Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando at age 27 as Stanley Kowalski in a trailer for the film A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Born	Marlon Brando, Jr.
Years active	1944 - 2004
Spouse(s)	Anna Kashfi (1957-1959) Movita Castaneda (1960-1962) Tarita Teriipia (1962 - 1972)
Awards	Best Actor Award - Cannes Film Festival 1952 Viva Zapata! NYFCC Award for Best Actor 1954 On the Waterfront 1973 Last Tango in Paris
Website	http://www.marlonbrando.com/

Marlon Brando, Jr. (April 3 1924 – July 1 2004) was an Academy Award-winning American actor whose body of work spanned over half a century. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential actors of all time. Brando is best known for his roles in A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront, both directed by Elia Kazan in the early 1950s, as well as his Academy-Award winning performance as Vito Corleone in The Godfather and as Colonel Walter E. Kurtz in Apocalypse Now, the latter two directed by Francis Ford Coppola in the 1970s. Brando also garnered worldwide attention by playing Jor-El in Superman: The Movie (1978), directed by Richard Donner.

Brando was also an activist, lending his presence to many issues, including the American Civil Rights and American Indian Movements. He was named the fourth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute.

Early life

Brando was born to Marlon Brando Sr. (1895–1965) and Dorothy Pennebaker Brando (1897-1954) in Omaha, Nebraska. In 1935, when he was 11 years old, his parents separated. His mother briefly took her three children (Marlon, Jocelyn (1919–2005) and Frances Brando (1922-1994) to live with her mother in Santa Ana, California, until 1937 when the parents reconciled and moved to Libertyville, Illinois, a village north of Chicago. The family was primarily of Dutch, Irish, German, Huguenot and English stock. Contrary to what is stated in some biographies, Brando's grandfather was not French; he, Eugene E. Brando, was from New York state. Brando's grandmother Marie Holloway abandoned Eugene and their son Marlon Brando Sr. when he was five years old. The Brando family had been long settled in New York state. The family name was earlier spelled Brandow and originated with a German immigrant, Johann Wilhelm Brandau, who settled in America in the early 1700s.

Brando's mother, Dodie, was an unconventional but intelligent and talented woman. She smoked, wore trousers and drove automobiles at a time when it was unusual for women to do so. However she suffered from alcoholism and often had to be retrieved from Chicago bars by Brando's father. She later became a leader of Alcoholics Anonymous. Dodie was an actress and administrator in local theater and was written about for her theatrical work by the Omaha newspapers. She helped a young Henry Fonda to begin his own acting career, and fueled Brando's interest in stage acting. His father, Marlon Sr., was a gifted amateur photographer. Brando's maternal grandmother, Bessie Gahan Pennebaker Meyers, to whom Brando was perhaps closer than his own mother, was also unconventional. Widowed at a young age, she worked to support herself as a secretary and later as a Christian Science healer, and was well known in Omaha. Her father, Myles Gahan, was a doctor from Ireland and her mother, Julia Watts, was from England. 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 sister, Jocelyn Brando, however, was the first to pursue a career in acting, going to New York to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Art. She later appeared on Broadway, in movies and on television. Next, Marlon's sister Frannie left college in California to study art in New York. Marlon followed.

Brando had a tumultuous childhood. He was held back a year in school and was later expelled from Libertyville High School. At the age of 16, he was sent to Shattuck Military Academy in Faribault, Minnesota where his father had gone before him. At Shattuck, he excelled at theater and got along well within the structure of the school. In his final year (1943), he was put on probation for talking back to an officer during maneuvers. A part of his probation was that he be confined to the school campus but he eventually tried sneaking off campus into town and was caught. The faculty voted to expel him. He received support from his fellow students who thought the punishment too harsh. He was later invited back for the next year, but decided not to finish school.

He worked as a ditch-digger in his hometown as a summer job arranged by his father, but had decided to follow his sisters to New York. One sister was trying to be a painter and the other had already appeared on Broadway. He visited his sister Frances in New York at Christmas 1942 and liked the experience. Brando was given six months of support from his father, after which his father offered to help him get a job 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 techniques of the Stanislavski System. There is a possibly apocryphal story in which Adler spoke about teaching Brando, saying that she had instructed the class to act like chickens, then adding that a bomb was about to fall on them. Most of the class clucked and ran around wildly, but Brando sat calmly and pretended to lay an egg. When Adler asked Brando to explain his actions, he replied, "I'm a chicken - What do I know from a bomb?"

