This long-overdue biography chronicles the dramatic ups and troubled downs of a career that won 1950s teen screen idol Sal Mineo two Oscar nominations for Rebel Without a Cause (with James Dean) and Exodus before he was twenty-one and ended with a movie has-been�s shocking death, at thirty-seven, by a stab wound in the chest. As this carefully and caringly researched biography shows, Sal Mineo�s talents far exceeded the limits typecasting imposed upon a career that saddled him with the nickname, The Switchblade Kid. It also demonstrates that Mineo�s decline had less to do with the loss of the baby-face good looks that quickened the heartbeat of teenage girls than it did with his unwillingness to deny his homosexuality. Investigating the mystery that continues to surround Sal Mineo�s tragic death and sifting the facts from the fictions that shroud his private life, this serious study of the man and the star sympathetically chronicles the thirty-seven years that made an �erotic politician� and gay icon of a street kid and teen idol. 24 pages of black-and-white photographs are included. �Literate, anecdote-rich biography.� Boston Globe �An excellent biography…. A thoroughly readable book.� Associated Press �With an easy style and sound reporting, Jeffers has recreated the performer�s life with verve and insight.