Sal Mineo is probably most well-known for his unforgettable, Academy Award–nominated turn opposite James Dean in <i>Rebel Without a Cause</i> and his tragic murder at the age of thirty-seven. Finally, in this riveting new biography filled with exclusive, candid interviews with both Mineo's closest female and male lovers and never-before-published photographs, Michael Gregg Michaud tells the full story of this remarkable young actor's life, charting his meteoric rise to fame and turbulent career and private life.<br><br>One of the hottest stars of the 1950s, Mineo grew up as the son of Sicilian immigrants in a humble Bronx flat. But by age eleven, he appeared on Broadway in Tennessee Williams's <i>The Rose Tattoo,</i> and then as Prince Chulalongkorn in the original Broadway production of <i>The King and I</i> starring Yul Brynner and Gertrude Lawrence. This sultry-eyed, dark-haired male ingénue of sorts appeared on the cover of every major magazine, thousands of star-struck fans attended his premieres, and millions bought his records, which included several top-ten hits.<br><br>His life offstage was just as exhilarating: full of sports cars, motor boats, famous friends, and some of the most beautiful young actresses in Hollywood. But it was fourteen-year-old Jill Haworth, his costar in <i>Exodus</i>—the film that delivered one of the greatest acting roles of his life and earned him another Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe win—with whom he fell in love and moved to the West Coast. But by the 1960s, a series of professional missteps and an increasingly tumultuous private life reversed his fortunes. <br><br>By the late sixties and early seventies, grappling with the repercussions of publicly admitting his homosexuality and struggling to reinvent himself from an aging teen idol, Mineo turned toward increasingly self-destructive behavior. Yet his creative impulses never foundered. He began directing and producing controversial off-Broadway plays that explored social and sexual taboos. He also found personal happiness in a relationship with male actor Courtney Burr. Tragically, on the cusp of turning a new page in his life, Mineo's life was cut short in a botched robbery.<br>            <br>Revealing a charming, mischievous, creative, and often scandalous side of Mineo few have known before now, <i>Sal Mineo</i> is an intimate, moving biography of a distinctive Hollywood star.<br><br><br><i>From the Hardcover edition.</i>