Marlon Brando
- "Brando" redirects here.
| Marlon Brando | |
 Marlon Brando at the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. | |
| Birth name: | Marlon Brando Jr. |
|---|---|
| Date of birth: | April 3, 1924 |
| Birth location: | Omaha, Nebraska, USA |
| Date of death: | July 1, 2004 (Age 80) |
| Death location: | Los Angeles, California, USA |
| Height: | 5 ft 9 in / 1.75 m |
| Academy Awards: | Best Actor 1955 On the Waterfront 1973 The Godfather |
Marlon Brando, Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was a prominent American actor. Brando won two Academy Awards and is known as one of the world's greatest actors.
-winning American actor who is widely regarded as one of the greatest film actors of the 20th century. He brought the techniques of method acting to prominence in the films A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront, both directed by Elia Kazan in the early 1950s. His probably most remembered role was as Mafia godfather Vito Corleone in the 1972 film The Godfather. His acting style, combined with his public persona as an outsider uninterested in the Hollywood of the early 1950s, had a profound effect on a generation of actors that would come after him. Brando was also an activist, lending his presence to many issues, including the American Indian Movement.
He was named the fourth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute.
Early life
Marlon Brando was the youngest of three children born to Marlon Brando Sr. (1895–1965) and Dorothy Pennebaker Brando (1897-1954). His elder sister were Jocelyn Brando (1919–2005) and Frances Brando (b. 1922). Marlon Brando's childhood was spent in Omaha, Nebraska until 1935. At the young age of 11, Brando's parents decided to separate, Dorothy keeping all three children, and taking them to live with her mother Santa Ana, California. After two brief years in California, Marlon Sr. and Dorthoy reconciled and reunited the family, making a home in a small town close to Chicago called Libertyville, Illinois. During Brando's life, there was speculation on his ancestry, Brando providing often false details about his heritage. Brando's grandparents are now know to be Eugene Brando and Marie Holloway. The couple married and had one son, Marlon Brando, Sr. When Marlon Sr. was five years old, Marie Holloway abandoned her husband and child forever.
Brando's early life was neither stable nor particularly easy. His mother, though known as a talented and kindhearted person, suffered greatly from the effects of alcoholism. She also worked long hours and was often gone from home, not being invovled in Brando's early life as he might wish her to be. Dorothy Brando worked at the local theater and is known for helping Henry Fonda to begin his acting career. Brando and his sister, Jocelyn, learned a lot from early days spent at the theater, and his mother encouraged her children's interest in stage acting. From the very beginning, Marlon Brando had an amazing talent, he was able tomimic many different people and he started to developed his rare and characteristic ability to assimilate the tics and mannerisms of the characters he was portraying. He could perform these traits very dramatically and believably.
Brando's childhood was marked by a rebellious nature and he experienced several tumultuous events. He was held back in school for a year, and later he was expelled from his high school in Liberty. Hoping that military school would help him, Marlon Sr. sent Brando to the Shattuck Military Academy in Fairbault, Minnesota when Brando was just 16 years old. Marlon Sr. had attented this same school when he was younger. It was at Shattuck that Marlon truly flourished in theater, he also performed well in school, the rigorous structure proving to be just what he needed. The final year of high school for Marlon was 1943, and again, his rebellious attitude got the better of him. He was put on probation for talking back to an officer, and then finally expelled for breaking his probation. The students, who loved Brando, were angered and fought for him to come back. The school finally invited him back for the end of his education, but Brando decided not to finish.
Brando wanted to follow his heart and his passion. He left Illinois and moved to New York City. Both of his sisters were living in New York, and Jocelyn had already performed on Broadway. Upon arrival in New York, Brando took his acting studies seriously, enrolling and studying at the American Theatre Wing Professional School, New School Dramatic Workshop, and the Actors' Studio. While at the New School's Dramatic Workshop, Brando had an experience that would change his life, he was taught by Stella Adler and he studied the methods of the Stanislavski System.
