Sal Mineo can refer to two artists.
1. Salvatore "Sal" Mineo, Jr. (… Read Full Bio ↴Sal Mineo can refer to two artists.
1. Salvatore "Sal" Mineo, Jr. (January 10, 1939 – February 12, 1976) was an American movie and stage actor, famous for his Academy Award-nominated performance opposite James Dean in the film Rebel Without a Cause.
Mineo, born in The Bronx, New York City as the son of a Sicilian coffin maker, was enrolled by his mother in dancing and acting school at an early age.
Acting career
Mineo had his first stage appearance in The Rose Tattoo (1950), a play by Tennessee Williams. He also played the young prince opposite Yul Brynner in the stage musical The King and I.
After a few more film and television appearances his breakthrough was Rebel Without A Cause (1955) in which he gave an impressive performance as John "Plato" Crawford, the sensitive teenager smitten with James Dean's Jim Stark. His biographer Paul Jeffers recounted that Mineo received thousands of fan letters from young female admirers, was mobbed by them at public appearances and further wrote, "He dated the most beautiful women in Hollywood and New York." On the other hand, in An Introduction to Film Studies (2003), Jill Nelmes discusses "how gay men derived particular sub-cultural messages from such films as Rebel Without a Cause when empathising with the relationship between Jim (James Dean) and Plato (Sal Mineo)." According to Robert Aldrich and Garry Wotherspoon's Who's Who in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History: From World War II to the Present Day, Dean's "loving tenderness towards the besotted Sal Mineo in Rebel Without a Cause" touches and excites "gay audiences by its honesty." Mineo also appeared in Dean's last film, Giant (1956), although they didn't share any screen time.
Many of his subsequent roles were variations of his role in Rebel Without a Cause and he often played juvenile delinquents. In the Disney adventure Tonka, for instance, Mineo starred as a young Sioux named White Bull who traps and domesticates a clear-eyed, spirited wild horse named "Tonka" who becomes the famous horse Comanche. In his book, Multiculturalism And The Mouse: Race and Sex in Disney Entertainment (2006), Douglas Brode states that the very casting of Mineo as White Bull again "ensured a homosexual subtext." By the late 1950s the actor was a major celebrity, sometimes referred to as the "Switchblade Kid."
In 1957, Mineo made a brief foray into music by recording a handful of songs and an album. Two of his singles reached the Top 40 pop charts. He starred as drummer Gene Krupa in the movie The Gene Krupa Story (1959), co-starring Susan Kohner, James Darren, and Susan Oliver, and directed by Don Weis.
Meanwhile, Mineo made an effort to break his typecasting. His acting ability and exotic good looks earned him not only roles as a Native American boy in Tonka, but also as a Jewish emigrant in Otto Preminger's Exodus (1960) for which he received another Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor (and reportedly was bitterly disappointed when he didn't win.)
By the early 1960s he was getting too old to play the types that had made him famous and for a variety of reasons wasn't considered appropriate for leading roles. He auditioned for David Lean's film Lawrence of Arabia but wasn't hired. Mineo was baffled by his sudden loss of popularity, later saying "One minute it seemed I had more movie offers than I could handle, the next, no one wanted me."
His role as a stalker in Who Killed Teddy Bear? (1965), co-starring Juliet Prowse, didn't seem to help. Although his performance was praised by critics, he found himself typecast anew, now as a deranged criminal. (He never entirely escaped this; one of his last roles was a guest spot on the 1975 TV series S.W.A.T. playing a Manson-like cult leader.) He returned to the stage to produce the gay-themed Fortune and Men's Eyes (1971), starring Don Johnson of later Miami Vice fame. Although the play got positive reviews in Los Angeles, it was panned during a run in New York and its expanded prison rape scene was criticized as excessive and prurient. A string of failed projects and flops followed. A small role in Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) as chimpanzee Dr. Milo turned out to be Mineo's last movie appearance.
