Sal Mineo was one of the most talented and versatile actors of his generation. He rose to fame as a teenager in the 1950s, playing sensitive and troubled characters in movies such as Rebel Without a Cause, Giant, and Exodus. He earned two Academy Award nominations and a Golden Globe for his performances. He also had a successful career on stage, directing and starring in plays such as Fortune and Men’s Eyes and P.S. Your Cat Is Dead. He was a pioneer in breaking the stereotypes of ethnic and sexual minorities in Hollywood. He was also a victim of a tragic murder at the age of 37.
It would be easy to blame Hollywood to say that I was typed and forced to play the same role over and over. For a while, I did. But the truth is that I knew what I was doing. I was enjoying myself. I was making money. I suppose that it had to stop. I made some good pictures, and I made some bad ones. I wasn’t trying to build an image, though; I was trying to build a life for myself.
Sal Mineo
Early Life and Education
Sal Mineo was born on January 10, 1939, in The Bronx, New York City, to Josephine and Salvatore Mineo Sr., who were coffin makers and immigrants from Sicily. He had three siblings: Michael, Victor, and Sarina. He was of Sicilian descent and proud of his heritage and identity. He was a rebellious and restless child, who joined a street gang and was arrested for robbery at age 10. His mother enrolled him in a dancing and acting school to keep him out of trouble. He soon showed a natural talent for performing and landed his first stage role in Tennessee Williams’s play The Rose Tattoo, opposite Maureen Stapleton and Eli Wallach. He also played the young prince in the musical The King and I, with Gertrude Lawrence and Yul Brynner, who mentored him as an actor.
Rise to Stardom
Mineo made his screen debut in the 1955 movie Six Bridges to Cross, with Tony Curtis. He also auditioned for a part in The Private War of Major Benson, with Charlton Heston, but lost it to Clint Eastwood. However, he got his breakthrough role later that year, when he played John “Plato” Crawford, a lonely and misunderstood teenager who idolizes Jim Stark (James Dean) in Rebel Without a Cause. Mineo’s performance was praised by critics and audiences alike, and he received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor at age 17, making him the fifth-youngest nominee in the category.
Mineo continued to play complex and troubled characters in movies such as Crime in the Streets, Giant (both 1956), Dino (1957), The Young Don’t Cry (1957), Tonka (1958), The Gene Krupa Story (1959), and Exodus (1960). In Exodus, he played Dov Landau, a Holocaust survivor who joins the fight for Israel’s independence.
He won a Golden Globe and received another Oscar nomination for this role. He also starred in war movies such as The Longest Day (1962) and Cheyenne Autumn (1964), John Ford’s final western.
Stage Career and Personal Life
Mineo was not satisfied with being typecast as a juvenile delinquent or an ethnic sidekick in Hollywood. He wanted to explore more challenging and diverse roles on stage. He directed and starred in the play Fortune and Men’s Eyes, which dealt with homosexuality and prison violence, in New York and Los Angeles in 1969. He also appeared in plays such as The Rose Tattoo (1970), P.S. Your Cat Is Dead (1975), Wait Until Dark (1976), among others.
Mineo was also open about his bisexuality at a time when it was taboo in Hollywood. He had relationships with both men and women, including actress Jill Haworth, who co-starred with him in Exodus, actor Courtney Burr III, who was his partner from 1970 until his death, singer Bobby Sherman, actress Yvonne Craig, actor David Cassidy, among others. He was also friends with celebrities such as John Lennon, Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, Natalie Wood, etc.
Death and Legacy
On February 12, 1976, Mineo was returning home from rehearsing for the play P.S. Your Cat Is Dead, which he was going to open in Los Angeles with Keir Dullea. As he parked his car near his apartment building in West Hollywood, he was attacked and stabbed to death by a stranger. The killer turned out to be Lionel Ray Williams, a 17-year-old drug addict who had no idea who Mineo was and only wanted to rob him. Williams was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, but was paroled in 1990.
Mineo’s death shocked and saddened his fans and friends around the world. He was buried at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in New York. His star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is located at 7080 Hollywood Boulevard.
