SAL MINEO IS GOD

this story was originally intended for LITTLE JOE FILM ZINE, but they canceled it at the very last minute.
so i decided to post here on antebellum blogspot.

inspired by the recent celebration of SAL MINEO
and my longtime friend- MICHAEL GREGG MICHAUD'S new book-
SAL MINEO: A BIOGRAPHY...
I present-....................................

SAL MINEO IS GOD
by rick castro


Before there was Brad, Jake, Justin, and Robert, before there was Shannon, Adam and Robbie, way before there was Evan, James, Cheyenne and Zac, there was SAL MINEO.


A trailblazer and groundbreaker from day one of his unorthodox career. He was also unquestionably the first gay male celebrity icon and perhaps the first out actor.

Born January 10th, 1939 in the Bronx, New York and died February 12th, 1976 in West Hollywood, Ca, Sal was tap dancing at the age of 8. His overbearing mother Josephine enrolled him in art school, while his quiet, Sicilian father Salvatore Sr. made coffins for a living.


Sal’s debut stage appearance was in THE ROSE TATOO, (1951) the classic play by another gay legend- Tennessee Williams.


He was then chosen to play opposite Yul Brynner in THE KING AND I.

Then in 1955, Sal, James, Natalie, Dennis, Adam and a host of other newcomers changed the face of acting and Hollywood by starring in director Nicolas Ray's groundbreaking- REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. Nick Ray was perhaps the only person that knew this film would change the world and virtually give birth to the concept of the American teenager.

In Rebel, the opening scene at fictitious Dawson high school, 15-year-old Sal mineo opens his locker. He has a photo of Alan Ladd, (Alan Ladd??) pinned underneath a mirror; he combs his DA and adores his refection, then spots James dean in the reflection and adores him.

Sal looked into the eyes of James Dean, and every "subversive," knew what he wanted. James and Sal became best buddies, at least in the film. The untimely death of James Dean left anything else unrequited.
Sal Mineo was what they used to call, "an overnight sensation." he had legions of fan clubs and groupies lined the streets at any premiere to catch a glimpse of him.


I would like to present an overview of the films of Sal Mineo, and chronicle his life changes as his career choices diminishes.

REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE- 1955, (director Nicholas Ray)

This film only gets better with age, as does the power of sal's performance. What is noticeable to the contemporary audience is the overt-homosexual interaction between Sal & James, and Sal's superior acting. Sal is the heart of the film. He is the catalyst, the true rebel with a cause; latent homosexuality. Remember this was the 1950's, "the love that dare not speak it's name," was still too shy to do so. It wasn't until another 15 years before gays were dancing in droves out of the closet.

Since Sal basically confesses undying love for James Dean, (and asks him to come home with him) he is doomed to be killed, which becomes the climatic final scene. Not for Sal, but for James Dean! Sal just lies there dead wearing mismatched socks,
but what a beautiful corpse.
Sal receives his 1st academy award nomination.

GIANT- 1956, (director george stevens)

Teamed once again with James Dean and Dennis Hooper from Rebel, and hollywood legends like Liz Taylor, Mercedes Mccambridge, (the voice of Regan in The Exorcist) and closeted Rock Hudson. Sal plays a Mexican laborer who enlists in the army, while all the anglos strike oil. James Dean comes back to Reatta, Texas in a Rolls Royce, Sal in a coffin. Although all three of the lead actors were gay, none had affairs with each other.... Rock was way too uptight and old school for James, and Sal was only 17 years old.

DINO- 1957, (director Thomas Carr)

Sal Mineo as Dino, a JD, (juvenile delinquent) sent to reform school for being involved in a gang-related killing. Upon release, Dino returns back to his neighborhood and is pulled back into gang life. A rarely seen JD film! This film gave Sal the nickname of “the switchblade kid.”


TONKA- 1958, (director Lewis R. Foster)

Set in Dakota territory in the 1870s, a young Sioux named White Bull, proves his manhood by catching and training a wild colt he names Tonka. The film leads up to the final conflict of the Little and Big Horn rivers. In the book, Multiculturalism and the Mouse: Race and Sex in Disney Entertainment (2006), writer Douglas Brode states that the casting of Sal Mineo as White Bull, "ensured a homosexual subtext".

