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How did Elia Kazan cast James Dean in East of Eden?
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Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan on the set of Panic in the Streets, 1950.
Director Elia Kazan cast James Dean in the lead role of Cal Trask for the 1955 film East of Eden after seeing the actor's performance in the Broadway production The Immoralist (1954). In that stage adaptation of André Gide’s work, Dean had delivered a "sly, insinuating performance" as a blackmailing houseboy, which brought him to Kazan's attention.1