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 February 12, 1976, Mineo was stabbed to death in the alley behind a West Hollywood apartment building. He was 37 years old. (He was stabbed just once, not repeatedly as first reported, but the blade struck his heart, leading to immediate and massive internal bleeding.)
According to Warren Johansson and William A. Percy's Outing: Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence, he was murdered under circumstances that suggested "a homosexual motive." Investigators reportedly found gay pornography in his home and assumed that such men would only have their sexuality as a defining mark in every aspect of their life. (Mineo identified himself as "bisexual" in a 1972 interview, published after his death, but his biography notes that he dated men exclusively in the last years of his short life.)
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 boasted of the crime, which turned out to be a botched mugging. At the time of the murder, Williams had no idea who Sal Mineo was. Williams was paroled in 1990, after serving twelve years, but was jailed numerous times afterwards for parole violations.
Mineo is interred in the Cemetery of the Gate of Heaven in Hawthorne, New York.
At the opera
A little-known facet of Mineo's career was his involvement with opera. On May 8, 1954, he portrayed the Page (miming to the voice of mezzo-soprano Carol Jones) in the NBC Opera Theatre's production of Richard Strauss' Salome (in English translation), set to the play of Oscar Wilde. Elaine Malbin performed the title role, and Peter Herman Adler conducted Kirk Browning's production.
In December of 1972, Mineo stage directed Gian Carlo Menotti's The Medium, in Detroit. Muriel Costa-Greenspon portrayed the medium, Madame Flora, and Mineo himself played the mute Toby.
2. Sal Mineo is the name of a Los Angeles-based musical project comprised of Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu) and Eugene S. Robinson (Oxbow).
1. Salvatore "Sal" Mineo, Jr. (… Read Full Bio ↴Sal Mineo can refer to two artists.
1. Salvatore "Sal" Mineo, Jr. (January 10, 1939 – February 12, 1976) was an American movie and stage actor, famous for his Academy Award-nominated performance opposite James Dean in the film Rebel Without a Cause.
Mineo, born in The Bronx, New York City as the son of a Sicilian coffin maker, was enrolled by his mother in dancing and acting school at an early age.
Acting career
Mineo had his first stage appearance in The Rose Tattoo (1950), a play by Tennessee Williams. He also played the young prince opposite Yul Brynner in the stage musical The King and I.
After a few more film and television appearances his breakthrough was Rebel Without A Cause (1955) in which he gave an impressive performance as John "Plato" Crawford, the sensitive teenager smitten with James Dean's Jim Stark. His biographer Paul Jeffers recounted that Mineo received thousands of fan letters from young female admirers, was mobbed by them at public appearances and further wrote, "He dated the most beautiful women in Hollywood and New York." On the other hand, in An Introduction to Film Studies (2003), Jill Nelmes discusses "how gay men derived particular sub-cultural messages from such films as Rebel Without a Cause when empathising with the relationship between Jim (James Dean) and Plato (Sal Mineo)." According to Robert Aldrich and Garry Wotherspoon's Who's Who in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History: From World War II to the Present Day, Dean's "loving tenderness towards the besotted Sal Mineo in Rebel Without a Cause" touches and excites "gay audiences by its honesty." Mineo also appeared in Dean's last film, Giant (1956), although they didn't share any screen time.
Many of his subsequent roles were variations of his role in Rebel Without a Cause and he often played juvenile delinquents. In the Disney adventure Tonka, for instance, Mineo starred as a young Sioux named White Bull who traps and domesticates a clear-eyed, spirited wild horse named "Tonka" who becomes the famous horse Comanche. In his book, Multiculturalism And The Mouse: Race and Sex in Disney Entertainment (2006), Douglas Brode states that the very casting of Mineo as White Bull again "ensured a homosexual subtext." By the late 1950s the actor was a major celebrity, sometimes referred to as the "Switchblade Kid."
