James Dean confessed to Elizabeth Taylor that he had been sexually abused by his childhood Methodist preacher – and is now believed to have lost his virginity to the man from the local town called ‘Dr Weird’.
Rev. James DeWeerd arrived in Fairmount, Indiana, when Dean was still a teenager.
The boy, who was essentially an outsider, had lost his mother to cancer when he was just nine, and his father—unable (or unwilling) to care for his son—had sent him to Fairmount to be with his son. Quaker aunt and uncle to live. their hardscrabble farm.
DeWeerd, on the other hand – fifteen years older than Dean – seemed cultured and worldly in the eyes of the locals. A former army chaplain, he had studied in England for a while, knew Winston Churchill and spoke knowledgeably about art, literature and music.
He too, according to Jimmy: The Secret Life of James Dean by Jason Colavito, had a penchant for teenage boys.
Under the guise of offering spiritual guidance to these young, impressionable teens, he took them to the YMCA, visited museums and allegedly asked them to swim naked with him.
“No boy ever accused the pastor of any wrongdoing,” Colavito writes, “but decades later, some townspeople looked back and wondered.”
Colavito continues, “Dean was drawn to DeWeerd, the most worldly and refined man he had ever met and someone he believed understood him better than most.
It is believed that Dean lost his virginity to the man local townspeople called ‘Dr Weird’
In a 1997 interview, Elizabeth Taylor talked about Dean’s confessions to her while on the set of the movie Giant.
‘DeWeerd was happy to accommodate this because he saw in Dean the only boy in town who could truly appreciate the higher parts of the culture. A friendly relationship quickly developed.’
The couple dined together and discussed philosophy and poetry for hours in the large house the minister shared with his mother, a house full of antiques and curiosities, surrounded by lush flower beds.
De Weerd’s influence is said to have fueled Dean’s passion for theater, car racing and bullfighting.
“Jimmy was usually happiest stretched out on the floor of my library, reading Shakespeare or other books of his choice,” the pastor says. ‘He liked good music playing softly in the background. Tchaikovsky was his favorite.’
But as Colavito notes, the older man was also known for his intense preaching style and fundamentalist religious views.
Dean, wracked with grief and self-loathing, poured his heart out to his mentor. “He feared that he was evil, that God had punished him for his evil by taking his mother and driving away his father, and that if anyone knew how evil he must be inside, no one would ever love him.”
De Weerd’s advice was harsh, to say the least.
“I taught Jim that he was depraved and mean, that he had to seek redemption,” he said.
Dean (photographed as a boy), plagued by self-loathing, poured out his heart to his mentor. DeWeerd (right) taught ‘Jim that he was wicked and vile, that he had to seek redemption’
James Dean was an outcast at school, having been sent to Fairmount after losing his mother to cancer
Giant was Dean’s last film; his co-star Rock Hudson is one of his rumors
“The nature of Dean’s evil remained between him and DeWeerd,” Colavito writes, “but those who knew Dean felt that DeWeerd’s words alluded to sex.”
Dean grew increasingly close to the minister over the past two years of high school, and long after his untimely death in a car accident at age 24 – just as he was on the cusp of becoming a star – the press stories suggest their relationship had become sexual around this time.
In his 1994 book Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Paul Alexander wrote: “In all likelihood, Jimmy lost his virginity to DeWeerd.”
“It started, so the story went, with some touching during rides in DeWeerd’s convertible,” says Colavito, “and these touching evolved into more sexual intimacies.
“Dean alluded to this only once, years later, when, in a rare unguarded moment late at night, he admitted that his minister had abused him.”
In a 1997 interview, Elizabeth Taylor talked about Dean’s confessions to her while on the set of the movie Giant – Dean’s last film. But she made the writer promise that the information would remain out of the public domain until after her death.
“Whatever had happened, the two had become emotionally intimate in a way that both recognized should remain private. Neither man spoke publicly about their relationship during Dean’s lifetime,” Colavito wrote.
‘DeWeerd would soon achieve national fame as an evangelist and radio and television preacher, and he had no desire to provoke unwanted questions.’
Dean, for his part, always denied that he was gay, saying, “I’m not gay. But I also won’t go through life with one hand tied behind my back.’
In doing so, he tacitly acknowledged that he enjoyed contact with both men and women – his animal magnetism did not discriminate – and he seemed eager to explore all his sexual possibilities.
His rumored credits include his Giant co-star Rock Hudson, Marilyn Monroe and Marlon Brando.
Dean always denied that he was gay, saying, “I’m not gay. But I also won’t go through life with one hand tied behind my back.”
The actor with his Porsche 550 Spyder, the Little Bastard, a few hours before his death. DeWeerd is said to have inspired his love for fast cars
Taylor spoke about Dean’s confessions to her on the set of Giant, but they went unnoticed until after her death
James DeWeerd (right) was one of two ministers who officiated at Dean’s funeral
He was also blackmailed into paying off a former lover just before his big break because he was terrified of being outed as gay.
He is said to have paid Rogers Brackett $800 in 1954, days before the premiere of East of Eden, in a deal that remained secret for seven decades.
Dean handed over the money even though he believed that Brackett, an older, wealthy advertising executive, had sexually exploited him during their yearlong affair.
However, he also knew that his reputation could have been destroyed when homophobia was rampant in 1950s America. So today he paid the equivalent of $14,500 to prevent and make a “public scandal” go away.
Dean died on September 30, 1955 in a head-on collision while driving his Porsche 550 Spyder.
James DeWeerd was one of two ministers who officiated at his funeral. He read a poem by John G. Neihardt, which included the following lines: “Let me go quickly, like a candlelight, snuffed out just in the height of its glow. Give me noon – and let it be night! That’s how I would go.’
Jimmy: The Secret Life of James Dean by Jason Colavito is published by Rowman & Littlefield