LOS ANGELES (AP) β Frank Mazzola, the real-life tough guy who taught James Dean how to stage an authentic-looking fight scene for the 1955 film classic “Rebel Without a Cause,” has died at age 79.
A spokeswoman for the Motion Picture and Television Fund tells the Los Angeles Times ( http://lat.ms/1unOkEi ) Mazzola died Jan. 13.
Mazzola, who eventually became a film editor, was by his own account a child actor turned street hoodlum when he sneaked onto the set of “Rebel.” He had had a bit part in Dean’s previous film “East of Eden.”
He so impressed “Rebel’s” director with how young people really behaved that he was hired as a consultant.
He went on to add realistic dialogue to the film as well as show Dean how to choreograph the famous knife-fight scene.
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Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com/
