As any film historian will be eager to tell you, James Dean had only three credited roles in major motion pictures before his death in a car crash in 1955. His first credited film was Elia Kazan's "East of Eden," released in March of 1955, and based on the novel by John Steinbeck. Tragically, on September 30, James Dean died on the road near Cholame, California, so his second and third films were released posthumously. Dean's second film, incidentally, was Nicholas Ray's "Rebel Without a Cause," one of the best-known films of the 1950s, released at the end of October. Dean's third and final credited film was George Stevens' epic "Giant," based on the novel by Edna Ferber, and released in October of 1956.