Jimmy and I started talking very personally. A couple of times before this I had seen him be cold or abrupt with people -  but these things aways ended in something causing pain for him. He was always putting people through a series of circus hoops before letting them get close. He was like Marlon: he ate people - consumed all they knew, their mannerisms, all he could use as an artist. Everyone was a source for his creativity. He really wanted to be a participant in life. But he was constantly fucking himself over by behavior designed to alienate people. -Phil Stern

Jimmy and I started talking very personally. A couple of times before this I had seen him be cold or abrupt with people -  but these things aways ended in something causing pain for him. He was always putting people through a series of circus hoops before letting them get close. He was like Marlon: he ate people - consumed all they knew, their mannerisms, all he could use as an artist. Everyone was a source for his creativity. He really wanted to be a participant in life. But he was constantly fucking himself over by behavior designed to alienate people.

-Phil Stern

(via thenormadesmond)

mattybing1025: March 15, 1955.  At 7:30 a.m., I was cruising west on Sunset Boulevard, heading for Life magazine’s photo lab on the Strip.  Coming down Laurel Canyon was a crazy motorcyclist who was driving through a red light.  We were on a collision course.  We both braked and careered through the intersection.  I came close to killing him — just inches saved his life.  I stuck my head out of the window, screaming profanities, as he got up off the bike with a dopey grin on his face.  It was James Dean.  We ended up having a two-hour breakfast at Schwab’s Drug Store, and I invited him over to the Guys and Dolls set, where I had a still gallery rigged to shoot Brando and Sinatra.  Dean was fascinated by cameras, and came along.    —Phil Stern

mattybing1025:

March 15, 1955.  At 7:30 a.m., I was cruising west on Sunset Boulevard, heading for Life magazine’s photo lab on the Strip.  Coming down Laurel Canyon was a crazy motorcyclist who was driving through a red light.  We were on a collision course.  We both braked and careered through the intersection.  I came close to killing him — just inches saved his life.  I stuck my head out of the window, screaming profanities, as he got up off the bike with a dopey grin on his face.  It was James Dean.  We ended up having a two-hour breakfast at Schwab’s Drug Store, and I invited him over to the Guys and Dolls set, where I had a still gallery rigged to shoot Brando and Sinatra.  Dean was fascinated by cameras, and came along.   

—Phil Stern