Blind Items Revealed #2

June 7, 2018

One of the longest held secrets in Hollywood was known by a handful of people. I was never one of those people. Even as the secret was passed down to a second and then a third generation, I still never knew. It was not until the last week of April that I was told the secret and that it was OK to talk about it now because the subject of the secret had been killed in an auto accident. That was kind of fitting considering that is how he "died," the first time. He was A+ list that first time. The entire world loved him and adored him and he hated every second of it. He wanted no part of it. So, with the help of a police chief who thought the world of him and a rival studio head who was willing to do anything to not watch those big box office numbers he put up, they got to work. The studio chief got some set designers and stunt people and they created a car wreck. The police chief donated a body from the morgue no one was going to claim, so they could bury a body and it was all set. The studio chief signed a contract with the actor and it basically paid him about $1500 a week for his entire life. And boy did he live a long life. When he was killed north of the border in an auto accident in April he was 95 or 96 depending on whether you used his Canadian or American birth certificate. For much of the past 60 some odd years he had lived in a remote section of that northern country, but in the past few years moved to a much larger city so he and his wife could be closer to medical care. Being 95/96 didn't stop his love of driving though and his wife loved being with him when he did. She was with him in the car when they were hit by a tractor trailer. His wife is expected to make a full recovery.

James Dean