THE GENE KRUPA STORY- 1959, (director Don Weis)


Always the trailblazer, Sal brings drumming and marijuana to the mainstream. The best quote- "Reefers huh? So that's what they look like", spoken by Sal as Gene Krupa.

EXODUS, 1960, (director- Otto Preminger)

An epic war film produced and directed by Otto Preminger from a screenplay by Dalton Trumbo, (blacklisted by mccarthy) from the 1958 novel, Exodus, by Leon Uris.

The all star cast includes- (bisexual) Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, Peter Lawford, (closeted) Lee J. Cobb, Jill Hayworth, George Maharis, (fellow homo) and Sal Mineo, as Dov Landau.

During an intense interrogation scene, (earning him his 2nd oscar nomination) Sal as Dov Landau confesses, “at Auschwitz I was used by the Nazis, the way they used a woman.”

WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR?- 1965, (director Joseph Cates)

Sal plays a busboy at a disco who has sexual problems related to events in his childhood. He becomes obsessed with a disc jockey at the club, leading to obscene phone calls, voyeurism, trips to the porn shop and adult movie palace, and more! Also stars Juliet prowse and Elaine stritch as a lesbian!


Sal’s career was in decline at this point. The film was a critical and box office bomb, but a definite must see for contemporary kinky filmphiles.

After the release of the film, Sal joked, “I found myself on the weirdo list.”

ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES,
1971 (director- Don Taylor)

Sal plays an ape called Milo. He is murdered within the first 15 minutes of the film. No one knew who the actor was, no one cared. Sal had become an, “invisible homosexual.”

You've heard about them, there are rumors about them. They are always killed off.

Always the fickle bitch, Hollywood spent the early fifties throwing praise and accolades at Sal, now pegs him as over. An outdated symbol of the 1950s teenager. The mods and hippies were moving in. Sal represented old school neuroses from the baby boomer generation. By 1963 Sal was a washed up has-been, declared, “box office,” poison by Variety magazine.
These phrases were now written about Sal on a regular basis. This was really code for- SAL MINEO WAS A HOMOSEXUAL.


Sal presented himself as someone who didn't hide their sexuality. Despite the liberal appearance, Hollywood has always been a conservative industry, featuring rich, narrow people with limited world views. Sal was Sicilian, but looked more Mexican or Indian. The image of the era was white as snow, blonde and very arian.



Sal once said, “anything and everything has some kind of sensuous overtone to it… I don’t see in any given situation where there isn’t a spark of erotica.”
According to writer Michael Gregg Michaud, “one day Sal decided he wanted to visit Natalie Wood and her husband, Robert Wagner. He called them and they invited them over for the afternoon. Sal told Natalie he wanted to bring his boyfriend, Courtney. After a brief conversation Sal hung up and said, “fuck them.” They didn’t want sal to bring his boyfriend to their home.”



Sal was a category all unto himself. He also was “out,” something that was definitely not discussed back-in-the-day. It was assumed he had an affair with James Dean, but Sal was only 15 years of age during Rebel, so his virginity remained intact. However the late sixties was another period, Sal was well into his mature thirties. According to author Michael Gregg Michaud in his book- SAL MINEO: A BIOGRAPHY, (2010 crown archetype ) Sal de-flowered Bobby Sherman, who later became a teen-idol with the one season TV hit- “Here Come the Brides.”


Walking the shores of Malibu beach, Sal spotted Bobby, a then 19 year old native of Santa Monica. Sal invited him to his beach house, they became fast friends, and Sal developed an immediate obsession. A year later, Sal’s “girlfriend,”Jill Hayworth, ( his love interest in Exodus) came home early and found Sal fucking Bobby.. his legs in the air like a RCA antenna.

Sal was the top, Bobby the bottom.




Sal was also best friends with another teen idol- DAVID CASSITY.
Cassity credits Sal with helping him in the very beginning and believing in him when no one else did.

