Sal Mineo was an actor who died before he turned forty. He was a film actor that I didn't know of through films. I was watching an old COLUMBO episode on PLUTO. You get a lot of famous guest stars in that detective show: Ruth Gordon, Jeanne Berlin, Robert Conrad, Leonard Nimoy, Lesley Ann Warren, Lee Grant, Roddy McDowell, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, Anne Baxter, Johnny Cash, Ida Lupino etc. And then one episode has PRETTY WOMAN's Hector Elizondo who's the crook and killer and tries to cover another murder by having the (already) dead man's car crash and puts glasses on the corpse not realizing the man alternated glasses and contacts and was already wearing contacts when he died. That man was Sal Mineo.
Don't know about you, but I do that. When I watched THE NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE's second to last episode and the cop Old Christine thinks is a stripper stood out to me, I went to IMDB to find out who it was (Josh Randall).
Sal Mineo had great presence and I made a point to look up who he was.
Michael Gregg Mchaud's SAL MINEO: A BIOGRAPHY is a wonderful introduction to the actor. His writing about the filming of the classic REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE was enough to make me see it. It's not just a bad commercial on TCM where Ben Mankiewicz pretends he's James Dean. The film itself is vital and Sal holds his own alongside Natalie Wood and James Dean.
The book takes you through Sal's early beginnings as a child actor on through stardom with REBEL and other films including GIANT and EXODUS -- he was nominated for an Academy Award for the latter and won a Golden Globe for it. In addition, he was nominated for an Academy Award for REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE as well. But film fame ran out and he increased his appearances on TV while trying to land a good film role and while exploring directing.
He ends up stabbed to death at 37. Along the way, he makes friends (such as Yul Brenner -- they worked together on Broadway when Sal was a kid and he's one of the few who really remains a friend) and has many lovers including sixties teen idol Bobby Sherman.
Would Sal's career have been any different if he was born 30 years later? I have no idea. James Caan's homophobia kept Sal from being cast in THE GODFATHER. I would think that a real artist in this century wouldn't care about the whining and bitchiness of a James Caan and would cast an actor like Sal but who knows?
The book's a testament to real artist who threw himself into his career -- often at the expense of his life.
