Best movies like James Dean
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The man behind the legend and a knowing look at the 1950's Hollywood are revealed in this dynamic bioepic of the meteoric star whose troubled life echoed his gut-grabbing performances in East of Eden, Rebel Without A Cause and Giant.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: sentimental, serious, realistic, captivating, clever, iconic
Best tv shows and movies like James Dean (2001):
Similar in 76%
Harlow (1965)
Plot Summary:
Hollywood drama loosely based on the life of film actress Jean Harlow, with Carroll Baker in the title role. One of two feature film biographies, both released in 1965 and both with the same title, about the '30s platinum blonde movie star.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, sexual, entertaining, crying, sexy
Similar in 81%
Valentino (1977)
Plot Summary:
In 1926 the tragic and untimely death of a silent screen actor caused female moviegoers to riot in the streets and in some cases to commit suicide.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: independent film, offbeat, serious, realistic, stylized, crying, period drama, campy
Similar in 83%
The George Raft Story (1961)
Plot Summary:
Ray Danton plays the title role in director Joseph M. Newman's 1961 film biography of the nightclub dancer-turned-movie star. The cast also includes Jayne Mansfield, Barrie Chase, Julie London, Neville Brand and Frank Gorshin.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 290
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: independent film, serious, realistic, stylized, slang, psychotronic
Similar in 84%
Burton and Taylor (2013)
Plot Summary:
TV drama based on Richard Burton's diaries, about his last performance in 1983 with ex-wife Elizabeth Taylor. They meet after several years and he agrees to her suggestion that they star in a stage revival on Broadway of Noel Coward's comedy 'Private Lives', although Elizabeth Taylor has never before performed on stage. Burton soon regrets his agreement, however, when her pill-popping and lack of discipline causes problems already during the rehearsals. The play opens to a critical trashing, but is popular with audiences because they just want to see Taylor. After a two month troubled run, the curtain comes down and Taylor tells Burton she has always loved him and still does. A year later he is dead.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, captivating, stylized, cult classic, historical drama, crying
Similar in 86%
Hendrix (2000)
Plot Summary:
Biography of rock star Jimi Hendrix chronicles his early career, including a stint with Little Richard who fired him for getting too flamboyant, to his tragic failure.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: captivating, realistic, serious, gloomy
Similar in 78%
Gable and Lombard (1976)
Plot Summary:
A biography about the love affair between 1930s Hollywood superstars Clark Gable and Carole Lombard.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 639
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: realistic, stylized, semi serious, sexual, sexy
Similar in 80%
Growing Up Brady (2000)
Plot Summary:
A tell-all story of what happened behind the scenes of the 70s hit TV series "The Brady Bunch." Based on the book written by Barry Williams, the actor who played Greg Brady.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 704
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sitcom, sentimental, humorous, semi serious, touching, realistic, sexual, sexy
Similar in 90%
W.C. Fields and Me (1976)
Plot Summary:
Film biography of actor-comedian W.C. Fields, concentrating on his years in Hollywood and his relationship with aspiring actress Caroltta Monti.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 495
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, skit, silent, parody, silent film
Similar in 86%
Flynn (1993)
Plot Summary:
A biographical movie on the film star Errol Flynn's early life before Hollywood fame.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 321
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Australia, USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 89%
The Jayne Mansfield Story (1980)
Plot Summary:
The gaudy rise and dizzy fall of the last great Hollywood blonde bombshell: Jayne Mansfield.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 956
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sentimental, uplifting, touching, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, gloomy, psychotronic, nostalgic
Similar in 84%
The Anna Nicole Smith Story (2007)
Plot Summary:
Born Vickie Lynn Hogan, she had a son at 18, became a stripper at 20, and married a billionaire at 26. Sheer determination turned her into Anna Nicole Smith, playmate, model and a household name.
IMDB Rating: 4.1
IMDB Votes: 632
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: sexy, realistic, serious, captivating
Similar in 85%
Bettie Page: Dark Angel (2004)
Plot Summary:
Bettie Page was America's number one pin-up girl in the 1950s and became a cult icon. This biopic tells the story of the last 3 years of her short-lived career, recreating the incriminating bondage films which gave her the nickname "Dark Angel", and led to her mysterious disappearance.
IMDB Rating: 3.4
IMDB Votes: 281
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, sexual, captivating, sexy, iconic
Similar in 90%
Will There Really Be a Morning? (1983)
Plot Summary:
This is the story of actress Frances Farmer, her struggles with mental illness and involuntary confinement in an insane asylum.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 125
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 90%
The Brittany Murphy Story (2014)
Plot Summary:
A look at Brittany Murphy's rise to Hollywood fame in the 1990s, her struggles with celebrity and self-esteem, and her mysterious death in 2009 at the age of 32.
IMDB Rating: 3.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: sentimental, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 86%
Polanski Unauthorized (2009)
Plot Summary:
An unauthorized chronicle of the life of Roman Polanski.
