10 Small Movie Roles You Didn't Know Held Signifigance
3. Sal Mineo - Escape From The Planet Of The Apes
Sal Mineo beat out Clint Eastwood for his first screen role and it wasn't long before he was James Dean's tragic would-be protege in Rebel Without a Cause.
Cause led to a Best Supporting Actor nomination and a fast track to celebrity. Fearing typecasting, he quickly took on more and more challenging roles, landing a second nomination for Exodus and, according to his biographer, "dated the most beautiful women in the world."
Unfortunately, rumours of his homosexuality started to leak. Even though work grew rarer, his performances were no less acclaimed. This came to head with 1967's LGTB-themed Fortune and Men's Eyes. It received positive reviews, though everyone noted the extensive prison rape sequence was gratuitous.
Mineo's last film was another attempt at a comeback of sorts - proof that he could vanish in any role, playing one of three future apes that land in the seventies in Escape From The Planet of the Apes. But Mineo's Dr. Milo is killed off by a modern gorilla early in the film, shutting down any future on the big screen. Milo's death was a signifier: up until then, Mineo was aloof as to why work wasn't coming his way. Years of just assuming it was accepted caught up with him.
He would go to television, and prospects were looking up after playing a Manson-esque cult leader on a two-part episode of CHiPs. Sadly, Mineo was stabbed outside his apartment in a burglary gone wrong in 1976.