| Sal Mineo | |
|---|---|
| Born | Salvatore Mineo, Jr. January 10, 1939 The Bronx, New York, United States |
| Died | February 12, 1976 (aged 37) West Hollywood, California, United States |
| Other names | The Switchblade Kid[1] |
| Website | |
| http://www.salmineo.com | |
Salvatore "Sal" Mineo, Jr. (January 10, 1939 – February 12, 1976),[2] was an American film and theatre actor, best known for his performance as John "Plato" Crawford opposite James Dean in the film Rebel Without a Cause.[3] He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor on two occasions; once for his role in Rebel Without a Cause, and also for his role as Dov Landau in Exodus.
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Mineo was born in The Bronx, the son of Sicilian coffin makers. His mother enrolled him in dancing and acting school at an early age.[4] He had his first stage appearance in The Rose Tattoo (1951),[3] a play by Tennessee Williams. He also played the young prince opposite Yul Brynner in the stage musical The King and I. Brynner took the opportunity to help a young Mineo better himself as an actor.[1]
As a teenager, Mineo appeared on ABC's musical quiz program Jukebox Jury, which aired in the 1953-1954 season. Mineo made several television appearances before making his screen debut in 1955 in the Joseph Pevney film Six Bridges to Cross. He beat out Clint Eastwood to the role.[5] Mineo had also successfully auditioned for a part in The Private War of Major Benson as a cadet colonel opposite Charlton Heston.[6]
His breakthrough then came in Rebel Without a Cause,[3] in which he played John "Plato" Crawford, the sensitive teenager smitten with Jim Stark (played by James Dean). His performance resulted in an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor, and his popularity quickly developed.[1] Mineo's biographer, Paul Jeffers, recounted that Mineo received thousands of letters from young female fans, was mobbed by them at public appearances and further wrote, "He dated the most beautiful women in Hollywood and New York."[7]
Mineo played a Mexican boy in Giant (1956), but many of his subsequent roles were variations of his role in Rebel Without a Cause, and he was typecast as a troubled teen.[8] In the Disney adventure Tonka, for instance, Mineo starred as a young Sioux named White Bull who traps and domesticates a clear-eyed, spirited wild horse named "Tonka" who becomes the famous Comanche.
In Multiculturalism and the Mouse: Race and Sex in Disney Entertainment (2006), Douglas Brode states that the casting of Mineo as White Bull again "ensured a homosexual subtext". By the late 1950s the actor was a major celebrity, sometimes referred to as the "Switchblade Kid"—a nickname he earned from his role as a criminal in the movie Crime in the Streets.[1]
In 1957, Mineo made a brief foray into pop music by recording a handful of songs and an album. Two of his singles reached the Top 40 in the United States Billboard Hot 100.[9] The more popular of the two, "Start Movin' (In My Direction)", reached #9 on Billboard's pop chart. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc.[10] He starred as drummer Gene Krupa in the movie The Gene Krupa Story, directed by Don Weis with Susan Kohner, James Darren and Susan Oliver.
Mineo made an effort to break his typecasting. His acting ability and exotic good looks earned him roles as a Native American boy in Tonka, and as a Jewish emigrant in Otto Preminger's Exodus, for which he won a Golden Globe Award and received another Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor.
By the early 1960s, he was becoming too old to play the type of role that had made him famous and was not considered appropriate for leading roles. He auditioned for David Lean's film Lawrence of Arabia but was not hired.[4] Mineo was baffled by his sudden loss of popularity, later saying "One minute it seemed I had more movie offers than I could handle, the next, no one wanted me." He did appear on The Patty Duke Show in its second season (1964). The episode was called "Patty Meets a Celebrity". There are stories he attempted to revive his career by camping out on the front lawn of Francis Ford Coppola's home for a chance to win the role of Fredo in The Godfather, but the role went to John Cazale.
His role as a stalker in Who Killed Teddy Bear?, co-starring Juliet Prowse, did not seem to help. Although his performance was praised by critics, he found himself typecast anew, now as a deranged criminal. (He never entirely escaped this; one of his last roles was a guest spot on the 1975 TV series S.W.A.T. playing a Charles Manson-like cult leader.) He returned to the stage to produce the 1971 gay-themed Fortune and Men's Eyes (starring Don Johnson). This play gathered positive reviews in Los Angeles but was panned during its New York run, and its expanded prison rape scene was criticized as excessive and gratuitous. A small role in Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) as the chimpanzee Dr. Milo was Mineo's last appearance in a motion picture. In 1973, Mineo appeared as Rachman Habib, assistant to the president of a Middle Eastern country, in the episode "A Case of Immunity" on the NBC crime drama Columbo. He also appeared in two episodes of Hawaii Five-O, in 1968 and 1975.
