“Sal Mineo: A Biography” by Michael Gregg Michaud
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“You’ve changed so much, I barely know you!”

Of course you’ve changed, you want to say to that distant aunt you rarely see. Last time she visited, you were five. A lot of time has passed since then and you did what comes normally: you grew up. Truth is, she really doesn’t know you.

But what about the rest of your family?

In the new book “Sal Mineo: A Biography” by Michael Gregg Michaud, you’ll see that Mineo was close to his siblings early-on, and they shared everything.

But when he was murdered, they hadn’t a clue…

Sal Mineo’s parents always treated their children equally: opportunity and possessions were strictly balanced. So when Sal, the youngest son, became smitten with acting at age eight, his parents paid for music lessons for their two older boys while Sal learned to dance.

Quickly becoming a regular at New York City auditions, Sal was obsessed with dancing, which led to an obsession with acting that worried his mother. By age 11, he was working on Broadway. Before he was 16, he was working in Hollywood with James Dean and Natalie Wood in Rebel Without a Cause, and bringing home more money than was his coffin-making father.

Co-stars and co-workers described Mineo as an “angel” and a “puppy-dog” who was open and eager to learn. He was friendly but focused on his acting and was willing to try anything his directors asked of him. Mineo and Wood became close friends, as did Mineo and James Dean. Some even say that Mineo had a crush on Dean.

“Rebel Without a Cause” made Mineo a star. His singing career and his good looks made him a teenage heartthrob. Indeed, he was known as a ladies’ man who dated women as often as possible, and he was nearly engaged to long-time girlfriend, Jill Haworth. But Haworth noticed certain Mineo quirks that made her uncomfortable.

Mineo was heavily into drugs and partying, and requests for his talents had begun to dry up. He was also heavily in debt and had distanced himself from his family, who vociferously denied rumors coming from Hollywood. But then there was the night Haworth caught Mineo in bed with Bobby Sherman…

Kaboom.

Yes, that’s probably the most explosive, most controversial thing you’ll read in this book except, perhaps, what’s written about Don Johnson – neither of which makes this a good book.

But “Sal Mineo: A Biography” isn’t bad, either.

Author Michael Gregg Michaud does a thorough job with his subject and while many parts are lively and interesting, there were times when my eyes slammed shut because the plethora of names and locales began to swim together. Then, in the space of a paragraph, something juicy would snap my focus back and I found myself enjoying this biography again – until the next time.

And so it went for nearly 400 pages.

Overall, I think “Sal Mineo: A Biography” is both good and bad, middle-of-the-road, about average as Hollywood biographies go. But I just don’t know that I can recommend it.

The Bookworm is Terri Schlichenmeyer. Terri has been reading since she was 3 years old and she never goes anywhere without a book. She lives on a hill in Wisconsin with two dogs and 11,000 books.

Tags: 2011, 38-09, EARLY MAY