Career
Brando used his Stanislavski System skills for his first summer-stock roles in Sayville, New York. His behavior got him kicked out of the cast of the New School's production in Sayville, but he was discovered in a locally produced play there and then made it to Broadway in the bittersweet drama I Remember Mama in 1944. Critics voted him "Broadway's Most Promising Actor" for his role as an anguished, paraplegic veteran in Truckline Café, although the play was a commercial failure. He achieved real stardom, however, as Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire in 1947, directed by Elia Kazan. Brando sought out that role, driving out to Provincetown, Massachusetts, where Williams was spending the summer, to audition for the part. Williams recalled that he opened the screen door and knew, instantly, that he had his Stanley Kowalski.
Afterward, Brando was asked to do a screen test for Warner Brothers studio. The screen test used script fragments from prospective film called Rebel Without a Cause. The title came from a book that Warner Brothers had optioned in 1944. However, the 1947 project had nothing to do with the 1955 film beyond the title just as the 1955 film has nothing to do with the original book beyond the title. The script for Rebel Without a Cause as it appeared on screen was not written until years after the Brando test. Brando turned down a contract offer from Warner Brothers because he did not think the six-year duration of the contract was in his best interests.[1] The screen test appears as an extra in the 2006 DVD release of Streetcar.
Brando's first screen role was as the bitter crippled veteran in The Men in 1950. True to his method, Brando spent a month in bed at a veterans' hospital to prepare for the role.
He made a much stronger impression the following year when he brought his performance as Stanley Kowalski to the screen in Kazan's adaptation of Streetcar in 1951. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for that role, and again in each of the next three years for his roles in Viva Zapata! in 1952, Julius Caesar in 1953 as Marc Antony, and On the Waterfront in 1954. These first five films of Brando's career featured performances of monumental proportions and essentially set a new standard not just for all other actors but also for Brando himself.
In 1953, he also starred in Lee Falk's play Arms and the Man. Falk was proud to tell people that Marlon Brando turned down an offer of $10,000 per week to act on Broadway, in favor of working on Falk's play in Boston. His Boston contract was less than $500 per week. It would be the last time he ever acted in a stage play.
Brando became a hero for the younger generation by playing motorcycle rebel Johnny Strabler in the movie The Wild One. He created the rebel image for the rock-and-roll era. Many rock-and-rollers like Elvis Presley imitated Brando's look and character. Elvis took it to another level by bringing the rebel image to the rock-and-roll fans. Elvis also copied Brando's role as Johnny while playing Vince in his 1957 movie Jailhouse Rock. Marlon Brando was a hero for James Dean, who idolized him and copied his acting and persona. For his role as Jim Stark in his 1955 movie Rebel Without a Cause, James Dean studied Marlon's role as Johnny and took it to a new level. (Marlon Brando's name is even mentioned in the movie.) Director Nick Ray even took the gang image from the movie The Wild One and brought it to this movie and thus emphasized Brando's effect on the youth. All the rebel culture that included motorcycle, leather jackets, jeans and the whole rebel image, that inspired generations of rebels, came thanks to the movie The Wild One and Brando's own unique image and character.
Brando finally won the Oscar for his role of Terry Malloy in On The Waterfront. Under Kazan's direction, and with a talented ensemble around him, Brando used his Stanislavski System training and improvisational skills. Brando claimed that he had improvised much of his dialogue with Rod Steiger in the famous, much-quoted scene with him in the back of a taxicab ("I could have been a contender"). Kazan disputed this.
Brando followed that triumph by a variety of roles in the 1950s that defied expectations: as Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls, where he managed to carry off a singing role; as Sakini, a Japanese interpreter for the U.S. Army in postwar Japan in The Teahouse of the August Moon; as an Air Force officer in Sayonara; and a Nazi officer in The Young Lions. While he won an Oscar nomination for his acting in Sayonara, his acting had lost much of its energy and direction by the end of the 1950s.