Despite being nominated twice and appearing in some of the most important American films, by 1970 Sal's career was washed up, finished. He was considered over-the-hill.
Sal was now acting in controversial, cutting edge plays-

FORTUNE AND MEN'S EYES, (by John Herbert)


In 1969 the play was produced and directed by Sal Mineo at the Coronet Theatre in Los Angeles. About a young man's experience in prison, exploring themes of homosexuality and sexual slavery.
Don Johnson played the lead role of Smitty, a young man sentenced to six months in prison for marijuana possession, who eventually becomes the sexual subordinate of another inmate, Rocky. Michael Greer played the role of Queenie, Smitty's cellmate.


During 1976, Sal was in rehearsals for the Los Angeles stage production of
“PS, YOUR CAT IS DEAD,” (by James Kirkwood)


The play is about a down on his luck actor named Jimmy who's been dumped by his girlfriend on New Year's Eve, and his beloved cat Tennessee (named after the playwright Tennessee Williams) has died in an animal clinic. He happens across a cat burglar, Vito, in his apartment. Furious, he beats the stranger unconscious and ties him to his kitchen sink. Jimmy begins to torment his terrified captive, Jimmy questions his own orientation as his relationship to Vito takes on a homosexual dimension, and decides to use his prisoner to exact revenge on his former lover.

The reviews from the NYC production were outstanding and Sal had a hit on his hands… his career was coming back.


On February 12th, returning home from rehearsals, Sal parked his blue Chevelle in the carport of his rented apartment at 8569 Holloway drive in West Hollywood, (owned by famous lawyer- Marvin Mitchelson). At about 11:30pm Sal’s neighbor, Raymond Evans recognized his voice, “ no! oh my god, help, please somebody help me!” The neighbors came out and found Sal lying in a pool of his own blood.


Sal bled to death in less than 5 minutes. When the detectives came to check out the crime scene, they entered his apartment and found gay porn magazines, props from Fortune in Men’s Eyes and some leathers in his closet. The theory that was leaked to the press was that Sal was murdered by a trick in an S&M encounter. Sal was reduced to the invisibility of a pervert,
who somehow deserved what happened to him because he was gay….
“and you know everything goes bad when you’re part of that lifestyle.”

Sal Mineo was dead at 37. He was stabbed once in the heart.



John Lennon once put up a reward to find Mineo's killer.
The case went unsolved for a year and a half, until a Michigan prison inmate,
Lionel Ray Williams did a bit of bragging to fellow prisoners that he had, “killed a star.”

The fellow prisoners ratted on him, and in 1979 Williams was convicted. His sentence was 51 years to life for a random, botched robbery. He didn’t even know the person he killed was Sal Mineo.



Lionel Williams is now released after serving about 25 years of the sentence.


Sal Mineo was buried beside his father at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York. At the time of his death, Sal was deeply in debt. David Cassity paid for his casket. His family and a few friends attended his funeral including, Rebel director Nicolas Ray, Desi Arnaz Jr, his ex girlfriend- Jill Hayworth and Michael Greer, his co-star from Fortune in Men’s Eyes. None of the superstars he worked with including Natalie Wood, Liz Taylor, Rock Hudson or Dennis Hopper bothered to attend.

In an excerpt from Michael Gregg Michaud’s
– SAL MINEO: A BIOGRAPHY-

On January 3rd, 1972, Sal said, “I spent the last five days of my father’s life with him in New York, and what I learned from him was how important the moments are every day and how quickly time goes. I realized that one day I would be in the same position as my father, facing death. Before it happens, I want to do the things I want to do. I don’t want to end saying,
“ I WISH I HAD.’”

self-portrait drawing by sal mineo- 1962

SAL MINEO: A BIOGRAPHY will be a new film directed by
JAMES FRANCO,
starring newcomer- VAL LAUREN.


james franco to direct the sal mineo story


writer- michael gregg michaud- photo i shot @ WARD OF THE STATE art opening on march 21st.

and here is a pic i took of val lauren @
WARD OF THE STATE art opening on march 21st.

val lauren will portray the upcoming film about sal mineo, directed by james franco, screenplay by michael gregg michaud