Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando at the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C

Marlon Brando, Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an Oscar winning American actor who is widely regarded as one of the greatest film actors of the twentieth century. He brought the techniques of either the Stanislavski System or method acting (commonly mistaken for the same acting technique) to prominence in the films A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront, both directed by Elia Kazan in the early 1950s. 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, including James Dean, Paul Newman, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Sean Penn, Johnny Depp, Russell Crowe, and Jack Nicholson.

Brando was also an activist, lending his presence to many issues, including the American Indian Movement.

Early life

Brando was born to Marlon Brando Sr. (1895-1965) and Dorothy Pennebaker Brando (?-1954) in Omaha, Nebraska. In 1935, when he was 11 years old, his parents separated. His mother briefly took her three children to live with her mother in Santa Ana, California, until 1937 when the parents reconciled and moved to Libertyville, Illinois, a village northwest of Chicago. The family were of primarily Dutch, Irish and English stock. Although Brando claimed his grandfather was a Frenchman, Eugene Brandeaux, this was incorrect[1] New England Historic Genealogical Society, as his grandparents were in fact a Eugene Brando and Marie Holloway, who abandoned her husband and child when Brando's father was five years old. The Brando family had been long settled in New York state, being earlier spelt Brandow and originating with a German immigrant Johann Wilhelm Brandau who settled in America in the early 1700s. Brando's mother was a kind and talented woman, although she suffered from alcoholism and was frequently absent in Brando's childhood. She was involved in local theater and helped a young Henry Fonda to begin his own acting career, and fueled Brando's interest in stage acting. Brando was a gifted mimic from early childhood and developed a rare ability to absorb the tics and mannerisms of people he played and to display those traits dramatically while staying in character. His elder sister, Jocelyn Brando, was also an actress.

Brando had a tumultuous childhood, in which he was expelled from several schools. After working as a ditch-digger in his hometown for a brief period, his father grew critical of him and encouraged him to seek his own direction. After discussing plans with his mother to join his sister already in New York and to try to become an actor, the elder Brando would support his son for 6 months or return home to work for him as a salesman. Brando left Illinois for New York City, where he studied at the American Theatre Wing Professional School, New School Dramatic Workshop, and the Actors' Studio. It was at the New School's Dramatic Workshop that he studied with Stella Adler and learned the revolutionary techniques of the Stanislavski System.

Brando had two older sisters: Jocelyn Brando (1919-2005) and Frances Brando (1922-).

Career

Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1948

Brando soon 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.

According to an article in the Times, Brando auditioned and was accepted immediately for the lead role in "Rebel Without A Cause" in 1947. He turned the role down and the film was not made until 1955 with James Dean as lead. It is not known why Brando rejected the offer but it is suggested that he did not want to sign the 6-year contract that was necessary at the time.

Brando's first screen role was 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 larger 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.

In 1953, he also starred in Lee Falk's play "Arms and the Man". Falk was proud to tell that Marlon Brando turned down an offer of $10 000 a week to act on Broadway, in favour of working for Lee in Boston in 1953 in the play "Arms and the Man". His Boston contract was less than $500 a week. It would be the last time he ever acted in a stage play.

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 ("I could have been a contender.") with him in the back of a taxicab (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. Though even at this professional low point, 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 favourite, although 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

Brando as Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather movie

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 he (Brando) did his own makeup. Francis Ford 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 was voted the Academy Award for Best Actor for his intelligent 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. There was later much controversy when it emerged Littlefeather was not a Native American Indian at all, but a Mexican actress named Maria Cruz.

The actor followed with one of his greatest performances in Last Tango in Paris, but it 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.

Superman

Brando as Jor-El in the first Superman movie.

His career afterwards was uneven: in addition to his iconic performance as Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now, Brando also played Jor-El, Superman's father, in the first Superman movie — a role he agreed to only on condition 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 from using the footage. Brando and Jor-El never appeared in the eventual theatrical cut of Superman II. However, the footage will be re-incorporated into the 2006 re-cut of the film, Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut (See that article for more information).

Two years following his passing in 2004, 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 is remastered for a scene in the Fortress of Solitude, as well as Brando's voice-overs being used throughout the film.

Late career

Other later performances, such as The Island of Dr Moreau, earned him some of his most uncomplimentary reviews of his career. Despite announcing his retirement from acting in 1980, he subsequently gave interesting supporting performances in movies such as 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. In his last film, The Score (2001), he starred with fellow method actor Robert De Niro.

Personal life

Marlon Brando, TIME cover, 1973

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." Quoted in Brando Unzipped, Darwin Porter, 2006 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.Patricia Cox Shapiro, quoted in "The Wild One and the Mild One" by Robert W. Welkos, Los Angeles Times, 24 October 2004

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 Catholic extraction (her real name was Joan O'Callaghan). O'Callaghan didn't 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 7 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 Christian's love interest, became his third wife. A 1961 article on Tarita in the fan magazine Motion Picture described Brando's delight at how naïve and unsophisticated she was. Teriipia became the mother of three of his children (one of whom died, see below). The hotel on Tetiaroa was eventually built; it went through many redesigns due to changes demanded by Brando over the years, but 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 twelve 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)
* by his maid Christina Maria Ruiz:
** Nina Priscilla Brando (14)
** Myles Jonathan Brando (12)
** Timothy Gahan Brando (10)

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, 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 alleges 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, unfortunately 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 obviously 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 US6,812,392 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 minutes 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 lung failure brought on by pulmonary fibrosis. He had also been suffering from congestive heart failure and diabetes, which was causing his eyesight to fail, 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.