In 1957, Mineo made a brief foray into music by recording a handful of songs and an album. Two of his singles reached the Top 40 pop charts. He starred as drummer Gene Krupa in the movie The Gene Krupa Story (1959), co-starring Susan Kohner, James Darren, and Susan Oliver, and directed by Don Weis.
Meanwhile, Mineo made an effort to break his typecasting. His acting ability and exotic good looks earned him not only roles as a Native American boy in Tonka, but also as a Jewish emigrant in Otto Preminger's Exodus (1960) for which he received another Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor (and reportedly was bitterly disappointed when he didn't win.)
By the early 1960s he was getting too old to play the types that had made him famous and for a variety of reasons wasn't considered appropriate for leading roles. He auditioned for David Lean's film Lawrence of Arabia but wasn't hired. Mineo was baffled by his sudden loss of popularity, later saying "One minute it seemed I had more movie offers than I could handle, the next, no one wanted me."
His role as a stalker in Who Killed Teddy Bear? (1965), co-starring Juliet Prowse, didn't seem to help. Although his performance was praised by critics, he found himself typecast anew, now as a deranged criminal. (He never entirely escaped this; one of his last roles was a guest spot on the 1975 TV series S.W.A.T. playing a Manson-like cult leader.) He returned to the stage to produce the gay-themed Fortune and Men's Eyes (1971), starring Don Johnson of later Miami Vice fame. Although the play got positive reviews in Los Angeles, it was panned during a run in New York and its expanded prison rape scene was criticized as excessive and prurient. A string of failed projects and flops followed. A small role in Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) as chimpanzee Dr. Milo turned out to be Mineo's last movie appearance.
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 February 12, 1976, Mineo was stabbed to death in the alley behind a West Hollywood apartment building. He was 37 years old. (He was stabbed just once, not repeatedly as first reported, but the blade struck his heart, leading to immediate and massive internal bleeding.)
According to Warren Johansson and William A. Percy's Outing: Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence, he was murdered under circumstances that suggested "a homosexual motive." Investigators reportedly found gay pornography in his home and assumed that such men would only have their sexuality as a defining mark in every aspect of their life. (Mineo identified himself as "bisexual" in a 1972 interview, published after his death, but his biography notes that he dated men exclusively in the last years of his short life.)
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 boasted of the crime, which turned out to be a botched mugging. At the time of the murder, Williams had no idea who Sal Mineo was. Williams was paroled in 1990, after serving twelve years, but was jailed numerous times afterwards for parole violations.
Mineo is interred in the Cemetery of the Gate of Heaven in Hawthorne, New York.
At the opera
A little-known facet of Mineo's career was his involvement with opera. On May 8, 1954, he portrayed the Page (miming to the voice of mezzo-soprano Carol Jones) in the NBC Opera Theatre's production of Richard Strauss' Salome (in English translation), set to the play of Oscar Wilde. Elaine Malbin performed the title role, and Peter Herman Adler conducted Kirk Browning's production.
In December of 1972, Mineo stage directed Gian Carlo Menotti's The Medium, in Detroit. Muriel Costa-Greenspon portrayed the medium, Madame Flora, and Mineo himself played the mute Toby.
2. Sal Mineo is the name of a Los Angeles-based musical project comprised of Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu) and Eugene S. Robinson (Oxbow).