Career

Early work

A 24 year old Brando as Stanley Kowalski on the set of the stage version of A Streetcar Named Desire, photographed by Carl Van Vechten in 1948

Brando used his Stanislavski System skills for his first summer-stock roles in Sayville, New York on Long Island. 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 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. Brando's performance revolutionized acting technique and set the model for the American form of method acting. This approach to a role was never seen before and all similar roles mirror Brando's.

Afterward, Brando was asked to do a screen test for Warner Brothers studio for the film Rebel Without A Cause, which James Dean was later cast in. The screen test appears as an extra in the 2006 DVD release of A Streetcar Named Desire.

Brando's first screen role was as the bitter paraplegic 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.

Rising to the top

He made a much stronger impression in 1951 when he brought his performance as Stanley Kowalski to the screen in Kazan's adaptation of Tennesse Williams' A Streetcar Name Desire. 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 Mark Antony, and On the Waterfront in 1954. These first five films of his career established Brando as perhaps the premier acting talent in the world, as evidenced in his winning the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role three consecutive years, 1951 to 1953.

Brando as Emiliano Zapata in a trailer for the 1952 film Viva Zapata!

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 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.

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Brando as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront

Brando became a hero for the younger generation by playing motorcycle rebel Johnny Strabler in 1953's 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 also copied Brando's role as Johnny while playing Vince in his 1957 movie Jailhouse Rock. Brando's explosive screen presence exuded a raw sexuality that drew repeat ticket purchases among female theater goers of all ages. Theater managers related accounts of sold out weekday matiness where small children ran up and down the aisle making motorcycle noises while their mothers sat transfixed.

Marlon Brando was purported to be a hero for James Dean, who was said to have idolized him and copied his acting and persona. Brando claimed in his autobiography Songs My Mother Taught Me that when Elia Kazan introduced him to James Dean on the set of East of Eden, he remarked that 'He was nervous when we met and made it clear that he was not only mimicking my acting but also what he believed was my lifestyle. He said he was learning to play the conga drums and had taken up motorcycling, and he obviously wanted my approval of his work.' He later remarked in his book that 'In retrospect, I realize it's not unusual for people to borrow someone else's form until they find their own, and in time Jimmy did.' William Bast, a famous screen writer at that time, compared Marlon's acting style to be "heavy as lead" while James was more "mercurial and light"

. Director Nick Ray took the gang image from the movie The Wild One and brought it to his movie, "Rebel Without A Cause", and thus emphasized Brando's effect on youth.

Brando as Mark Antony in a trailer for the film Julius Caesar (1953)

Aspects of the rebel culture that included motorcycles, leather jackets, jeans and the rebel image, which inspired generations of rebels, came thanks to that film and Brando's own unique image and character. The sales of motorcycle related paraphernalia, leather jackets, jeans, boots and Tee shirts skyrocketed throughout the country. The film had a similar effect on overseas audiences. Local authorities and religious figures lamented the effect it was having on the youth of their respective countries.

Under Kazan's direction, and with a talented ensemble around him, Brando won the Oscar for his role of Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront. For the famous I coulda been a contender scene, Brando convinced Kazan that the scripted scene was unrealistic, and with Rod Steiger improvised the final product.

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. Although 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.

In the 1960s Brando starred in films such as Mutiny on the Bounty (1962); One-Eyed Jacks (1961), a western that would be the only film Brando would ever direct; a star-studded but unsuccessful potboiler The Chase (1966), in which he played an uncorrupted Texas sheriff; 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, some say, thanks to his reputation as a difficult star and his record in overbudget or marginal movies.

However, in truth, his reputation as a "difficult star", no matter how justifiably earned, was not the real reason for the downslide in his career. The fact is, as noted progressive writer Dave Zirin points out, Hollywood created what became known as theBrando Blacklist that shut him out of many big time roles. The reason for that blacklist was his growing activism, and his financial and moral support of the Black Panthers, Native American Rights groups and other progressive causes.

The Godfather

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Brando as the iconic Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather.