Controversy

In the infamous Playboy magazine interview of January 1979, Brando was charged with anti-Semitism in regard to his opinion on double-standards set by Jews in Hollywood with respect to racial and cultural stereotyping: "You've seen every single race besmirched, but you never saw an unfavorable image of the Kike because the Jews were ever so watchful for that. They never allowed it to be shown on screen."

Brando again attracted controversy by making similar allegations on Larry King Live in April 1996, saying "Hollywood is run by Jews; it is owned by Jews, and they should have a greater sensitivity about the issue of -- of people who are suffering. Because they've exploited — we have seen the — we have seen the Nigger and Greaseball, we've seen the Chink, we've seen the slit-eyed dangerous Jap, we have seen the wily Filipino, we've seen everything but we never saw the Kike. Because they knew perfectly well, that that is where you draw the wagons around." King replied, "When you say — when you say something like that you are playing right in, though, to anti-Semitic people who say the Jews are —" at which point Brando interrupted, "No, no, because I will be the first one who will appraise the Jews honestly and say 'Thank God for the Jews.'"

Trivia

Brando in 1948

*Brando worked with Lee Falk on the play "Arms and the man". Falk is best known for creating legendary comics hero The Phantom. In a comic book story from 2001, Brando's Godfather look was used for the character of a mafia boss.
* Despite his later obesity, Brando would diet, run and lift weights to keep in shape in his early to mid career. He started to lift weights while in high school.
* A biopic is currently in development written by new-comer Johnny Bas, actors reportedly up for the role are Ryan Phillipe and Billy Zane.
* Turned down the title role in Lawrence of Arabia (1962).
* Turned down Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) in order to make Burn! (1969).
* Reportedly was interested in playing psychiatrist Martin Dysart in Equus (1977). The role went to Richard Burton.
* He had eleven straight commercial disappointments between 1959's The Fugitive Kind till 1972's The Godfather and Last Tango in Paris.
* Made "Top 10 stars of the year", 5 times. 1954, 1955, 1958, 1972, 1973.
* When making Superman, Brando was paid $3.7 million, plus 16.86% of the gross. The film made $300 million worldwide, making his earnings $14 million for 12 days work.
* Brando's height was always listed as 5'10" (178 cm). However, many people believe he was closer to 5'8" (173 cm), and in later films at least he was known to wear elevator shoes.
* Brando frequently used cue cards in his films because he refused to memorize his lines. In The Island of Dr. Moreau, he even wore a small radio receiver to help him with his lines.
* He was an avid Amateur radio enthusiast and had the callsigns KE6PZH/FO8GJ, SK, registered with the FCC as "Martin Brandeaux" [3]
* Brando was paid $1 million to appear briefly at the Michael Jackson 30th Anniversary concert a few days before the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001.
* Brando is mentioned in the song "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 and The Ballad of Michael Valentine by The Killers. 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.
* Frank Sinatra loathed the non-singing Brando for getting the starring role in Guys and Dolls, whereas Frank got a lesser part. Frank's nickname for the sometimes barely coherent Brando was "Mumbles." It was said that there were personality clashes on the set of the film, with the perfectionist Brando preferring to undergo retakes of shots, effectively irritating the impatient one-take style of Sinatra.
* 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 recent Channel 4 television poll voted for by his fellow actors, Brando was named the "World's Greatest Actor"
* A computer rendition of Brando features in a 2006 video game: The Godfather: The Game published by EA Games. His voice was to be used in the game, but his failing health and the oxygen tanks affected his speech, and an impersonator was used instead. (However, his voice was used in a section of the game where Michael Corleone is comforting Vito Corleone when in his hospital bed. The oxygen tanks and his failing health added to the atmosphere of the hospital room and situation so it was used.)
* Brando declined the role of the priest in the Exorcist spoof at the beginning of the film Scary Movie 2. The studio was not willing to pay him the 2 Million $ he wanted. He dropped out of the project, and was replaced by James Woods , who did it for 1 Million $.
* In the 2006 film Superman Returns, Brando is credited with reprising his role as Jor-El from Superman despite having died in 2004. This was accomplished by digitally recreating an image of Brando using footage from the original film as a reference[4], 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).

Filmography

Brando photographed on the set of A Streetcar Named Desire by Carl Van Vechten (1948)

The Men (1950)
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Viva Zapata! (1952)
Julius Caesar (1953)
The Wild One (1953)
On the Waterfront (1954)
Desirée (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 (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)
The Godfather: The Videogame (2006) - Posthumous career
Superman Returns (2006) - Posthumous career, appears in archive footage as Jor-ElUpcoming:
Big Bug Man (2006) (voice)