Sal Mineo, best known for playing John “Plato” Crawford in the 1955 film Rebel Without a Cause, was an established stage, television, and movie performer from his career as a child actor before becoming a star in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Mineo’s work on Rebel Without a Cause is often overshadowed by that of James Dean, yet there is much to know about this talented and versatile actor, from his days as a child actor to his complicated love life to his tragic murder at the age of 37. Let’s look at the Hollywood career of Sal Mineo.
Born in The Bronx in 1939, Sal Mineo was the son of Italian immigrants from Sicily who settled in New York City and worked as coffin makers. As a youngster, Josephine Mineo enrolled her son, Sal, and her other children, Sarina, Michael, and Victor, in the Quintano School for Young Professionals where they learned to dance and act. Although most Italian-American actors of the Golden Age of Hollywood changed their names to sound more American, Mineo refused to do so. He explained that he was proud of his family name and his Italian heritage.
In 1951, Sal Mineo landed his first stage role in Tennessee Williams’s The Rose Tattoo. That same year, he played the young prince opposite Yul Brynner in The King and I. Mineo later credited Yul Brynner with helping him hone his acting skills.
Brynner’s guidance paid off. Young Sal Mineo played the Page in Salome, the NBC Opera Theatre’s production in 1954. This performance opened the door to his television and film career. As a teenager, he was cast in a musical quiz show on television, as well as a few other small screen roles. Sal Mineo’s big screen debut came in 1955 when he beat out other actors, including Clint Eastwood, for a role in Six Bridges to Cross. Later that year, he appeared opposite Charlton Heston in The Private War of Major Benson.
In fact, 1955 was a pivotal year for Sal Mineo. He portrayed a Jewish boy in the Broadway production of The Diary of Anne Frank, a performance that garnered him critical acclaim and earned him a Tony Award nomination. He was just 16 years old at the time, making him the youngest actor at the time to be nominated for this award.
Sal Mineo also appeared in Rebel Without a Cause in 1955. Starring alongside James Dean and Natalie Wood, Mineo played a troubled teen struggling with his identity and sexuality. The film became a cultural phenomenon.
Following the success of Rebel Without a Cause, Sal Mineo appeared in Giant in 1956 and Exodus in 1960, a film for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
As the 1960s wore on, however, Sal Mineo struggled to find movie roles. As he grew older, casting directors could no longer cast him in the types of roles he typically had. In addition, there were constant whispers that Mineo was a homosexual, so some directors didn’t want to put him in leading man roles. In 1972, he confirmed that he was bisexual.
A decade earlier, Sal Mineo met Jill Haworth, an English actress, when they were both cast in the 1960 film, Exodus. Mineo and Haworth began an on-again-off-again romance that lasted for several years. They were even engaged at one point, but reportedly, Haworth called off the wedding after catching Mineo in bed with another man. Despite the breakup, the two remained close. In one widely publicized story, Mineo strongly disapproved of Haworth’s brief affair with producer Aaron Spelling who was more than two decades older than her. Haworth and Spelling were enjoying a night out at a Beverly Hills nightclub when Mineo confronted them. He punched Spelling in the face, shouting, “Don’t you know how old she is?”
On the evening of February 12, 1976, Sal Mineo was returning home after rehearsal for a play he was in. He parked his car near his apartment and was attacked by a mugger as he walked to his home. The attacker stabbed Mineo in the heart. Although he cried for help and neighbors immediately came to his aid, he still bled to death before the ambulance arrived. The assailant was later identified as a pizza delivery man with a lengthy criminal history. Sal Mineo was only 37 years old. The motive for the murder was determined to be an attempted robbery. The news of Mineo’s untimely death shocked Hollywood and his fans, as it marked the loss of the talented actor.