Down By The Riverside
Sal Mineo Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I met my little bright-eyed doll
Down by the riverside
Down by the riverside
Down by that riverside
I met my little bright-eyed doll
Down by the riverside
Down by the riverside
Well, I asked her for a little kiss
Down by the riverside
Down by the riverside
Down by that riverside
i asked her for a little kiss
Down by the riverside
Down by the riverside
She said: "Have patience, little man
I'm sure you'll understand
I hardly know you're name,"
I said: "If I can have my way
Maybe some sweet day
My name and yours will be the same,"
I'd wed my little bright-eyed doll
Down by the riverside
Way down by the riverside
Down by that riverside
I'd wed my little bright-eyed doll
Down by the riverside
Way down by the riverside
Down by that riverside
She said: "Have patience, little man
I'm sure you'll understand
I hardly know you're name,"
I said: "If I can have my way
Maybe some sweet day
My name and yours will be the same,"
I'd wed my little bright-eyed doll
Down by the riverside
Way down by the riverside
Down by that riverside
I'd wed my little bright-eyed doll
Down by the riverside
Way down by the riverside
Down by that riverside
Down by the riverside
Down by the riverside
Down by that riverside
I met my little bright-eyed doll
Down by the riverside
Down by the riverside
Down by the riverside
Down by the riverside
Down by that riverside
i asked her for a little kiss
Down by the riverside
Down by the riverside
She said: "Have patience, little man
I'm sure you'll understand
I hardly know you're name,"
I said: "If I can have my way
Maybe some sweet day
My name and yours will be the same,"
I'd wed my little bright-eyed doll
Down by the riverside
Way down by the riverside
Down by that riverside
I'd wed my little bright-eyed doll
Down by the riverside
Way down by the riverside
Down by that riverside
She said: "Have patience, little man
I'm sure you'll understand
I hardly know you're name,"
I said: "If I can have my way
Maybe some sweet day
My name and yours will be the same,"
I'd wed my little bright-eyed doll
Down by the riverside
Way down by the riverside
Down by that riverside
I'd wed my little bright-eyed doll
Down by the riverside
Way down by the riverside
Down by that riverside
The song “Down by the Riverside” by Sal Mineo is a love song about a man who met his “little bright-eyed doll” down by the riverside. He is so smitten with her that he asks her for a kiss. However, the woman is hesitant and tells him to be patient because she hardly knows him. The man persists and tells her that maybe one day they will be married and have the same last name. Throughout the song, the man reiterates that he would like to wed his “little bright-eyed doll” down by the riverside.
The lyrics of “Down by the Riverside” suggest a romantic, whimsical love story. The use of the term “little bright-eyed doll” portrays the man’s affection towards the woman. The riverside serves as a symbol for the couple’s meeting place and where they may eventually wed. The woman’s hesitation to kiss the man suggests that she wants to take things slow, while the man’s persistence suggests he is determined to win her over. The lyrics have a sense of innocence and naivete, as the man is not deterred by the woman’s hesitation and seems steadfast in his desire to be with her.
Line by Line Meaning
I met my little bright-eyed doll
I encountered a charming and attractive person
Down by the riverside
Near or next to the river
Down by that riverside
In the vicinity of the river
I asked her for a little kiss
I requested physical affection, likely in the form of a kiss
She said: "Have patience, little man
She advised me to wait, as we do not yet know each other well
I'm sure you'll understand
She believes that I will comprehend her request for patience
I hardly know your name,"
She does not know me very well yet
I said: "If I can have my way
I replied that I would like to proceed according to my wishes
Maybe some sweet day
At an unspecified point in the future
My name and yours will be the same,"
Our names will be united through marriage
I'd wed my little bright-eyed doll
I would marry this attractive person
Way down by the riverside
At a location far from here, by the river
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Songtrust Ave, Peermusic Publishing
Written by: TRADITIONAL, KRIS IFE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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satyricon55
Symbol of eternal youth.Sal was the best.
THIS IS MY FIRST TIME SEEING THIS
Happy birthday Sal Mineo.
spinout3
great track
Denon1970
Very nice song, a spanish fan.
Thomas Becker
Sal was so handsome, so cute .
7beers
Not a bad voice at all.
Bo K
So cute!
Richard40171
Competent vocal, compared to Seven Steps to Love. As a Gospel song lover I don't know why they couldn't rename the song. I have no problem with secularizing Gospel songs ( Ray Charles was among the first); but do a complete makeover. Why call it "Down by the Riverside" when it could have been easily retitled as "Down by the Ocean's Tide" or a similar type of title. We know that "I Got a Woman" by Charles was a take on a Gospel song.
Un Poco Loco
GAY! Not "guy"...