His performance as Vito Corleone in 1972's The Godfather was a mid-career turning point. Director Francis Ford Coppola convinced Brando to submit to a "make-up" test, in which Brando did his own makeup (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 the temperamental Brando whose reputation for difficult behavior and demands was the stuff of backlot legend. However, Paramount studio heads wanted to give the role to Danny Thomas in the hope that Thomas would have his own production company throw in its lot with Paramount. Thomas declined the role and actually urged the studio to cast Brando at the behest of Coppola and others who had witnessed the screen test. Brando's "sit down" scene between rival mobsters is generally described as one of the greatest moments in film history. Brando won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance.

Brando turned down the Academy Award, the second actor to refuse a Best Actor Oscar (the first being George C. Scott for Patton). Brando boycotted the award ceremony, sending Native American Rights activist 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 Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris, but the performance was overshadowed by an uproar over the erotic nature of the film. Despite the controversies which attended both the film and the man, the Academy once again nominated Brando for the Best Actor.

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Marlon Brando as Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now.

His career afterward was uneven. He was paid one million dollars a week to play the iconic Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now. He was supposed to show up slim, fit, and to have read the book Heart of Darkness. He showed up weighing around 220 pounds and hadn't read Heart of Darkness. This is why his character was shot mostly in the shadows and most of his dialogue was improvised. After his week was over, Director Francis Ford Coppola asked him to stay an extra hour so that he could shoot a close up of Brando saying, "The horror, the horror." Brando agreed for an extra $75,000. After this film his weight began to limit the roles he could play.

In his autobiography Songs My Mother Taught Me, Brando describes his participation in Apocalypse Now very differently. According to Brando, the script had deviated from the book and made Kurtz a much more visible character. To restore the character's mystery (and to cut down on the amount of work he'd be required to do), Brando suggested to Coppola that Kurtz be returned in the movie to the mythological figure he was in the book. Coppola agreed to allow Brando to rewrite the script, which he did over the course of ten days. Brando also shaved his head without telling Coppola, and worked with the crew to devise lighting techniques which would emphasize his bald pate and deep set eyes, to evoke a sense of palpable danger in the character. Coppola approved of all of Brando's changes, which gave the film the focus and narrative continuity it had previously lacked.

Later career

Brando's suggestions to portray Superman's father Jor-El as a "green suitcase" or a bagel in the 1978 Superman: The Movie were less successful. He agreed to the role only on assurance that he was paid a large 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 off-camera. It was revealed in a documentary contained in the 2001 DVD release of Superman: The Movie, that he was paid $3.7 million for just two weeks of work.

Brando also filmed scenes for the movie's sequel, Superman II, but after producers refused to pay him the same percentage he received for the first movie, 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.

Some later performances, such as The Island of Dr Moreau, earned him some of the 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.

Brando conceived the idea of a novel called Fan-Tan with director Donald Cammell in 1979, which was not released until 2005. Cammell dated and eventually married actor China Kong, the daughter of Anita Loos, with whom Brando had an affair.

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.

Brando with James Baldwin at the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C.

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.

He married actress Anna Kashfi in 1957, mistakenly believing her to be of 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 together, Christian Brando.

In 1960, Brando married Movita Castaneda, a Mexican actress seven years his senior; they were divorced in 1962. Castaneda had appeared in the first Mutiny on the Bounty film in 1935, some 27 years before the 1962 remake with Brando as Fletcher Christian. Brando's behavior during the filming of Bounty seemed to bolster his reputation as a difficult star. He was blamed for a change in director 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 bought a twelve island atoll, 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 on 10 August 1962. At just 20 years old, Tarita was 18 years younger than Brando at the time of their marriage. 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. They divorced in July 1972. Brando eventually had a hotel built on Tetiaroa. 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.

Only six months after his death, his third wife Tarita Teriipia published a memior in which she revealed that Cheyenne had recorded in her diary being sexually abused by her father. Tarita suggested this was why Cheyenne had developed schizophrenia and committed suicide.

Children

• by Anna Kashfi:
  • Christian Brando (b. 1958)
• by Movita Castaneda:
  • Miko C. Brando (b. 1961)
  • Rebecca Brando Kotlinzky (b.1966)
• by Tarita Teriipia:
  • Simon Teihotu Brando (b. 1963) - the only inhabitant of Tetiaroa
  • Cheyenne (b. 1970 - d. 1995), committed suicide
• by adoption:
  • Petra Brando-Corval (b. 1972), daughter of Brando's assistant Caroline Barrett
  • Maimiti Brando (b. 1977)
  • Raiatua Brando (b. 1982)
• by Maria Christina Ruiz:
  • Ninna Brando (b. 1989)
  • Myles Brando (b. 1992)
  • Timothy Brando (b. 1994)

Brando's sexuality

Brando's sexuality has long been a matter of great debate. 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." An alleged long time lover was fellow actor 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." After Cox died, Brando kept his ashes for 30 years; 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.

