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Salvatore Mineo, Jr. (January 10, 1939 - February
12, 1976) was an United States|American actor and
theater director, famous for his Academy
Award-nominated performance opposite James Dean in
the film Rebel Without A Cause.

Mineo, born in The Bronx, New York, New York|New
York City as the son of Sicily|Sicilian emigrants,
was enrolled by his mother in dancing and acting
school at an early age.  In 1950, he had his first
stage appearance in The Rose Tattoo, a play by
Tennessee Williams.  He also played the young
prince opposite Yul Brynner in the stage musical
theater|musical The King And I.

After a few lesser films, his breakthrough was
Rebel Without A Cause (1955 in film|1955), in
which he gave an impressive performance as "John
'Plato' Crawford", the unstated but apparently gay
teenager smitten with James Dean's "Jim Stark".
Some have claimed that to give the portrayal more
depth, Dean encouraged Mineo to let his real-life
desires for Dean shine through in the scenes
between them. However, in later interviews Mineo
claimed that at the time he didn't yet know he had
those sorts of feelings. Mineo was later reunited
with Dean in Giant (movie)|Giant, though only in a
few scenes.

Mineo's slightly exotic good looks also earned him
roles such as those of an Native American|Indian
boy in Tonka or of a Jewish emigrant in Otto
Preminger's Exodus (movie)|Exodus, for which he
received another Academy Award nomination as
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor|Best
Supporting Actor. In the 1960s, rumors about his
sexual orientation began to spread, prompting
Hollywood's increasing reluctance to cast him in
A-list movies. Thus, he turned to the stage again,
producing the gay-themed Fortune and Men's Eyes,
starring Don Johnson of later Miami Vice fame.

In 1957 in music|1957, Mineo made a brief foray
into music by recording a handful of songs and an
album, and two of the songs reached the Top 40 pop
charts.

Coming home from an audition for the play P.S.
Your Cat Is Dead (later to be adapted into a movie
by Steve Guttenberg), where he was to play a gay
burglar, Mineo was List of murdered people|stabbed
to death in front of his West Hollywood,
California|West Hollywood home.  He was 37.

Although a man named Lionel Ray Williams was later
sentenced to life in prison for killing Mineo,
considerable doubts about Williams' involvement in
the crime remained, since there apparently was no
immediate motive for the murder.  Williams was
paroled in 1990 after serving 12 years but has
been jailed numerous times since for parole
violations.

Sal Mineo is interred in the Cemetery of the Gate
of Heaven in Hawthorne, New York.

==External links==
*imdb name | id=0000543 | name=Sal Mineo
*http://www.salmineo.com Official website
*http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/cel
ebrity/sal_mineo/index.html?sect=26 Crime Library
- Biography, and more detailed discussion of
Mineo's murder
*http://crimemagazine.com/salmineo.htm Crime
Magazine - The Murder of Sal Mineo
*http://www.salmineo.com/news/inter_hadleigh.html
Transcript of interview with Boze Hadleigh (1972)
and Hadleigh's comments following Mineo' death