Sal Mineo

Sal Mineo was an American actor known for Rebel Without a Cause (1955, Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor), Exodus (1960, Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor), and as a teenage idol of the 1950s. He was gay, and had an intensely close relationship with co-star James Dean during the filming of Rebel Without a Cause that Mineo, when later asked directly, called "special" without ever publicly confirming or denying its romantic nature; the queer tension between their characters in the film is now widely analyzed as a reflection of their real dynamic. He came out publicly as gay in a 1972 interview with After Dark magazine -- one of the earliest Hollywood stars to do so. Mineo was stabbed to death outside his West Hollywood apartment on February 12, 1976, at age 37, while returning home from a play rehearsal.