Drawing on extraordinary mines of fresh material, including accounts of Dean's earliest television appearances and his on- and offscreen exploits while filming the classics East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant, Spoto candidly explores Dean's years at the center of a group of actors who came to define the new generation of Hollywood idols and American ideals, including Montgomery Clift and Marlon Brando, Dennis Hopper and Sal Mineo, Natalie Wood and Pier Angeli, Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson. Here, too, is the story of Dean's convoluted sex life, which included simultaneous affairs with men and women.