Actor James Dean was Blackmailed by an Ex to Keep his Homosexuality a Secret

A new book about Hollywood icon James Dean claims that the actor was blackmailed into paying off a former lover just before his big break because he was terrified about being outed as gay.

As reported by the Daily Mail, author Jason Colavito writes in "Jimmy: The Secret Life of James Dean" (out on Tuesday) that Dean paid $800 to Rogers Brackett in 1954, days before the East of Eden premiere, in an agreement that has remained secret for seven decades. He did so despite the fact that Brackett, an older and wealthy advertising executive, had sexually exploited him during their relationship.

According to Colavito, Dean was furious and snapped: "I didn't know it was the w***e who paid – I thought it was the other way around." he paid the equivalent of $14,500 today to avoid a 'public scandal' and make it go away.

Colavito told DailyMail.com: "Implicit in the correspondence and conversations between Brackett's team and Dean's is the threat that the suit might become public, which both Brackett and Dean knew would destroy Dean's career."

In the 1950s, one of the darkest times for homosexuals in America, being identified as gay would have likely ended his career.

In the book, Colavito chronicles Dean's relationship with Brackett, whom he met after dropping out of UCLA in 1951 and moving back to Santa Monica where he was so broke he couldn't afford his rent. The unemployed actor got a job through a friend as a parking valet next door to the CBS Studios where Brackett worked at the advertising agency Foote, Cone & Belding. They produced the weekly CBS afternoon radio drama "Alias Jane Doe," about an undercover magazine reporter.

The tall, handsome Brackett was smitten with the blonde actor, whom he helped get a role on the radio drama, appearing in four episodes.

"Although these feelings scared Dean, Brackett unlocked something Dean had kept so closely guarded that it had threatened to break him," writes Colavito. When Brackett found out that Dean was about to become homeless, he "took a gamble" and asked him to move into his house. "But despite Brackett opening doors for Dean, his arrogance was his undoing with one screenwriter remarking that he was 'absolute poison,'" writes the Daily Mail.

"Jimmy was like a child. He behaved badly just to get attention...he was a kid I loved, sometimes parentally, sometimes not parentally," Brackett later remarked.

According to Colavito's research, Dean thought Brackett was his "heroic equal", Brackett regarded Dean like an "unruly son", and the relationship began to disintegrate.

Brackett did help Dean financially when the two moved to different cities – Brackett to Chicago for work and Dean to New York City in search of work as an actor. But life was hard for Dean during this period and Brackett helped him out by spending more than $1,000 supporting Dean, paying $450 in hotel bills and more than $700 on gifts and loans. He did so, though, with "great reluctance."

Brackett also used his connections to get Dean a part in "See the Jaguar," the 1952 Broadway play that was a major break for him.

But during this period Dean found Brackett "increasingly desperate" and "manipulative" as the older man introduced the actor to his well-connected friends who were blunt that they wanted to have sex with him.

Brackett did assist Dean in not being drafted into the military. "In 1951 Dean got a letter from the United States Selective Service System saying he had to report to a base in Marion, Indiana, in October that year," the Daily Mail writes.

"At Brackett's insistence, Dean wrote back saying he was gay and therefore ineligible for service. As Colavito writes: 'Brackett used his power and wealth to keep Dean safe. He sent him to a compliant psychiatrist for a series of sham sessions to prove his homosexuality, but this tore at Dean's fragile masculinity.'"

Dean quickly became one of the hottest young actors in Hollywood while Brackett's career went into a tailspin. He turned up in Dean's life again after the actor was cast as Cal Trask in "East of Eden." But Dean saw his return as "unbidden and unwelcome", Colavito writes, adding that Brackett was "on the warpath" and demanding Dean repay him the $1,200 he had given him while he lived in New York. The older man had lost his advertising job and was working on an opera with composer Alec Wilder that was never completed.

"Brackett imposed on Dean for a drink and, striking a more conciliatory tone, asked him for money – a loan, he called it," Colavito continues.

"The brazenness of the request shocked Dean, who had come to believe his time 'dancing' for Brackett's friends had been abusive," Colavito writes. "'Sorry, pops,' he said to Brackett as he refused to give him money. He told him that he had outgrown him, that he no longer wished to see him. But privately he was furious." Wilder reminded Dean that Brackett had helped him launch is career.

"The undercurrent threatening public scandal should Dean refuse was obvious. He (Wilder) upbraided Dean for his unkindness, demanding Dean write a letter of apology and shouting that Brackett should sue Dean for all the support he had given him over the years."

Dean reluctantly signed the apology that Wilder wrote and hoped that was the end of it. But Brackett took Wilder's advice and sent a formal legal demand to Dean for the $1,200 he had loaned him during their affair, Colavito reports in his book.

The letter came with an implied threat of exposure should Dean not "liquidate your obligation" i.e. pay Brackett off. Brackett then filed a suit against Dean for $1,100 in New York's Municipal Court including $450 in hotel bills.

Dean quickly agreed to an $800 settlement in $100 weekly installments to "avoid a scandal when he could least afford one", writes Colavito. But Dean balked at paying back the money for the hotel bills and Brackett accepted the offer. The Court could have found Dean culpable for the entire $1,100, but Dean forked over the required sum six weeks early. In addition, Dean's agent also agreed to get Warner Bros to pay Brackett a sizable 'finder's fee' to ensure his "continued silence".

"The court documents, copies of which appear in the book, gave no hint of the explosive nature of the allegations they pertain to and simply state that in the case of Rogers Brackett versus James Dean, both parties had stipulated to the agreement," adds the Daily Mail. "But even the amount showed what was at stake: the median salary for men at the time was $3,100 per year – showing how vast that $800 was."

If Dean had been exposed, Colavito surmises, he would not have been cast in "Rebel Without A Cause" and "Giant." Dean died in an automobile crash in 1955.

Colavito told DailyMail.com: "This story has never been told before, and all parties involved worked hard to make sure no one ever found out. And for seventy years, no one did. The only reason we know about it today is that Dean's agent secretly kept copies of his papers hidden away for decades."