Like James Dean, I grew up in a small town in Indiana. And, like James Dean, I left that small Indiana town as soon as I could. He got out young; I got out older. We both dreamed of becoming famous.

Perhaps the most enduring scene in “Giant,” the 1956 movie based on Edna Ferber’s novel of the same name, is the moment when Jett Rink, played by James Dean, strikes oil on his bleak West Texas patch ...