Dean Jeffries

Edward Dean Jeffries (February 25, 1933 – May 5, 2013) was an American custom vehicle designer, fabricator, stuntman and stunt coordinator for motion pictures and television programs based in Los Angeles, California.^[1]

Early life

Jeffries was born to Viola Irene (née Allison) and Edward James Jeffries in Osage, Iowa.^[2][3] After the family moved to Compton, California, Jeffries grew up in Compton and then neighboring Lynwood, California, where his father was a mechanic.^[4] He was the middle child, born between older sister Darlene Ann (b.May 18, 1931, Osage, Iowa-^[2]) and younger sister Evonne Mae (b.December 2, 1935, in Osage, Iowa).^[2][3] A brother, James Eddie, was born December 2, 1935, in Osage, a twin to Evonne, but died the next day.^[2][5]

Jeffries served in the United States Army during the Korean War, stationed in Germany.^[4] While in Germany he saw fellow soldiers and locals custom painting their motorcycles, and this led him to pinstriping.^[4] As a young man, after returning from Germany, he started doing pinstriping on the side, while working as a grinder in a machine shop. As the striping took off he opened a custom pinstriping shop that would became famous with the Hollywood film industry.

Career

A neighbor of Jeffries, race car driver Troy Ruttman befriended him, and they worked on cars together.^[6] After Ruttman joined with J. C. Agajanian, the Indianapolis 500 race team and Ascot Speedway owner, Agajanian hired Jeffries to stripe and letter his cars in 1953.^[7]

Actor James Dean was one of his early customers, and Jeffries painted "Little Bastard" on the Porsche 550 Spyder that Dean owned. Jeffries recalled the day in September, 1955: "Jimmy knew that I was a pinstriper and had met me through Lance Reventlow and Bruce Kessler. He drove to my Lynwood shop in his new 550 and asked me to paint a temporary number 130 on the front hood, rear deck lid, and both doors of the Spyder in flat black, washable paint. He also asked me to paint "Little Bastard" on the tail section in the same font script. I painted it with One Shot, a gloss black enamel paint, as this would be permanent. It turned out great. Jimmy thought that the "Little Bastard" looked so cool across the bottom of the tail section."^[8]

As an extra reward for working on his cars, and to have him on hand there, Agajanian took Jeffries to the 1952 Indy 500. Noticing his unusual painting and pinstriping style, Mobil Oil hired him in the following years to paint many of the Indy race cars. It was free to the teams and Mobil got their logo somewhere on the car. Jeffries would paint and pinstripe the cars and helmets of race car drivers like Jim Rathmann, Parnelli Jones, and A. J. Foyt, and became Foyt's paint and body man.^[9] After that, in 1962, he worked for famous race car designer and builder Carroll Shelby on the Cobra.^[6] He would go on to become one of the best custom car painters of the late 1950s and early 1960s, and an early pioneer of painting flames on cars.^[10][11] He also developed his own paint, Jeffries Indy Pearl.^[10]

Jeffries was a certified welder and custom-built vehicles used in numerous Hollywood productions through his company, Dean Jeffries Automotive Styling, a.k.a. Jeffries Automotive Styling, at 3077 Cahuenga Boulevard West, in Los Angeles.^[4]

He began custom fabrication in the 1960s and built the Mantaray (from Bikini Beach; 1963),^[6] Black Beauty (from the The Green Hornet),^[12] the Monkeemobile,^[13] the Landmaster from Damnation Alley; (1977),^[14] the moon buggy (that James Bond steals in Diamonds Are Forever), the trolley (from Who Framed Roger Rabbit?).^[4] Jeffries is also an expert on dune buggies, produced his own models, and has contributed to books about them.^[15] He did all of the custom fabrication work on the movie Convoy in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he rented the shop from Burns Truck & Parts.

Jeffries worked on the design and initial fabrication for the Batmobile (for the 1966 Batman TV series), but when the studio wanted the car sooner than he could deliver, he turned the project over to George Barris who hired Bill Cushenbery to perform the fabrication work.^[4]

In 1992, a Green Hornet enthusiast, purchased the "number one" Black Beauty from the former transportation director of Twentieth Century Fox for the sum of US$5000 and commissioned Jeffries to restore the car; two cars had been built for the series and Goodman's was the primary car. Although the vehicle was in perfect mechanical condition with the original custom wheels and most body modifications as used in the show, and had logged only 17,000 miles (27,000 km) since new, it was severely weathered and in need of a full cosmetic restoration. Despite numerous legal bouts between Jeffries and Goodman over cost overruns and rights to the "Black Beauty" name and likeness, Jeffries eventually restored the car to its current condition, albeit series incorrect. While the rocket launcher panels on the trunk lid had been welded shut, requiring replacement of the body panel in order to make the system functional again, the flip-down green headlights were intact, less their drive motor, which was discovered under the hood after Goodman took delivery of the car. The car was sold to movie prop collector Louis Ringe in 1999. The Black Beauty is currently part of the Petersen Automotive Museum collection; The "Number Two" Black Beauty has been completely restored to its appearance as seen in the television series. It resides in a private collection in South Carolina and is available for shows and displays.

In 2001 the Cruisin' Hall of Fame inducted Jeffries as a member.^[9]

Personal life

Jeffries married Judy Darlene Maxson (born July 23, 1940) in c.1959,^[16] daughter of Helen C. (née Markley) and Darwin Bashor Maxson. Judy's father, Darwin, would become a racing partner with Dean, forming Maxson Jeffries Racing. Dean and Judy had one son, Kevin Dean (born November 24, 1960-^[16][17]), but divorced in April 1971.^[18]

While working on the Warner Bros. lot he met and later married Rosalee "Row" Berman in Los Angeles on October 17, 1982.^[19] Rosalee was an executive and associate producer for the studio. Row, who was born July 20, 1941, died after a long illness on August 11, 2008, in Los Angeles at the age of 67.^[20]

Jeffries died in his sleep May 5, 2013, at home in Hollywood. He was 80 and had been in declining health.^[21][22][23]

Television (Car Customizer)

• The Green Hornet - Car Designer for The Black Beauty - 26 episodes (uncredited) (1967)
• The Monkees - monkee mobile stylist - 58 episodes (1966-1968)

Misc./Stunt Man

• Chesty Anderson U.S. Navy - stunt driver (1976)
• The Blues Brothers - stunt man (1980)
• Romancing the Stone - stunt man (1984)
• The Rookie - stunt man (1990)
• The Fugitive - stunt man (1993)
• Die Hard: With a Vengeance - stunt man (1995)
• The Black Beauty - Video featurette - Himself (2000)
• TV's Greatest Cars - TV Movie documentary - Himself (2004)
• TV Land's Top Ten - episode - Top 10 TV Cars - Himself (2004)
• American Icon: The Hot Rod - episode - Through a Windshield Darkly: Innovation in the 1960s - Himself (2010)
• American Icon: The Hot Rod - episode - Making the Scene: Hot Rod Culture and the Rise of Customizing - Himself (2010)

References

Further reading

• Cotter, Tom; (with Bruce Meyer) (2009), Dean Jeffries: 50 Fabulous Years in Hot Rods, Racing & Film, MotorBooks International, ISBN 978-0-7603-3346-4 

External links

• Official website
• Dean Jeffries at the Internet Movie Database
• Dean Jeffries at the Internet Movie Database
• Official Black Beauty site