James Dean Told Elizabeth Taylor His Childhood Priest Sexually Abused Him, 'Shared His Deepest Pain' with Her

When James Dean became a massive movie star in 1955 with the back-to-back classics East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause, he set a new standard for iconic masculinity. And while that brooding, dangerous-but-squishy-on-the-inside schtick made women swoon and cleared the way for the emergence of rock & roll teen idols like Elvis Presley, Dean, according to age-old Hollywood lore, was secretly gay.

His sexuality is explored in depth in Jason Colavito's book Jimmy: The Secret Life of James Dean. The new biography covers the women and men who came in and out of Dean's short life — including lovers like Liz Sheridan (best known as Jerry's mother on the sitcom Seinfeld) and publicist Rogers Brackett and Hollywood rivals like Marlon Brando and Rock Hudson.

One of the more significant relationships the book addresses is the one Dean had with Elizabeth Taylor, his costar in the 1956 film Giant. According to Colavito, the two got off to a somewhat rocky start as Dean "purposely provoked Taylor early on by ignoring her."

"When she demanded to know why," Colavito writes, "she proved to him she cared, and they became fast friends. She saw him as a wounded puppy, and he saw her as sensitive, caring and (most importantly) safe."

Never romantically involved, they were more "like siblings," Colavito notes, and Taylor became a confidant to the sensitive but impenetrable star.

"They stayed up long nights talking, and Dean found that once he started to let slip bits of emotional truth, the words poured out," Colavito writes. "He told Taylor that his minister — he almost certainly meant the Reverend [James] DeWeerd — had sexually abused him, and Taylor felt that the trauma of the abuse had hurt him deeply and profoundly."

"As he shared more of his life, his loves and his pain," Colavito adds, "Taylor developed the distinct impression that Dean was trying to tell her he was gay."

Related: James Dean's Supposed Gay College Romance Will Be Explored in New Biopic

After Taylor died in 2011, writer Kevin Sessums said she had told him about the molestation during a 1997 interview for POZ magazine but made him promise it would remain off the record until after her death, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"I think that haunted him the rest of his life,” Taylor said, according to Sessums. "In fact, I know it did. We talked about it a lot. During Giant we’d stay up nights and talk and talk, and that was one of the things he confessed to me."

Taylor was well known for being an ally to the LGBTQ+ community decades before "ally" became a buzzword, and she had close friendships with closeted actors Roddy McDowall, Montgomery Clift and Rock Hudson, the latter of whom costarred with Taylor and Dean in Giant. Colavito notes that this may have made her more sympathetic to what Dean was going through as a closeted gay man in 1950s Hollywood.

"For the first time, he shared his deepest pain with someone who neither dismissed nor mocked nor blamed him," Colavito writes. "Yet even now, his discomfort and his fear prevailed. After baring his soul, he couldn't look Taylor in the eye and would sulk in silence for days, wracked with guilt or embarrassment, until he worked up the courage to share more of himself."

Dean died in a car accident in 1955 at 24, just as his star was beginning its ascent. Giant was released the following year, and Dean received his second posthumous best actor Oscar nomination for his performance in it. (His first was for East of Eden.)

"The story of James Dean is also the story of our times," Colavito writes in his book's introduction, "and there is still much to learn from one who blazed a trail forward, attempting, however imperfectly, to live a 21st-century life in the 20th century’s stifling embrace."

Jimmy: The Secret Life of James Dean is published by Rowman & Littlefield and is available wherever books are sold.

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