messenger; also John Carradine, Edgar Stehli. Director: Alan Neuman. Producer unknown. Writer: Earl Hamner, Jr.
"The Case of the WatchFul Dog," Treasury Men in Action (NBC), 29 January 1953. Cast: James Dean as Randy Meeker; also Crahan Denton, Dorothy Elder, Thom Carney, John Fecher, Biff Elliot. Director: Daniel Petrie. Producer: Robert Sloane. Writer: Albert Aley.
"The Killing of Jesse James," You Are There (CBS), 8 February 1953. Cast: James Dean as Bob Ford; also Walter Cronkite, John Kerr, Helen Warnow, Addison Powell, James Westerfield, Carl Frank. Director: Sidney Lumet. Producer: Charles W. Russell. Writer: Leslie Slate.
"No Room," Danger (CBS), 14 April 1953. Cast: James Dean, Martin Kingsley, Irene Vernon, Kate Smith. Director and Producer unknown. Writer: Mary Stern.
"The Case of the Sawed-Off Shotgun," Treasury Men in Action (NBC), 16 April 1953. Cast: James Dean as Arbie Ferris; also Joseph Downing, Anita Anton, Coe Norton, Humphrey Davis, Ben Gazzara. Director: David Pressman. Producer: Mort Abrahams. Writer: Albert Aley.
"The Evil Within," Tales of Tomorrow (ABC), 1 May 1953. Cast: James Dean as lab assistant Ralph; also Rod Steiger, Margaret Phillips. Director: Don Medford. Producer: Mort Abrahams. Writer: Manya Starr.
"Something for an Empty Briefcase," Campbell Soundstage (NBC), 17 July 1953. Cast: James Dean as ex-convict Joe Adams; also Susan Douglas, Frank Maxwell, Robert Middleton, Don Hamner. Director: Don Medford. Producer: Martin Horrell. Writer: S. Lee Pogostin.
"Sentence of Death," Summer Studio One (CBS), 17 August 1953. Cast: James Dean as death row prisoner Joe Palica; also Betsy Palmer, Gene Lyons, Ralph Dunn, Virginia Vincent, Barnet Biro. Director: Matthew Harlib. Producer: John Haggott. Story: Thomas Walsh. Adaptation: Adrian Spies.
"Death is My Neighbor," Danger (CBS), 25 August 1953. Cast: James Dean as psychotic janitor JB; also Walter Hampden, Betsy Palmer, Frank Marth, Andrew Duggan. Director: John Peyser. Producer: Franklin Heller. Writer: Frank Gregory.
"Rex Newman," The Big Story (NBC), 11 September 1953. Cast: James Dean, John Kerr, Carl Frank, Wendy Drew, Donald McKee, Ken Walken. Director: Stuart Rosenberg. Producer: Robert Lewis Shayon. Writer: Alvin Boretz.
"Glory in Flower," Omnibus (CBS), 4 October 1953. Cast: James Dean as Bronco Evans; also Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, Mark Rydell, Ed Binns, Frank McHugh. Director: Andrew McCullough. Producer: Fred Rickey. Writer: William Inge.
"Keep Our Honor Bright," Kraft Television Theatre (NBC), 14 October 1953. Cast: James Dean as Jim; also Joan Potter, Michael Higgins, Larry Fletcher, Addison Richards, Bradford Dillman. Director and Producer: Maury Holland. Writer: George Roy Hill.
"Life Sentence," Campbell Soundstage (NBC), 16 October 1953. Cast: James Dean as imprisoned felon Hank Bradon; also Georgann Johnson, Nicholas Saunders, Matt Crowley, Charles Mendick. Director: Garry Simpson. Producer: Martin Horrell. Story: Margaret Kleckner. Adaptation: S. Lee Pogostin.
"A Long Time Till Dawn," Kraft Television Theatre (NBC), 11 November 1953. Cast: James Dean as Joe Harris; also Naomi Riordan, Ted Osborn, Robert Simon, Rudolph Weiss. Director and Producer: Richard Dunlap. Writer: Rod Serling.
"The Bells of Cockaigne," Armstrong Circle Theatre (NBC), 17 November 1953. Cast: James Dean as stevedore Joey Frasier; also Gene Lockhart, Donalee Marans, Vaughn Taylor, Karl Lucas. Director: James Sheldon. Producer: Hudson Faussett. Writer: George Lowther.
"Harvest," Robert Montgomery Presents (NBC), 23 November 1953. Cast: James Dean as Paul Zelenka; also Dorothy Gish, Ed Begley, Reba Tassell, Vaughn Taylor, John Dennis, John Connell. Director: James Sheldon. Producer: Robert Montgomery. Writer: Sandra Michael.
"The Little Woman," Danger (CBS), 30 March 1954. Cast: James Dean as Augie, a counterfeiter on the lam; also Lydia Reed, Frank Maxwell, Albert Salmi, Lee Bergere. Director and Producer: Andrew McCullough. Writer: Joe Scully.