Brando's star sank even further in the 1960s as he turned in increasingly uninspired performances in Mutiny on the Bounty and several other forgettable films. Even at this professional low point, though, Brando still managed to produce a few exceptional films, such as One-Eyed Jacks (1961), a western that would be the only film Brando would ever direct; Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967), portraying a repressed gay army officer; and Burn! (1969), which Brando would later claim as his personal favorite, although it was a commercial failure. Nonetheless, his career had gone into almost complete eclipse by the end of the decade thanks to his reputation as a difficult star and his record in overbudget or marginal movies.
The Godfather
His performance as Vito Corleone in The Godfather in 1972 changed this. Director Francis Ford Coppola convinced Brando to submit to a "make-up" test, in which Brando did his own makeup (it is a little-known fact he used cotton balls to simulate the puffed-cheek look). Coppola was electrified by Brando's characterization as the head of a crime family, but had to fight the studio in order to cast him. Brando won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance; once again, he improvised important details that lent more humanity to what could otherwise have been a clichéd role. Brando turned down the Academy Award, the second actor to refuse an Oscar (the first being George C. Scott for Patton). Brando boycotted the award ceremony, sending little-known actress Sacheen Littlefeather to state his reasons, which were based on his objections to the depiction of Native Americans by Hollywood and television. The actor followed with one of his greatest performances in Last Tango in Paris, but the performance was overshadowed by an uproar over the erotic nature of the Bernardo Bertolucci film. Despite the controversies which attended both the film and the man, the Academy once again nominated Brando for the Best Actor.
His career afterward was uneven. He gained a great deal of weight around the time he appeared as Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now. His weight limited him in terms of roles he could play.
Superman
Brando also played Jor-El, Superman's father, in the first Superman movie — a role he agreed to only on condition that he was paid an enormous sum for what amounted to a small part, that he did not have to read the script beforehand and his lines would be displayed somewhere offscreen.
Brando also filmed scenes for the movie's sequel, Superman II, but the producers refused to pay him the enormous percentage he was paid for the first movie, so he denied them permission to use the footage. However, after Brando's death the footage was re-incorporated into the 2006 re-cut of the film, Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut.
Two years after his death, he "reprised" the role of Jor-El in the 2006 "loose sequel" Superman Returns, in which both used and unused archive footage of Brando as Jor-El from the first two Superman films was remastered for a scene in the Fortress of Solitude, as well as Brando's voice-overs being used throughout the film.
Personal life
Brando became known as much for his crusades for civil rights, Native American rights and other political causes as he was for his acting. He also earned a "bad boy" reputation for his public outbursts and antics. In June 1973, Brando broke paparazzo Ron Galella's jaw. His hand became infected as a result. In the following year, Galella wore a football helmet when snapping photos of Brando.
In his autobiography Songs My Mother Taught Me, Brando claimed he showed up one night at Marilyn Monroe's apartment and they started an affair that lasted many years. He also claimed numerous other romances, although he did not discuss his marriages, his wives, or his children in his autobiography.
In his 1976 biography The Only Contender by Gary Carey, Brando was quoted as saying, "Like a large number of men, I, too, have had homosexual experiences, and I am not ashamed." Photographs circulate on the Internet that appear to confirm this. A 2006 book, Brando Unzipped by Darwin Porter alleges affairs with Rock Hudson and Cary Grant. An alleged long time lover was Wally Cox. Brando is quoted as saying: "If Wally had been a woman, I would have married him and we would have lived happily ever after." [1] After Cox died, Brando kept his ashes for 30 years, and they were eventually scattered with his own. Cox's third wife only discovered he possessed them after reading an interview in Time where Brando is quoted as saying: "I have Wally's ashes in my house. I talk to him all the time." She wanted to sue, but her lawyers would not accept the case.[2]
He married actress Anna Kashfi in 1957, mistakenly believing her to be of Asian Indian descent when she was in fact from Wales and of Irish Roman Catholic extraction: Her real name was Joan O'Callaghan. O'Callaghan did not discourage Brando's mistake; in fact, she dressed and made herself up as an Indian beauty after learning that Brando gravitated toward exotic women. They divorced in 1959 after having one son, Christian Brando, together.
