James Dean's Porsche 550 Spyder

The Porsche 550 Spyder in which the actor James Dean died, and the curse story that grew around its wreck, which Dean archivist Warren Beath traces to the car customiser George Barris.

The actor James Dean was killed in a car wreck after a career of only three films. The Los Angeles Times noted in 2005 that the Jack Ranch Cafe stands half a mile from the spot. The Tribune of San Luis Obispo reported in 2011 that Dean gave his last autograph that afternoon, some twenty miles south of Bakersfield. Otie V. Hunter, a CHP officer, had ticketed him for doing 65 mph in his Porsche Spyder on Highway 99, where the limit was 55, a $25 fine.

Wikipedia says Warren Beath, a Dean archivist and author, credits the curse to George Barris, a car customiser who said he was the first to buy the wreck. Barris went on to promote the curse once he had put the wreck on public display in 1956.

The writer Jason Colavito says that in 1974 Barris and Jack Scagnetti built an earlier tale of a jinx into a complete supernatural curse in Cars of the Stars, the book they wrote together, adding doubtful and invented details. One of them, the car rolling off its mount and crushing a teenager's hip at a school event, left no trace in any newspaper, Colavito notes.

In 2021 the Spyder's transaxle sold on Bring a Trailer for $382,000, and the winning bidder said it would be shown at a museum in Las Vegas, The Drive reported.