IMDB Rating: 2.7
IMDB Votes: 164
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, realistic, captivating, sexual, independent film, sexy
Similar in 79%
Bruce Lee, My Brother (2010)
Plot Summary:
Bruce Lee, My Brother is an action-dramatic biopic of the eponymous martial arts legend as told by his younger brother, Robert Lee. It revolves around Bruce Lee's life as a rebellious adolescent in Hong Kong before he sets off for the USA and conquers the world at the age of 18 with only US$100 in his pocket.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Hong Kong, China
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, captivating, realistic, mind blowing
Similar in 89%
RKO 281 (1999)
Plot Summary:
A film about the making of Citizen Kane. Orson Welles produces his greatest film, Citizen Kane, despite the opposition of the film's de facto subject, William Randolph Hearst.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: talky, historical drama, sentimental, atmospheric, clever, serious, realistic, stylized, tense, light
Similar in 79%
My Week with Marilyn (2011)
Plot Summary:
Sir Laurence Olivier is making a movie in London. Young Colin Clark, an eager film student, wants to be involved and he navigates himself a job on the set. When film star Marilyn Monroe arrives for the start of shooting, all of London is excited to see the blonde bombshell, while Olivier is struggling to meet her many demands and acting ineptness, and Colin is intrigued by her. Colin's intrigue is met when Marilyn invites him into her inner world where she struggles with her fame, her beauty and her desire to be a great actress.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 89000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sentimental, period piece, romantic, melancholic, factual, touching, historical drama, smart, cute, informative
Similar in 89%
Anna Nicole (2013)
Plot Summary:
Voluptuous beauty Anna Nicole Smith marries an elderly millionaire and poses for Playboy, but after her husband's death, her excessive drinking, pill-popping and weight fluctuations take their toll.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, thought provoking, captivating, sexy
Similar in 79%
The Amazing Howard Hughes (1977)
Plot Summary:
The Amazing Howard Hughes is a 1977 television movie about American aviation pioneer and filmmaker Howard Hughes, based on the book by Hughes' business partner Noah Dietrich. The film starred Tommy Lee Jones, Ed Flanders, and Tovah Feldshuh.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 660
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 215 min
Plot tags: sentimental, serious, realistic
Similar in 85%
The Audrey Hepburn Story (2000)
Plot Summary:
The film spans from Hepburn's early childhood to the 1950s which details her life as a Dutch ballerina, coming to grips with her parents' divorce, and enduring life in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands during World War II. She then settles in the U.S. where she succeeds in making it big as a movie actress, in such movies as Breakfast at Tiffany's.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: uplifting, feel good, serious, sentimental, touching, emotional, realistic, iconic
Similar in 82%
Frances (1982)
Plot Summary:
The true story of Frances Farmer's meteoric rise to fame in Hollywood and the tragic turn her life took when she was blacklisted.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: depressing, disturbing, emotional, factual, compassionate, psychological, melancholic, intense, serious, touching
Similar in 85%
Mommie Dearest (1981)
Plot Summary:
In this biographical film, glamorous yet lonely star Joan Crawford takes in two orphans, and at first their unconventional family seems happy. But after Joan's attempts at romantic fulfillment go sour and she is fired from her contract with MGM studios, her callous and abusive behavior towards her daughter Christina becomes even more pronounced. Christina leaves home and takes her first acting role, only to find her mother's presence still overshadowing her.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: disturbing, controversial, factual, talky, intense, psychological, tense, serious, rough, emotional
Similar in 79%
Pinero (2001)
Plot Summary:
"Piñero" tells the story of the explosive life of a Latino icon, the poet-playwright-actor Miguel Piñero, whose urban poetry is recognized as a pre-cursor to rap and hip-hop. After doing time in hard-core Sing-Sing for petty thefts and drug dealing, Piñero's prison experiences developed into the 1974 Tony-nominated play Short Eyes. The resulting notoriety and fame was too much for the Latino bad-boy genius who retreated to the darker corners of New York City.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: disturbing, stylized, intense, factual, sincere, touching, serious, independent film, sentimental, realistic
Similar in 77%
Life (2015)
Plot Summary:
In 1955, young photographer Dennis Stock develops a close bond with actor James Dean while shooting pictures of the rising Hollywood star.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK, Germany, Canada, Australia, USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, psychological, thought provoking, independent film, cult classic, road movie
Similar in 77%
Liz & Dick (2012)
Plot Summary:
On the set of Cleopatra, Hollywood's most beautiful star, Elizabeth Taylor, fell into the arms of one of the world's greatest actors, Richard Burton - and she didn't leave. Their subsequent white-hot, scandalous love affair gave rise to the paparazzi and they became the most hunted and photographed couple on earth. Their rocky, passionate, relationship, born in front of the cameras, was subsequently captured in a series of films, including The V.I.P.s and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The last of the great, extravagant stars, flaunting diamonds, yachts and private planes, they continually seized the headlines. They even divorced and married again - only to divorce again - but remain in each other's hearts. This Elizabeth Taylor - Richard Burton story is a no-holds barred account of their undying, but impossible love.
IMDB Rating: 4.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, stylized, sexy, ridiculous
Similar in 84%
Norma Jean & Marilyn (1996)
Plot Summary:
This film follows Norma Jean from her simple, ambitious youth to her sex star pinnacle and back down. She moves from lover to lover in order to further her career. She finds fame but never happiness, only knowing seduction but not love.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, serious, realistic, disturbing, contemplative, gloomy, iconic
Similar in 86%
Lenny (1974)
Plot Summary:
The story of acerbic 1960s comic Lenny Bruce, whose groundbreaking, no-holds-barred style and social commentary was often deemed by the Establisment as too obscene for the public.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: black and white, psychological, atmospheric, serious, realistic, rough, clever, bleak, semi documentary, art house
Similar in 88%
Last Call (2002)
Plot Summary:
Renowned writer F. Scott Fitzgerald is living the last months of his life with his youthful secretary, confidant, and protégé who later wrote a memoir of their time together.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 963
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: clever, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, spiritual, masterpiece
Similar in 89%
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994)
Plot Summary:
Dorothy Parker remembers the heyday of the Algonquin Round Table, a circle of friends whose barbed wit, like hers, was fueled by alcohol and flirted with despair.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: intellectual, clever, witty, talky, heartbreaking, serious, captivating, realistic, cynical, independent film