Disappearing Actor

As if it wasn't enough of a bummer being dead, screen legend James Dean spent a brief time this month as a rebel without a tombstone.

According to the Associated Press, Dean's tombstone was stolen July 16 from its rightful place in a Fairmount, Ind., cemetery. Late the next day, however, an off-duty sheriff ran into it-literally. Tippecanoe Country Deputy Aaron Gilman rammed into it with his car while driving at night on a country road. The tombstone, described as a rose-colored granite slab weighing more than 400 pounds, was brought to the county jail. A representative (presumably a very large one) of the Dean estate picked it up the next day.

Stealing the late heart throb's tombstone has apparently become something of a hobby for the local folk. The July 16 vanishing marks the third time Dean's gravestone, which is visited by thousands of fans each year, has been pilfered.

Dean, who starred in East of Eden, Giant and, most famously, Rebel Without a Cause, was killed in a car accident in 1955 at the age of 24. He was born in the tiny town of Fairmount, and local residents were relieved to learn that their most famous citizen's tombstone had been found. "I'm glad they found it," said Lenny Prussack, gift shop manager at the James Dean Memorial Gallery, to the AP. "I guess somebody figured they couldn't do anything with it. You can't exactly show it to your friends."