William Bast, a renowned television screenwriter who won an Edgar award, was the first biographer of James Dean, his close friend and lover. The two met and became close while studying drama at the University of California, Los Angeles (U.C.L.A.),and later shared a living space in New York City.
Bast wrote his biography of Dean just a year after the actor's untimely death in 1956, titled "James Dean: A Biography". This work served as the basis for the 1976 television movie "James Dean", which Bast also wrote and produced. The TV movie portrayed Dean as a bisexual individual, with Bast, who appeared as a character in the teleplay, stating that Dean's closest relationship was with a woman named Liz Sheridan.
Thirty years later, Bast published a more candid memoir about his relationship with Dean, titled "Surviving James Dean". In this book, he described Dean as a homosexual who likely would have entered into a committed, gay relationship with him if he had not been killed in a car accident on September 30, 1955. Bast disputed the notion that Dean and Sheridan were in love and briefly engaged, claiming that he himself contributed to the myths surrounding Dean's sexuality in the conservative 1950s. The 1976 telefilm features Dean encouraging Bast to engage in gay sex at the Astor Hotel in New York City as a means of gaining experience.
In addition to his 1956 biography, 2006 memoir, and 1976 television movie, Bast also wrote a screenplay for a 1958 British television teleplay titled "The Myth Makers", which was later adapted for American television as "The Movie Star" in 1962.
