The good friend broke into laughter for a few moments and then in a serious tone went on to explain that Dean was killed in a car accident. However, the reason Madelyn reacted that way could be explained:

In 1952, Phillip Pine was sent to read for a play called, See the Jaguar. The play starred Arthur Kennedy and Constance Ford. Phil auditioned and won the role of Hilltop; a mean spirited young man that tormented another young man, and simpleton, Wally Wilkins, who’s mountaineer mother kept in an icehouse. The role of Wally Wilkins was played by a young, an then unknown actor named, James Dean.

Phil and James Dean shared a dressing room during the run of the entire play, while they were breaking it in Off-Broadway, and then on Broadway. Phil got to know Jimmy, as he called him, as well as anyone could during that period of his life. As Phil remembered when rehearsals started it didn’t take long for Jimmy to demonstrate, as a stage actor, that he was a real pain in the ass to his fellow actors. He would often deliver his lines in a different cadence or even a different spot on the stage. It was extremely hard for the other actors, and especially Phil who did a lot of his work with him.  Consequently his lack of stage and theater discipline created tension. 

Phil recalled one time Jimmy stopped the rehearsal and yelled out to the director, "Why is it you’re always treatin’ Phil and the others like adults `n you treat me like some kid?"

"I treat people as I see them," Michael Gordon, the  veteran stage and movie director yelled back.

Who would have ever thought that within three years James Dean would be a major movie star, idolized by millions of young people: creating a whole identity for an age which had none at the time: The Rebellious Teenager.

However, before he became a star he played the role of an irritating little brother to Phillip Pine. Phil believed discipline, hard work, and team cooperation were what held a theater company together. Without those ingredients, a legitimate stage actor would simply be standing on an empty stage, with nothing to say or do. Dean on the other hand gave all indications to everyone that he believed only in himself.

Despite their two entirely different approaches to their roles for See the Jaguar Jimmy and Phil became as close as they possibly could. Jimmy would sit for hours and ask Phil about life, and other aspects of the theater. Many times Phil thought Jimmy was thinking about changing, really trying to be a part of the company. Yet, the moments were short lived. There always seemed to be a reason for Jimmy’s humble dialogue. For example: 

When they first started rehearsals for See the Jaguar Jimmy was in desperate need of a pair of shoes. He supposedly swallowed his pride and confided in Phil how he didn’t have any money. Phil, through a fund that was bequeathed to the Actor’s Equity, to make sure every actor, belonging to the union, would have a decent pair of shoes, was able to get Jimmy a pair. Phil vividly recalled a couple days after Jimmy got his new shoes he, Arthur Kennedy, and Jimmy were taking a break from rehearsing and were walking down Broadway. Jimmy, in his new shoes, jumped out in the traffic, and as if he was a Spanish toreador and the yellow cabs were the charging bulls, began dodging the cars, yelling out, "O le’," and pointing at his new shoes, with all the pride he could muster up. 

Phil thought finally he had made contact with the young Dean; showed him how a theater company was like a family, with everyone pulling together, caring about one another, for the purpose to put on the best performance they could. Nonetheless, again it was a short-lived thought.

It wasn’t much later and they were in a dress rehearsal one afternoon, in Philadelphia, where they were opening that night. They were on the road trying to work out the bugs before taking the play to Broadway. There is a scene in the play where Phil’s character has his rifle in hand when he finds Dean’s character. Phil was supposed to grab a hold of Dean’s arm and lead him off stage. The lights would dim on them as they exited stage right and then lights would come up stage left for a death scene. Yet, in this particular rehearsal when Phil took Dean’s arm to lead him off stage Dean suddenly became combative. Phil, taken aback by Dean’s action stopped the rehearsal and yelled out to their director, Michael Gordon. "Michael, is this new and I don’t know about it?" Phil asked him.

"No!" Gordon yelled back in disgust. "Just grab him and get him the hell off the stage!"

"Why didn’t you just leave the scene like it was written?" Phil shot back.

"Because I think my character would fight you," Dean said.

"If he fought me then. That’s what my character would do!" Phil strongly replied.

Phil believed that Dean was driven, like many actors, driven to prove to the world that he was as good as anyone and deserved to exist. And, like most actors he was insecure, and wanted to be loved and accepted. As a professional stage actor he was undisciplined, in Phil’s opinion.  He did not remotely understand the concept of what a theater "company" was all about.

Unfortunately, See the Jaguar did not do well on Broadway and closed after only five performances. After the play closed, both Dean and Phil went their own ways. Phil began doing a lot of television and soap operas. Dean got another part in a play. He was cast as Bachir in The Immoralist. The show was still in the break in period in Philadelphia when the play’s director, Daniel Mann called Phil down from New York to watch a complete dress rehearsal.

"Well, what did you think of the kid," Mann asked Phil. "Dean as Bachir?"

"I thought he was okay," Phil said, and honestly believing that. To Phil, Dean seemed to have grown as an actor since they had worked together in See the Jaguar.

"He’s like a fox fuckin’ a football," Mann said. "He’s all around it and can’t get in."

Phil remembered thinking that was a strange assessment of Dean’s performance. And for years and years Phil never forgot it. Mann went on to tell Phil that they were having problems with Dean and he wanted Phil to replace him. Dean was not upset at all. He had already arranged to go to Hollywood and begin a new film. Somehow Dean had befriended the right people and was able to get close to director, Elia Kazan. The rest, as they say, is film history. The movie was East of Eden.

For years, Macyle Pine, Phillip and Madelyn Pine’s daughter was upset with her father for taking Jimmy’s role. Macyle loved James Dean, and that was before anyone else even knew who he was.

It was during the break-in period for See the Jaguar. It was Macyle’s ninth birthday. Phillip and Madelyn Pine decided to give her a party. Although quite sophisticated for her age Macyle felt out of sorts with only adults being at her birthday party. Dean, sensed her uneasiness and spent the entire evening with her, talking, dancing and making her feel like a real grown up princess.

(c) 2000 by Mopam Publications

and Morris Heldt