{"id":142750,"date":"2026-01-10T08:30:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T13:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=142750"},"modified":"2026-01-10T15:20:57","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T20:20:57","slug":"happy-birthday-sal-mineo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=142750","title":{"rendered":"“It’s a situation I’ve never been able to fathom. One minute, it seemed I had more movie offers than I could handle, the next — no one wanted me.” — Sal Mineo"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nIt’s his birthday today. <\/p>\n

I cannot imagine what it must have been like to be a gay kid in the 1950s and see Rebel Without a Cause<\/i>, particularly Sal Mineo’s performance as “Plato,” the lonely teenage boy, with a picture of Alan Ladd hanging in his locker, and a burgeoning crush on Jim (James Dean), whom he stares at in the high school hallway with a mixture of longing, hope, and fear. <\/p>\n

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\nThat’s not subtext. That’s text. In a memo, the Warner Brothers censor warned: <\/p>\n

“It is of course vital that there be no inference of a questionable or homosexual relationship between Plato and Jim.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Too late, pallie. <\/p>\n

I wrote a lengthy piece on Rebel Without a Cause<\/i> here<\/a>. The experience of Rebel<\/i> remains as intense as the first time I saw it (and it had a huge impact on me as a teenager), only now it’s even more intense, considering the early and violent ends of its three captivating charismatic stars. <\/p>\n

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\nMineo was nominated for an Academy Award for Rebel<\/i>, and another Academy Award in 1960 for his performance in Exodus<\/i>, directed by Otto Preminger, based on the best-selling novel by Leon Uris about the formation of the state of Israel. You’d think two Oscar nominations might have helped solidify at least the opportunities coming his way. But that wasn’t to be the case. Work dried up for him in the 1960s (similar to what happened with a lot of 1950s heartthrobs. The 60s were a very weird era for movies.) <\/p>\n

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\nMineo’s time at “the top” was short-lived. He was type-cast. He got bored with that. He moved to theatre, directing and acting in plays. He got good reviews in these plays, because of course he did, he was an amazing actor. Even after offers from the mainstream industry dried up, he kept working. I admire this about him. He did a lot of television, participating in the boom of live television in the 1950s, an era when so many great actors and directors and writers cut their teeth in the most exciting and stressful environment possible. <\/p>\n

In 1957, Mineo came out with an album, and a couple of the tracks charted pretty high on Billboard, like the swinging “Start Movin’ In My Direction.” <\/p>\n

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