James Dean told Elizabeth Taylor about trauma from childhood sexual abuse

James Dean’ star was rising in 1955 with the back-to-back hits East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause, but the actor still suffered from the lasting traumatic impact of being sexually abused as a child.

In Jason Colavito's book Jimmy: The Secret Life of James Dean, the author claims that Dean opened up about many aspects of his life with Giant co-star Elizabeth Taylor.

Colavito writes: "They stayed up long nights talking, and Dean found that once he started to let slip bits of emotional truth, the words poured out.”

"He told Taylor that his minister — he almost certainly meant the Reverend [James] DeWeerd — had sexually abused him, and Taylor felt that the trauma of the abuse had hurt him deeply and profoundly," he continues.

The author also claimed that Dean told the actress that he was gay.

"As he shared more of his life, his loves and his pain," Colavito writes, "Taylor developed the distinct impression that Dean was trying to tell her he was gay."

"For the first time, he shared his deepest pain with someone who neither dismissed nor mocked nor blamed him," he continued. "Yet even now, his discomfort and his fear prevailed. After baring his soul, he couldn't look Taylor in the eye and would sulk in silence for days, wracked with guilt or embarrassment, until he worked up the courage to share more of himself."

James Dean, who became a heartthrob for his brooding masculinity, died tragically in a car accident in 1955 at 24. He received two Oscar nominations, one for East of Eden and the other for Giant.