Sal Mineo entered the recording studio with an established reputation as a performer after building a strong foundation on stage and screen. Prior to issuing any music he had already taken part in multiple high-profile stage productions and motion pictures. Once he shifted his focus to rock & roll, those initial releases proved just as well received. Two singles appeared in 1957—“Start Movin’ (In My Direction)” and “Lasting Love”—the first of which climbed into the Top Ten and stayed on the chart beyond three months, while the second reached number 27. An album followed on Epic in the United States and Philips in Great Britain, and further singles such as “You Shouldn’t Do That,” “Little Pigeon,” “Love Affair,” and “Party Time” were issued.
Mineo’s career had begun in childhood. He made his Broadway debut at age twelve alongside Eli Wallach and Maureen Stapleton in the 1951 production of The Rose Tattoo. The next year he appeared in The King and I, portraying one of the princes opposite Yul Brynner. Film offers arrived in 1955, yielding parts in The Private War of Major Benson and Six Bridges to Cross; that same year he played a pivotal role in Rebel Without a Cause with James Dean. Over time he accumulated credits in more than thirty motion pictures, earned two Oscar nominations, received an Emmy and a Golden Globe, and maintained a steady presence on television. By the late 1960s the caliber of available roles had declined, culminating in his final screen appearance as an ape in 1971’s Escape From the Planet of the Apes.
Mineo then moved behind the camera, directing Fortune and Men’s Eyes on Broadway in 1969 and later mounting a successful Los Angeles production. He was preparing to perform in the Hollywood staging of P.S. Your Cat Is Dead when he was fatally stabbed outside his residence in 1976; the assailant ultimately received a life sentence.
His upbringing had been unsettled. Born in the Bronx to Sicilian casket maker Sal Mineo Sr. and Josephine Mineo, the boy was removed from elementary school at eight and enrolled in dance classes. Two years later, as a gang member, he was arrested during a robbery. Faced with the choice of acting school or reform school, he selected the former and reached Broadway within two years.
