Sal Mineo

Biography

Sal Mineo was a Golden Globe-winning American film and theatre actor, renowned for his Academy Award-nominated role alongside James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause. Born in the United States, Mineo gained prominence in the late 1960s as one of the first major actors in Hollywood to openly acknowledge his homosexuality. By 1976, his career was revitalized through a successful portrayal of a bisexual burglar in the stage comedy P.S. Your Cat Is Dead, which garnered positive reviews and publicity. Tragically, Mineo's life was cut short when he was fatally stabbed on February 12, 1976, in an alley behind his West Hollywood apartment, at the age of 37. The attack resulted in a single stab wound that struck his heart. Mineo was laid to rest in the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York.