Had James Dean lived...

Yes, we have had discussions like this before on the "Classic Film" board here.... you might try posting it there to get more responses more quickly....

I think James Dean was probably going to be a director, judging from how he was so collaborative with Nick Ray on making "Rebel Without a Cause." Dennis Hopper and others who made the film have said that Dean was essentially the co-director of the picture (which is no insult to Ray -- few directors could collaborate as intensely or productively with leading actors as Ray).

In fact I think his career in that sense would have been very similar to Hopper or to Brando's, although whether he would have more long-term success than either of those men as a director is of course anybody's guess.

A lot of the roles that Dean would have played eventually were played by Warren Beatty, Paul Newman, and Steve McQueen. It's very easy for me to imagine Dean in Newman's role in "Cool Hand Luke", for example, the McQueen role in "The Sand Pebbles", or the Beatty role in Kazan's "Splendor in the Grass." I think your comparison with Jack Nicholson and Eastwood is also somewhat accurate, especially in the sense that both Nicholson and Eastwood were involved creatively in their films.

As far as actresses, it's hard for me to imagine him and Kelly, but I guess if it was built around the contrast between them (Dean was much more emotional and fiery) it could work. I think Dean would have been excellent with, say, Lee Remick. He could have played a role like McQueen's in "Cincinnati Kid" opposite Tuesday Weld and Ann-Margret. He probably would have done other films with Natalie Wood, having already demonstrated such great chemistry with her. Later on, he would have struck some serious sparks with Karen Black.

By the late 60s/early 70s, Dean would have been a bit more rugged (it's hard to imagine a guy like him surviving all those years without some scars), and he would have been sort of an elder statesman to the "hippie" scene. He would have belonged, but at the same time he might have already been too old for roles like Beatty's in "Bonnie & Clyde", and perhaps would have worked his way into character roles depending on the strength of his career at that point.

Did I not love him, Cooch? MY OWN FLESH I DIDN'T LOVE BETTER!!! But he had to say 'Nooooooooo'

Interesting speculation. I think Dean probably would've become an even bigger star through the rest of the 50s, on through the 60s, and as the studio system declined and the counter culture movement was in full swing, at that point I imagine he'd turn to directing in earnest because of all the exciting new actors that were emerging and how rapidly the craft was evolving then.

As to what kind of director he would've become, my guess is someone like John Cassavetes. The 70s probably would've been a particularly high period for Dean as an actor/director...sigh, what could've been.

Nicholas Ray said he and Dean were already planning to set up ther own production company. He and Ray worked well together and both needed to be as free from the studio system as possible.

He's lucky he died early before people realized how average he was. I wouldn't be surprised if that's why he took his life as he was ashamed for his fame as he knew he couldn't act.

I think David Lean would have wanted him to play Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia. In a biography of Lean, one of his associates told him that Dean had captured the essence of Lawrence in Rebel Without a Cause. So, it sounds like they certainly would have been interested in Dean for that role.

If he had lived he probably would have been through the same path as Marlon Brando he would have ended up playing serious roles in the 1960's and 1970's he wouldn't be playing teenagers anymore by the 1960's but it's hard too say what would have become of him if he didn't die in 1955.

By the 1980s, he would have ended up playing an absent-minded detective on a weekly mystery show on CBS. Guest stars would have consisted of his old actor friends from the 1950s who had been nearly forgotten by the public. There would be a two-part crossover episode with "Murder, She Wrote" or "Matlock" every season.

What roles in the '60s/'70s do you think James Dean would have been well-suited for if he didn't die?

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/fodbk6/what_roles_in_the_60s70s_do_you_think_james_dean/