In 1960, Brando married Movita Castaneda, a Mexican actress seven years his senior who had appeared in the first Mutiny on the Bounty film in 1935, some 27 years before Brando's own version was released. A remake of Mutiny on the Bounty in 1962, with Brando as Fletcher Christian, seemed to bolster his reputation as a difficult star. He was blamed for a change in directors and a runaway budget, though he disclaimed responsibility for either.
The Bounty experience affected Brando's life in a profound way: He fell in love with Tahiti and its people. He took a 99-year lease on part of an atoll island, Tetiaroa, which he intended to make part environmental laboratory and part resort. Tahitian beauty Tarita Teriipia, who played Fletcher Christian's love interest, became Brando's third wife. A 1961 article on Teriipia in the fan magazine Motion Picture described Brando's delight at how naïve and unsophisticated she was. Teriipia became the mother of two of his children. The hotel on Tetiaroa was eventually built; it went through many redesigns due to changes demanded by Brando over the years, but it is now closed. A new hotel consisting of 30 deluxe villas is due to open in 2008.
Children
All three of Brando's wives were pregnant when he married them. The number of children he had is still in dispute, although he recognized 11 children in his will; they were (ages as given in 2004):
- by his marriage to actress Anna Kashfi:
- Christian Brando (46)
- by his marriage to actress Movita Castaneda:
- Miko Brando (43)
- Rebecca Brando Kotlinzky (38)
- by his marriage to Tarita Teriipia:
- Simon Teihotu Brando (43) - the only inhabitant of Tetiaroa
- Cheyenne (committed suicide in 1995 at the age of 25)
- by adoption:
- Petra Brando-Corval (32), daughter of Brando's assistant Caroline Barrett
- Maimiti Brando (28)
- Raiatua Brando (23)
Brando married his maid Christina Maria Ruiz and had the following children with her:
- Ninna Priscilla Brando (born: 1989)
- Myles Brando (born: 1992 as Myles Jonathan Brando)
- Timothy Brando (born: 1994 as Timothy Gahan Brando)
In May 1990, Christian shot and killed Dag Drollet, the Tahitian lover of Christian's half-sister Cheyenne, at the family's hilltop home above Beverly Hills. Christian, then 31, claimed the shooting was accidental.
After a heavily publicized trial, Christian was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter and use of a gun. He was sentenced to 10 years. Before the sentencing, Brando delivered an hour of rambling testimony in which he said he and his ex-wife had failed Christian. He commented softly to members of the Drollet family: "I'm sorry... If I could trade places with Dag, I would. I'm prepared for the consequences." Afterward, Drollet's father said he thought Brando was acting and his son was "getting away with murder." The tragedy was compounded in 1995, when Cheyenne, said to still be depressed over Drollet's death, committed suicide by hanging herself in Tahiti at the age of 25. Only months after Marlon Brando's death, Brando's ex-wife Tarita Teriipia wrote her memoires entitled Marlon, My Love and My Torment in which she says that Brando had sexually abused their daughter Cheyenne [2].
Final years and death
Brando's notoriety, his family's troubled lives, his self-exile from Hollywood, and his obesity attracted more attention than his late acting career. He also earned a reputation for being difficult on the set, often unwilling or unable to memorize his lines and less interested in taking direction than in confronting the film director with odd and childish demands. On the other hand, most other actors found him generous, funny and supportive. Although more and more reclusive in his declining years, Brando was by nature a casual and friendly man.
He dabbled with some innovation in his last years. Brando has several patents issued in his name from the US Patent and Trademark Office, all of which are directed to a drumhead tensioning device and method, between June 2002 and November 2004. For example see U.S. Patent 6812392 (PDF) and its equivalents.