"Run Like a Thief," Philco Television Playhouse (NBC), 5 September 1954. Cast: James Dean as Rob; also Kurt Kasznar, Gusti Huber, Ward Costello, Barbara O'Neill. Director: Jeffrey Hayden. Producer: Gordon Duff. Writer: Sam Hall.
"Padlock," Danger (CBS), 9 November 1954. Cast: James Dean as an escaped felon; also Mildred Dunnock, David Hardison, Ken Konopha. Director and Producer unknown. Writer: Louis Peterson.
"I'm a Fool," General Electric Theatre (CBS), 14 November 1954. Cast: James Dean as a racetrack stableboy; also Eddie Albert, Natalie Wood, Roy Glenn. Director: Don Medford. Producer: Mort Abrahams. Story: Sherwood Anderson. Adaptation: Arnold Shulman.
"The Dark, Dark Hour," General Electric Theatre (CBS), 12 December 1954. Cast: James Dean as a "hepcat" killer; also Ronald Reagan, Constance Ford, Jack Simmons. Director: Don Medford. Producer: Mort Abraghams. Writer: Arthur Steuer.
"The Thief," U.S. Steel Hour (ABC), 4 January 1955. Cast: James Dean as Fernand Legarde; also Mary Astor, Paul Lukas, Diana Lynn, Patric Knowles, Nehemiah Persoff. Director: Vincent J. Donehue. Producer: The Theatre Guild. Story: Henri Bernstein. Adaptation: Arthue Arent.
"The Unlighted Road," Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
(CBS), 6 May 1955. Cast: James Dean as Korean War veteran Jeff Latham;
also Pat Hardy, Mervyn Vye, Edgar Stehli. Director: Justus Addis.
Producer: William Self. Writer: Walter C. Brown.
-Because of the haphazard and incomplete nature of record-keeping in the "Golden Age of Television," a definitive James Dean videography may never be achieved. Other appearances by Dean, mostly minor, for which only incomplete documentation exists, are as follows:
"Jackie Knows All," The Trouble with Father, 1951. Cast: James Dean, Martin Milner.
Various episodes, Mama (CBS), circa January 1952. Cast: James Dean as Nels's friend (and possibly Nels in one episode); also Dick Van Patten, Rosemary Rice, Peggy Wood, Judson Laire.
Unknown episode, Suspense (CBS), 1952. Director: Robert Stevens.
Interview to promote East of Eden, preceding "Life of Emile Zola," Lux Video Theatre (NBC), 10 March 1955.
Dean made at least two television commercials, the first produced by
Ben Alcock of the Milton Biow Agency for Pepsi, in the winter of 1950-51.
The other was a highway safety spot with Gig Young, filmed 29 July 1955
on the Giant set.
Stage (Broadway)
See the Jaguar by N. Richard Nash; opened 3 December 1952, Cort Theater. Cast: James Dean as Wally Wilkins; also Arthur Kennedy, Constance Ford, Phillip Pine, Arthur Batanides, Dane Knell, Margaret Barker, Roy Fant, Florence Sundstrom. Director: Michael Gordon. Producers: Lemuel Ayers and Florence Jacobson. Incidental music: Alec Wilder.
The Immoralist, adapted from the novel by Andre
Gide by Ruth and Augustus Goetz; opened 8 February 1954, Royale Theater.
Cast: James Dean as Bachir; also Geraldine Page, Louis Jordan, David J.
Stewart, Charles Dingle, Adelaide Klein, Bill Gunn, Vivian Matalon (Philadelphia
only). Director: Daniel Mann. Producer: Billy Rose.
Stage (Off-Broadway, etc.)
End As a Man by Calder Willingham; workshop performances 10 and 17 May and 11 June 1953, Actors Studio. Cast: James Dean in a nonspeaking role as a scribe; also Ben Gazzara, Arthur Storch, Williams Smithers, Albert Salmi, Anthony Franciosa, Peter Mark Richman. Director: Jack Garfein.
The Scarecrow by Percy Mackaye; opened 16 June 1953, Theatre de Lys. Cast: James Dean as the Scarecrow's mirror image; also Patricia Neal, Douglas Watson, Elli Wallach, Anne Jackson, Bradford Dillman. Director: Frank Corsaro. Producer Terese Hayden. (Dean did not participate in the two-week reprise of The Scarecrow beginning 7 July 1953.)
The Fell Swoop by Jonathan Bates; rehearsed reading 23 June 1953, Palm Garden. Cast: James Dean; remainder unknown. Director: Sherwood Arthur. Producer: New Dramatics Workshop.
Trachiniae (Women of Trachis) by Sophocles and translated by Ezra Pound; rehearsed reading 14 February 1954, New School of Social Research. Cast: James Dean as Herakles' son; also Anne Jackson, Eli Wallach, Adelaide Klein, Earle Montgomery, Joseph Sullivan. Director unknown.