James Dean and Pier Angeli, 1955
Photo: EASTERN NEWS
James Dean is an American actor who starred in the film Mademoiselle Nitouche. Pier Angeli is an Italian film actress who worked in Hollywood and is best known for the film East of Paradise.
They met on nearby movie sets and it was love at first sight.
– Everything in Pierre is beautiful, especially his soul. He must not do or say anything. She’s just wonderful, Dean shared his first impressions of him.
But James didn’t like Pierre’s mother at all. She called him a “dirty American” and a “thug” and wouldn’t let her daughter date him.
But the prohibitions did not become an obstacle to love – the couple met in secret. The lovers planned to get married and buy a house in Beverly Hills, but the girl was pressured by her mother.
Dean tried in every possible way to please his future mother-in-law: he began to carefully monitor his appearance, put on expensive suits, but this did not impress her.
Once, James went to shoot in New York, and at that time the mother of the actress arranged -no less- her daughter’s wedding with the singer Vic Damone.
It is said that after hearing about the wedding, Dean rushed to California and watched the wedding ceremony, sitting on a motorcycle that was stopped in front of the church.
A year later, Pierre and Dean were supposed to play the newlyweds in the same movie, however this was not destined to happen.
Dean died in a car accident in 1955 at the age of 24. Three years after her death, Pierre separated from her husband. As it turned out, he beat her and forbade her to act in films. Her second marriage was also unsuccessful. As a result, 39-year-old Pier Angeli committed suicide. James was still her only love, with whom she would surely meet again forever, there, in heaven.