The actor was a long-time close friend of the entertainer Michael Jackson and paid regular visits to his Neverland Ranch, resting there for weeks. Brando also participated in the singer's solo career 30th anniversary celebration concerts in 2001, as well as starring in his 15-minute-long music video You Rock My World the same year. The actor's son Miko was Jackson's bodyguard for several years, and is also a friend of the singer.
On July 1, 2004, at 6:30 p.m. local time, Brando died at the age of 80. The cause of his death was intentionally withheld, with his lawyer citing privacy concerns. It was later revealed that he died at UCLA Medical Center of respiratory failure brought on by pulmonary fibrosis. He had also been suffering from congestive heart failure and, had also recently been diagnosed with liver cancer. It was revealed in 2006 that Brando had suffered from dementia in the final years of his life.
Brando was cremated and his ashes were scattered in two places. Part of his ashes were scattered in Tahiti and part of his ashes were scattered in Death Valley.
Trivia
Template:Toomuchtrivia
- Despite his later obesity, Brando was very health conscience in his early and mid career. He often dieted, ran, and lifted weights.
- Brando turned down the title role in Lawrence of Arabia (1962), starring Peter O'Toole.
- He also turned down Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) in order to make Burn! (1969).
- Until The Godfather was released in 1972, Brando has 11 straight commercial film failures.
- Brando was listed as one of the "Top 10 Stars of the Year" five times: 1954, 1955, 1958, 1972, and 1973.
- When making Superman, Brando agreed on a salary of $3.7 million, plus 16.86% of the gross. When the film grossed over $300 million worldwide, Brando's earnings figured at $14 million for 12 days' work.
- In Superman, Brando came up with the idea for Jor-El, father of Superman, to wear the "S" symbol on his chest as a sort of family shield.
- Brando's role of Don Corleone in The Godfather garnered him such respect and admiration from various mafiosi, that he said he never had to pay for another meal in Little Italy again.
- For most of Brando's career, his height was reported as being 5'10" (178 cm). However, many people say he was closer to 5'8" (173 cm). In a few of his later films, he was known to wear elevator shoes.
- Brando refused to memorize his lines, and thus often used cue cards during the shooting of his films. During the filming of The Island of Dr. Moreau, Brando wore a very small radio receiver to help him with his lines.
- Despite announcing his retirement from acting in 1980, he decided to play supporting roles A Dry White Season (for which he was again nominated for an Oscar in 1989), The Freshman in 1990 and Don Juan DeMarco in 1995 (during which time he met and befriended Johnny Depp). In his final film, The Score (2001), he starred with Robert De Niro.
- Marlon Brando was paid $1 million to appear briefly at the Michael Jackson 30th anniversary concert a few days before the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.
- Brando is mentioned in the songs "Pocahontas", by Neil Young, "China Girl", by David Bowie and Iggy Pop, "We Didn't Start the Fire", by Billy Joel, "Vogue", by Madonna, "Advertising Space", by Robbie Williams, "Eyeless", by Slipknot, "Sly", by The Cat Empire, "Karen By Night", by Jill Sobule, "It's So Hard to Be a Saint In the City", by Bruce Springsteen, "Clown Prince", by Hilltop Hoods, "The Ballad of Michael Valentine", by The Killers, "Back to Tupelo", by Mark Knopfler, "Close but no Cigar", by "Weird Al" Yankovic, "¿Para Qué?", by Andrés Calamaro and "Let It Roll", by Andrew Morris. Songs directly about him are "I'm Stuck In a Condo (With Marlon Brando)", by The Dickies, and "I Wanna Be Marlon Brando", by Russell Crowe.
- On the set of Guys and Dolls there was endless friction between Brando and Frank Sinatra. Sinatra hated Brando for taking the main role of Sky Masterson, especially as Brando had never done any singing before. Sinatra dubbed Brando "Mumbles", claiming that Brando could never be heard or understood. Their personalities clashed over shooting scenes as well. Sinatra was impatient and prefered one-take to many. Brando on the other hand, was a perfectionist and preferred mulitiple takes of each scene. Often, Brando would purposefully make mistakes, thus causing them to have to do the scene over and over again.
