Dean Jeffries

Edward Dean Jeffries was an American custom car designer and fabricator, and also a stuntman and stunt coordinator for film and television, based in Los Angeles. He began pinstriping cars after seeing soldiers custom paint motorcycles while he served in Germany, and in 1953 the Indianapolis 500 team owner J. C. Agajanian hired him to stripe and letter race cars. He painted Little Bastard on James Dean's Porsche 550 Spyder, painted cars and helmets for drivers such as Parnelli Jones and A. J. Foyt, and became an early pioneer of painted flames. Through his company Dean Jeffries Automotive Styling he built vehicles for Hollywood, among them the Mantaray, Black Beauty from The Green Hornet, the Monkeemobile and the Landmaster from Damnation Alley. In 2001 the Cruisin' Hall of Fame inducted him. He died at home in Hollywood in 2013, aged 80.