43. James Dean as Jim Stark 
      Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

Did James Dean perfectly capture how teenagers behave, or do teenagers behave the way they do in part because of his revelatory performance in Rebel Without a Cause? Director Nicholas Ray gave the actor so much freedom to create his part that some on the crew thought Ray was getting pushed around. In fact, many of Dean’s most memorable and surprising moments were improvised—from the opening credit sequence, where he curls up in a fetal position with a toy monkey; to his unexpected giggle when he’s frisked by the police; to the way he cools his forehead with a milk bottle after returning home from seeing another kid plunge off a cliff to his death. Fifty years later, Jim’s anguished lament to his parents—“You’re tearing me apart!”—remains a teenage rallying cry.

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