Richard Thomas broke his leg when he drove his character's motorcycle under a parade float while filming a homecoming parade scene.
Hanley, owns and drives a car throughout the film. Tom Hulce hadn't yet received his driver's license.
Tom Bonner, a college classmate of director James Bridges, was cast as the radio announcer, a job he held while in college. Tom was a weather man for many years at the television station KARK in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Leonard Rosenman, who wrote the score for this film about the death of James Dean, began his film-composing career when Dean introduced him to Elia Kazan and he was signed to write the score for Dean's first major film, East of Eden (1955). Rosenman also wrote the score for Dean's second film, Rebel Without a Cause (1955).