During the filming of Streetcar Named Desire (1951), in the garden of Vivien Leigh's mansion, David Niven discovered Brando and Laurence Olivier swimming in the pool. Olivier was kissing Brando. "I turned my back to them and went back inside to join Vivien. I'm sure she knew what was going on, but she made no mention of it. Nor did I. One must be sophisticated about such matters in life."

A recent biography Brando Unzipped, Darwin Porter, (2006) details alleged affairs with Cary Grant, Rock Hudson and Stewart Granger. The book also features an alleged picture of Brando performing fellatio on a male lover. The validity of the photograph has yet to be substantiated.

Scandal involving Brando's son, Christian

In May 1990, Dag Drollet, the Tahitian lover of Brando's daughter and Christian's half-sister, Cheyenne, died of a gunshot wound, after a confrontation with Christian at the family's hilltop home above Beverly Hills. Christian, then 31, claimed the shooting was accidental.

After heavily publicized pre-trial proceedings, Christian pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter and use of a gun. He was sentenced to 10 years. Before the sentencing, Brando delivered an hour of 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, suffering from lingering effects of a serious car accident and said to still be depressed over Drollet's death, committed suicide by hanging herself in Tahiti.

Final years and death

Brando's notoriety, his troubled family life, 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 6,812,392 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-minute-long music video "You Rock My World" the same year. The actor's son, Miko, was Jackson's bodyguard and assistant for several years, and is also a friend of the singer. He stated "The last time my father left his house to go anywhere, to spend any kind of time... was with Michael Jackson. He loved it... [He] had a 24-hour chef, 24-hour security, 24-hour help, 24-hour kitchen, 24-hour maid service."

On July 1, 2004, Brando died in the hospital 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 also suffered from congestive heart failure, failing eye sight due to diabetes, and had recently been diagnosed with cancer.

Karl Malden, Brando's fellow actor in 'A Streetcar Named Desire' - for which Malden received an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor - and 'On The Waterfront, and 'One Eyed Jacks' - the only film directed by Brando - talks on an a documentary accompanying the DVD, 'A Streetcar Named Desire', about a phone call he received from Brando shortly before Brando's death. A distressed Brando told Malden he kept falling over. Malden wanted to come over, but Brando put him off telling him there was no point. Three weeks later Brando was dead.

Brando was cremated, his ashes scattered partly in Tahiti and partly in Death Valley.

In a July 2006 lawsuit filed against Michael Jackson, it was suggested that Brando had suffered from senile dementia in his final years.

In 2007, a 165 minute biopic of Brando, Brando: The Documentary, produced by Mike Medavoy (the executor of Brando's will) for TCM was released.

Politics

Civil Rights

Brando with Charlton Heston, James Baldwin, and Harry Belafonte at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 28, 1963

In 1946, Brando showed his dedication to the Jewish desire for a home land by performing in Ben Hecht’s Zionist play "A Flag is Born," which had debuted 60 years earlier. Brando's involvement had an impact on three of the most contentious issues of the early postwar period: the fight to establish a Jewish state, the smuggling of Holocaust survivors to Palestine, and the battle against racial segregation in the United States.

In August 1963, Brando participated in the March on Washington along with fellow celebrities Harry Belafonte, James Garner, Charlton Heston, Burt Lancaster and Sidney Poitier. Brando also, along with Paul Newman, participated in the freedom rides.

In the aftermath of the 1968 slaying of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Marlon Brando made one of the strongest commitments to furthering Dr. King’s work. Shortly after Dr. King’s death, Brando announced that he was bowing out of the lead role of a major film (The Arrangement) which was about to begin production, in order to devote himself to the civil rights movement. “I felt I’d better go find out where it is; what it is to be black in this country; what this rage is all about”, Brando said on the late night ABC-TV Joey Bishop Show. Brando further declared: “If the vacuum formed by Dr. King’s death isn’t filled with concern and understanding and a measure of love, then I think we all are really going to be lost here in this country.”