In the late 1960s, Mineo became one of the first major actors in Hollywood to publicly acknowledge his homosexuality.[11]
By 1976, Mineo's career had begun to turn around.[12] Playing the role of a bisexual burglar in a series of stage performances of the comedy P.S. Your Cat Is Dead in San Francisco, Mineo received substantial publicity from many positive reviews, and he moved to Los Angeles along with the play. Arriving home after a rehearsal on February 12, 1976, Mineo was stabbed to death in the alley behind his apartment building in West Hollywood, California.[13] He was 37 years old. Mineo was stabbed just once, not repeatedly as first reported, but the knife blade struck his heart, leading to immediate and fatal internal bleeding.[14] Mineo's remains were interred in the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York.[15]
After a lengthy investigation pizza deliveryman Lionel Ray Williams was arrested for the crime. In March 1979 he was convicted and sentenced to 57 years in prison for killing Mineo and for committing 10 robberies in the same area.[16] Although there was considerable confusion as to what witnesses had seen in the darkness on the night Mineo was murdered, it was later revealed that prison guards had overheard Williams admitting to the stabbing.[12] Williams had claimed that he had no idea who Mineo was. Rumors that the attack was in response to Mineo soliciting Williams for sex were unfounded.[11] There has been speculation that Williams is connected to the unsolved murder of actress Christa Helm, who was murdered in the same neighborhood in a strikingly similar way, one year later on the very same day.[17] Williams was not arrested until after the murder of Helm.
Williams was paroled in the early 1990s, but he was imprisoned again soon for criminal activity.[4]
Sal Mineo was the model for Harold Stevenson's painting The New Adam. The painting is currently part of Guggenheim Museum's permanent collection,[18] and is considered "one of the great American nudes".[19]
Mineo's career included involvement with opera. On May 8, 1954, he portrayed the Page (lip-synching to the voice of mezzo-soprano Carol Jones) in the NBC Opera Theatre's production of Richard Strauss' Salome (in English translation), set to Oscar Wilde's play. Elaine Malbin performed the title role, and Peter Herman Adler conducted Kirk Browning's production.
In December 1972, Mineo stage directed Gian Carlo Menotti's The Medium,[20] in Detroit. Muriel Costa-Greenspon portrayed the title character, Madame Flora, and Mineo himself played the mute Toby.
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1955 | Six Bridges to Cross | Jerry (boy) | Screen debut |
| 1955 | The Private War of Major Benson | Cadet Col. Sylvester Dusik | |
| 1955 | Rebel Without a Cause | John "Plato" Crawford | Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor |
| 1956 | Crime in the Streets | Angelo "Baby" Gioia, a.k.a. Bambino | |
| 1956 | Somebody Up There Likes Me | Romolo | |
| 1956 | Giant | Angel Obregón II | |
| 1956 | Rock, Pretty Baby | Angelo Barrato | |
| 1957 | Dino | Dino Minetta | |
| 1957 | The Young Don't Cry | Leslie "Les" Henderson | |
| 1958 | Tonka | White Bull | |
| 1959 | A Private's Affair | Luigi Maresi | |
| 1959 | The Gene Krupa Story | Gene Krupa | |
| 1960 | Exodus | Dov Landau | Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor |
| 1962 | Escape from Zahrain | Ahmed | |
| 1962 | The Longest Day | Pvt. Martini | |
| 1964 | Cheyenne Autumn | Red Shirt | |
| 1965 | The Greatest Story Ever Told | Uriah | |
| 1965 | Who Killed Teddy Bear | Lawrence Sherman | |
| 1967 | Stranger on the Run | George Blaylock | |
| 1969 | Krakatoa, East of Java | Leoncavallo Borghese | |
| 1969 | 80 Steps to Jonah | Jerry Taggart | |
| 1971 | Escape from the Planet of the Apes | Dr. Milo |
Jeffers, H. Paul. Sal Mineo: His Life, Murder, and Mystery, Running Press, 2002.
Michaud, Michael Gregg. Sal Mineo: A Biography, Harmony, 2010.
Official Website http://www.salmineo.com
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