The shaggy blonde Jussen brothers Lucas (b. 1993) and Arthur (b. 1996) have been Wunderkind sensations in their native Netherlands, performing duets on one and two pianos to sensational acclaim. When they first played for the Dutch Queen they were 12 and 8 years old. Now 22 and 19, respectively, they announced earlier this ear that they plan to pursue individual careers as concert pianists, mostly due to the limited repertoire for piano duets (take THAT,
. For that reason, let’s take advantage of this voyeuristic performance of Schubert’s great Fantasie in F-minor for one piano, four hands. Such opportunities may soon disappear.
Bisexual actor Sal Mineo (1939-1976) was defined by two things: his
unforgettable Academy Award–nominated role opposite James Dean in the
film
Rebel Without a Cause (at age 15), and his murder in
Hollywood at the age of 37. Nevertheless, the Bronx-born actor of
Italian heritage appeared in 22 films, directed stage plays and operas
and made many television appearances. While still a youth he was
mentored by Yul Brynner in the stage musical
The King and I,
While an understudy to Johnny Stewart , Mineo took over the role of the
young Prince Chulalongkorn only three months into the show's initial
run.
Sal Mineo was so convincing as Plato in
Rebel Without a Cause*
that he was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor,
leading to his being forever typecast as a troubled youth. It was
difficult for him to sustain an acting career when he became too old for
such parts. A welcome exception came with the role of a Jewish emigrant
in Otto Preminger’s film
Exodus (1960), for which he won a
Golden Globe Award and received a second Academy Award Nomination for
Best Supporting Actor. Another escape from typecasting was his star turn
as drummer Gene Krupa in
The Gene Krupa Story (1959), unfortunately panned by the critics.
*
Rebel Without a Cause also starred Natalie Wood. All
three of the leads – James Dean, Sal Mineo (photo still from the film at
left) and Natalie Wood – met with tragic, untimely deaths.
His mother, a quintessential stage mother, acted as his manager and
spent his fortune faster than he could make it, leading to a series of
financial crises, especially as his career tapered off.
In 1976 Mineo was stabbed to death in an alley next to his apartment
building in West Hollywood by an unknown assailant. A year later actress
Christa Helm was killed in the same neighborhood and in a similar
fashion, and a pizza deliveryman by the name of Lionel Ray Williams was
charged and convicted of that crime. Police had overheard him admitting
to the murder of Sal Mineo, stating that at the time of the stabbing he
did not know that his victim was Sal Mineo.
In
“Sal Mineo: A Biography” (2010) by author Michael Gregg
Michaud*, several rumors and speculations about Mineo’s private life are
cleared up. British actress Jill Haworth, to whom Mineo was once
engaged to be married, was not just a “beard” to mask a homosexual
orientation. Although Sal Mineo idolized his bisexual film star James
Dean, the two did not engage in sexual relations. The same with actor
Don Johnson, who co-starred with Mineo in a stage production of
Fortune and Men’s Eyes
(1969), a play with a homosexual theme; Johnson and Mineo had once been
roommates. At the time Mineo was murdered, he had been in a six-year
relationship with male actor Courtney Burr III.
*From a book review by Gerry Burnie:
This exhaustive biography is not
only a tribute to Sal Mineo, a talented and misunderstood individual
who lived life to the fullest – no matter what he did – it is also a
tribute to the author’s unrelenting dedication. For example, the writing
of “Sal Mineo: A Biography” took Michaud ten years and three years of
research to complete. Moreover, numerous interviews were conducted, most
particularly with Jill Haworth and Courtney Burr (both were Sal Mineo’s
lovers), to give it a personal insight beyond the written record...Full
of details and previously undisclosed anecdotes, the biography captures
a career of ups and downs and a private life of sexual impulses.
It is a little-known fact that Sal Mineo was the model for
The New Adam,
a colossal 8-foot-tall by 39-foot-long male nude painting (1962),
precisely and sensually rendered in full frontal anatomical detail over
nine linen panels by artist Harold Stevenson (b. 1929). Since 2005 the
painting has been part of the permanent collection of the New York City
Guggenheim Museum (image below).
