Noreen Nash, actress on Giant, said in her book, that Liz and Rock were having a competition as to who would bed Dean first and that Rock won. This is undoubtedly a lie or fabrication. Dean is also alleged to have told Michael Wilding, Liz Taylor’s husband at the time, that “I am going to marry your wife.” Was this true and if yes, was it bravado or actually how Dean felt about Taylor? He shared his molestation as a child by his minister with her. In subsequent years, Taylor classified Dean as gay along with Clift and Hudson. If one wants to validate a premise there are many different proofs one can use. Dean was bi with loving relationships with women and at least one man (Bill Bast). How much of his affairs with men were for trade or with women for publicity purposes, is also subject to conjecture. How he would have turned out re: sexual preference is all conjecture. The way he lived his life, sadly, unless he changed, would never had been conducive to a long life.
Interesting the decisions we, as humans make, as to who we believe. While Dennis Hopper and Dean had a friendship (See RWAC wardrobe tests), some have stated the Hopper made more of the friendship than it was. It should be noted that Hopper was successful sued for defamation and money damages by actor Rip Torn. Hopper alleged that Torn pulled a knife on him during meeting regarding casting of Torn (in role that eventually Jack Nicholson played)in Easy Rider. The true story was Hopper pulled knife on Torn or Torn never pulled a knife on Hopper. If I recall directly, Torn received from Hopper several hundred thousands of dollars in damages. So Hopper was successfully sued for damages in that, the court found, he lied about the knife pulling incident and that lie damaged Torn’s reputation.
I have no doubt Hopper exaggerated his connection to Dean. But he is a verifiable human being who we can prove was actually there, and many of the things he claimed were witnessed by other people. That makes his claims more plausible than the non-existent folks and those who were demonstrably not present, though there is of course no way to know whether specific incidents actually occurred when only one witness recounted them. My general feeling is that he usually was telling the truth because at times, as in recalling Dean discussing "The Mysterious Stranger," he garbled information that documents would later show was based in fact.
Noreen Nash, actress on Giant, said in her book, that Liz and Rock were having a competition as to who would bed Dean first and that Rock won. This is undoubtedly a lie or fabrication. Dean is also alleged to have told Michael Wilding, Liz Taylor’s husband at the time, that “I am going to marry your wife.” Was this true and if yes, was it bravado or actually how Dean felt about Taylor? He shared his molestation as a child by his minister with her. In subsequent years, Taylor classified Dean as gay along with Clift and Hudson. If one wants to validate a premise there are many different proofs one can use. Dean was bi with loving relationships with women and at least one man (Bill Bast). How much of his affairs with men were for trade or with women for publicity purposes, is also subject to conjecture. How he would have turned out re: sexual preference is all conjecture. The way he lived his life, sadly, unless he changed, would never had been conducive to a long life.
Interesting the decisions we, as humans make, as to who we believe. While Dennis Hopper and Dean had a friendship (See RWAC wardrobe tests), some have stated the Hopper made more of the friendship than it was. It should be noted that Hopper was successful sued for defamation and money damages by actor Rip Torn. Hopper alleged that Torn pulled a knife on him during meeting regarding casting of Torn (in role that eventually Jack Nicholson played)in Easy Rider. The true story was Hopper pulled knife on Torn or Torn never pulled a knife on Hopper. If I recall directly, Torn received from Hopper several hundred thousands of dollars in damages. So Hopper was successfully sued for damages in that, the court found, he lied about the knife pulling incident and that lie damaged Torn’s reputation.
I have no doubt Hopper exaggerated his connection to Dean. But he is a verifiable human being who we can prove was actually there, and many of the things he claimed were witnessed by other people. That makes his claims more plausible than the non-existent folks and those who were demonstrably not present, though there is of course no way to know whether specific incidents actually occurred when only one witness recounted them. My general feeling is that he usually was telling the truth because at times, as in recalling Dean discussing "The Mysterious Stranger," he garbled information that documents would later show was based in fact.