This swarthy juvenile character and lead player of the 1950s, made a career for himself playing troubled, violence-prone youths, most memorably Plato, James Dean's damaged, love-starved best friend, in the teen angst classic "Rebel Without a Cause" (1955). Sal Mineo was not quite as successful when it came time to move on to adult roles, however, and his dark skin and Italian heritage often meant he was stereotyped as a hood or cast as "the ethnic" in numerous unnecessary films.The Harlem-born Mineo and his family moved to the Bronx when he was nine years old, in part to escape the gangs with
