Short-Lived Stardom Quotes

I like the legend behind him. James Dean symbolizes the young actor's dream. He struggled to get into Hollywood. He shot to fame at the age of 24 but only got to star in three films. It's kind of a fantasy of what could have been.

I don't think Hollywood was trying to do anything with me. In fact, they lost interest pretty quick. I think I got lucky, briefly, in the '90s, and it just so happened that those movies were the opportunities that came my way. Then it just kind of stopped.

I can't think of another actor who acquired stardom so quickly, who held it for such a short time, and then kept it for such a long time. James Dean became a star in one calendar year, and then he left us. But he's still being talked about, he's still being revered, he's still being iconized forty years later. I don't think there's another example like it in the entire history of movies.

Although charismatic, James Dean is no Harrison Ford. In the majority of his movies, sooner or later he got the crap beaten out of him.

There are people who appear in the magazines and I don't know who they are. I've never seen anything they've done and their careers are over already. They're famous for maybe 10 minutes. Real careers, I think, take a long time to unfold.

Anybody whose film becomes a hit is a superstar. Today there is somebody, and tomorrow there will be somebody else. No single woman or man has a monopoly for all time.

If you're famous for being famous, that's usually a four-year career.

James Dean was always a tortured soul.

Young Jimmy Dean fell off the world as suddenly as he had come.

There are a lot of actors out there who've made one or two films and who never work again.

A pop star's career lasts 18 months.