Sal Mineo

Salvatore Mineo, Jr. (January 10, 1939 - February 12, 1976) was an American actor and theater director, famous for his Academy Award-nominated performance opposite James Dean in the film Rebel Without A Cause.

Murder

By 1976 Mineo's career seemed to be turning around again. Playing the role of a gay burglar in a San Francisco run of the stage comedy P.S. Your Cat Is Dead, he received substantial publicity from many positive reviews and moved on to Los Angeles with the play. Arriving home after a rehearsal on 12 February 1976 Mineo was stabbed to death in the alley behind a West Hollywood apartment building. He was 37.

Related Topics:
San Francisco - P.S. Your Cat Is Dead - 12 February - 1976 - West Hollywood

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A career criminal named Lionel Ray Williams was later sentenced to life in prison for killing Mineo. Although there was considerable confusion relating to what witnesses had seen in the darkness the night Mineo was murdered, Williams was reported to have frequently boasted of the crime, which appears to have been a botched mugging. Williams was paroled in 1990 after serving 12 years but was jailed numerous times thereafter for parole violations.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sal Mineo is interred in the Cemetery of the Gate of Heaven in Hawthorne, New York.

Related Topics:
Cemetery of the Gate of Heaven - Hawthorne, New York

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~