Sal Mineo

By age 22, teen idol Sal Mineo had earned two Academy Award nominations for Rebel Without a Cause and Exodus. But his meteoric rise to fame was unbalanced by a steadily declining later career, marked by failed film projects, television guest appearances, and dinner theater engagements. When he was murdered in 1976 at age 37, Mineo was facing insurmountable debt and coasting along on a faded Hollywood reputation tarnished by rumors of his bisexuality. Journalist and playwright Michaud conclusively plots the course of Mineo's life in a biography as dishy as it is astonishingly well researched. Everything from the on-the-set tales of Mineo's friendships with James Dean and Natalie Wood to his affair with singer Bobby Sherman is given a beguilingly novelistic touch. Michaud's delicate handling of conflicting accounts and widespread gossip resolves both Mineo's sexuality and his enigmatic offscreen personality, revealing him to be an incredible talent who simply could not overcome his early typecasting.