About This Stamp
The Postal Service honored actor James Dean with the issuance of a 32-cent commemorative stamp, in a pane of 20, on June 24, 1996, in Burbank, California. This was the second stamp issued in the Legends of Hollywood series.
Designed by Michael Deas of New Orleans, Louisiana, the stamp portrays Dean, based on an image from a photograph taken by Roy Schatt in 1954. Michael Deas also designed the Marilyn Monroe and Tennessee Williams stamps.
Actor James Dean was born on February 8, 1931, in Marion, Indiana. During his brief career, he quickly became a teen idol because his work spoke for the youth of the 1950s. He starred in only three movies: East of Eden (1954), Rebel Without a Cause (1955), and Giant (1955), before his untimely death in a car crash on September 30, 1955, near Cholame, California. Both Rebel Without a Cause and Giant were released after his death.
Stamp Venturers, Inc., printed the stamp using the gravure process.
Stamp Art Director
Carl T. Herrman
As an art director for the U.S. Postal Service® for more than 15 years, Carl T. Herrman designed more than 50 stamps and guided more than 250 stamp projects, including Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Humphrey Bogart, and Comic Strip Classics. He also served as art director for five of the Celebrate the Century stamp panes. He has won more than 260 awards for design and design management, including two gold medals from the Society of Illustrators.
Herrman’s career has included positions as Director of Creative Services and adjunct professor at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, and Director of Marketing and Publications for the University of California at Irvine. He has provided consulting services for the Smithsonian Institution, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and numerous academic institutions. Herrman lives in Carlsbad,California.
Stamp Artist
Michael J. Deas
Michael J. Deas, an award-winning illustrator and master realist artist, was raised in suburban New Orleans and Long Island, New York. Although he took art classes as a young man, paying for them by working as an illustrator of novels and children’s books, he considers himself to be essentially self-taught.
For more than 25 years, Deas has created stamp images for the Postal Service™. His 1995 portrait of Marilyn Monroe was one of the top selling commemorative stamps ever. Since then, he has created 20 other portraits for stamps, among them Thomas Wolfe (2000), Audrey Hepburn (2003), Ronald Reagan (2005), Edgar Allan Poe (2009), George H.W. Bush (2019), and Ruth Bader Ginsburg (2023). His most recent stamp projects include portraits of Benjamin Franklin, Bernardo de Gálvez, and Thomas Jefferson for the 2026 Figures of the American Revolution stamp pane.
The Society of Illustrators has recognized his works with five gold medals and two silver. Two of the gold medals were awarded for stamp designs: James Dean (Legends of Hollywood, 1996), and Thornton Wilder (Literary Arts, 1997). In 2004, Deas received the Hamilton King Award, given for the single best illustration of the year.
In 2012–13, 40 of his original paintings, drawings, and illustrations were the subject of a solo exhibition at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans. In the late 90s, Deas was one of seven artists whose works were featured in “Visual Solutions — Seven Illustrators and the Creative Process,” at the Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
In addition to his artwork, Deas is a noted authority on Edgar Allan Poe. His 1989 book, The Portraits & Daguerreotypes of Edgar Allan Poe, documents more than 70 historic images of the poet and is now considered a standard reference work.
Over the years, clients have included TIME magazine (six covers), Columbia Pictures (redesign of the well known lady with a torch logo), Reader’s Digest, Random House, HarperCollins, Sports Illustrated, as well as a number of prominent advertising agencies.
Today, Deas works from his studio in the historic district of New Orleans.