- He only made two television appearances in his career: 1979's Roots: The Next Generations for which he won an Emmy and in 1949 on "Actor's Studio" in the episode "I'm No Hero".
- In a vote by fellow actors, Brando was named the "World's Greatest Actor".
- In the 2006 film Superman Returns, Brando is credited with reprising his role as Jor-El from Superman even though he passed away in 2004. This was accomplished by digitally re-creating an image of Brando using footage from the original film as a reference[3], and matching it with lines spoken by Brando in both the original movie and those shot for Superman II (later removed from the latter film).
- After the 1988 suicide of Gloria Vanderbilt's son, Brando telephoned her to offer his condolences. He hadn't spoken to her since 1954.
Filmography
- The Men (1950)
- A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
- Viva Zapata! (1952)
- Julius Caesar (1953)
- The Wild One (1953)
- On the Waterfront (1954)
- Désirée (1954)
- Guys and Dolls (1955)
- Operation Teahouse (1956) (short subject)
- The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956)
- Sayonara (1957)
- The Young Lions (1958)
- The Fugitive Kind (1959)
- One-Eyed Jacks (1961) (also director)
- Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)
- The Ugly American (1963)
- Bedtime Story (1964)
- Morituri (1965)
- The Chase (1966)
- The Appaloosa (1966)
- Meet Marlon Brando (1966) (short subject)
- A Countess from Hong Kong (1967)
- Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967)
- Candy (1968)
- The Night of the Following Day (1968)
- Burn! (1969)
- King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis (1970) (documentary)
- The Nightcomers (1972)
- The Godfather (1972)
- Last Tango in Paris (1972)
- The Missouri Breaks (1976)
- Raoni (1978) (documentary) (narrator)
- Superman: The Movie (1978)
- Apocalypse Now (1979)
- The Formula (1980)
- A Dry White Season (1989)
- The Freshman (1990)
- Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991) (documentary)
- Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (1992)
- Don Juan DeMarco (1995)
- The Island of Dr Moreau (1996)
- The Brave (1997)
- Free Money (1998)
- The Score (2001)
- Superman Returns (2006) - Posthumous appearance, appears in archive footage as Jor-El
- Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut (2006)
Upcoming:
- Big Bug Man (2008) (voice)
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by: William Holden for Stalag 17 |
Academy Award for Best Actor 1954 for On the Waterfront |
Succeeded by: Ernest Borgnine for Marty |
| Preceded by: Gene Hackman for The French Connection |
Academy Award for Best Actor 1972 for The Godfather |
Succeeded by: Jack Lemmon for Save the Tiger |
Notes
See also
- Songs My Mother Taught Me, his autobiography. ISBN 10 0679410139
- Marlon Brando by Patricia Bosworth (2001). First published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2001 - republished by Phoenix, 2002. ISBN 0-7538-1379-3
External links
- Marlon Brando at the Internet Movie Database
- Marlon Brando at the TCM Movie Database
- Marlon Brando at the Internet Broadway Database
- Marlon Brando: Contender, Champ, Bum
- Brando Tribute Site
- The Oddfather, Rolling Stone, Jod Kaftan, April 25, 2002
- Brando's Early Career
- Brandoland
- Marlon Brando: The Actor's Actor
- Quotes from an interview with Newsweek March 13,1972
- Court TV: Christian Brando: A Hollywood Family Tragedy
- Brando bio at Lenin imports
- Premiere: Remembering Brando
Obituaries
- Obituary from The Washington Post
- Obituary at Slate
- MSNBC: Marlon Brando dies in Los Angeles hospital
- Long article on auction of Brando's possessions at The Observer (UK)
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Brando, Marlon |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Brando, Marlon, Jr. (full name) |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Actor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 3, 1924 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Omaha, Nebraska, USA |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 1, 2004 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Los Angeles, California, USA |
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