Sal said about the period after he'd made Cheyenne Autumn. All of a sudden all the good roles I wanted went to the new faces. You work so hard to make a name for yourself and suddenly it doesn't count. Nicholas Ray opined that Sal had come too far too fast. A star needs to have the steel of a Joan Crawford, a restlessness, a selfishness in a creative sense.
Actors also have to betray.
They are all things to all people. I doubt if Sal knew he was being ripped off. Ray's assessment of Sal Mineo as lacking steel was wrong. So was Sal Mineo. He was down on his luck in Beverly Hills, but he was not out.