The actor’s participation in the African-American civil rights movement actually began well before King's death. In the early 1960s Brando contributed thousands of dollars to both the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and to a scholarship fund established for the children of slain Mississippi NAACP leader Medgar Evers. By this time, Brando was already involved in films that carried messages about human rights: “Sayonara”, which addressed interracial romance, and the “The Ugly American“, depicting the conduct of US officials abroad and its deleterious effect on the citizens of foreign countries. For a time Brando was also donating money to the Black Panther Party and considered himself a friend of founder Bobby Seale. However, Brando ended his financial support for the group over his perception of its increasing radicalization, specifically a passage in a Panther pamphlet put out by Eldridge Cleaver advocating indiscriminate violence, "for the Revolution".

Outside of his film work, Brando not only appeared before the California Assembly in support of a fair housing law, but personally joined picket lines in demonstrations protesting discrimination in housing developments.

Accusations of Jewish stereotyping

In a January 1979 issue of Playboy magazine, Brando attracted controversy by saying that Jews run Hollywood: "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 made 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.'"

Abraham Foxman, head of the ADL, responded by indicating that Brando "should know that what he said is utterly false, extremely offensive and plays into the hands of anti-Semites and bigots. His comments raise the centuries-old canard of Jewish control and conspiracy, and his use of an anti-Semitic epithet is hurtful to Jews everywhere."

While Brando's statements, taken out of context, might seem offensive, his deep respect for Jewish people was evident in his life-long relationship with Stella Adler's family and others. He remarked in his autobiography Songs My Mother Taught Me that 'One of the great mysteries that has always puzzled me is how Jews, who account for such a tiny fraction of the world's population, have been able to achieve so much and excel in so many different fields - science, music, medicine, literature, arts, business and more....They are an amazing people. Imagine the persecution they endured over the centuries: pogroms, temple burnings, Cossack raids, uprootings of families, their dispersal to the winds and the Holocaust. Yet their culture survived and Jews became by far the most accomplished people per capita that the world has ever produced.'

Academy Awards

• Nominated: Best Actor, A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
• Nominated: Best Actor, Viva Zapata! (1952)
• Nominated: Best Actor, Julius Caesar (1953)
• Won: Best Actor, On the Waterfront (1954)
• Nominated: Best Actor, Sayonara (1957)
• Won: Best Actor, The Godfather (1972)
• Nominated: Best Actor, Last Tango in Paris (1973)
• Nominated: Best Supporting Actor, A Dry White Season (1989)

BAFTA Awards

• Won: Best Foreign Actor, Viva Zapata! (1953)
• Won: Best Foreign Actor, Julius Caesar (1954)
• Won: Best Foreign Actor, On the Waterfront (1955)
• Nominated: Best Foreign Actor, The Young Lions (1959)
• Nominated: Best Actor, The Nightcomers (1973)
• Nominated: Best Actor, The Godfather (1973)
• Nominated: Best Actor, Last Tango in Paris (1974)
• Nominated: Best Supporting Actor, A Dry White Season (1990)

Emmy Awards

• Won: Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or a Special, Roots: The Next Generations (1979)

Golden Globe Awards

• Won: Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, On the Waterfront (1955)
• Nominated: Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical/Comedy, The Teahouse of the August Moon (1957)
• Nominated: Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, Sayonara (1958)
• Nominated: Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, The Ugly American (1964)
• Won: Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, The Godfather (1973)
• Nominated: Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture, A Dry White Season (1990)

Cannes Film Festival

• Won: Best Actor - Viva Zapata! (1954)

Awards Won

Template:S-awards

Filmography

Further information: Marlon Brando filmography

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Bosworth, Patricia. Marlon Brando. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2001. ISBN 0-297-84284-6.
• Brando, Marlon, and Donald Cammell. Fan-Tan. New York: Knopf, 2005. ISBN 1-40004-471-5.
• Brando, Marlon with Lindsey, Robert. Brando: Songs My Mother Taught Me. New York: Random House, 1994. ISBN 0-67941-013-9.
• Porter, Darwin. Brando Unzipped. New York: Blood Moon, 2006. ISBN 0-9748-1182-3.

External links

• Marlon Brando at IMDb
• Marlon Brando at the TCM Movie Database
• Marlon Brando at the Internet Broadway Database
• Official Website of Marlon Brando
• The Oddfather, Rolling Stone, Jod Kaftan, April 25, 2002
• Marlon Brando: The Actor's Actor
• Quotes from an interview with Newsweek March 13,1972
• Court TV: Christian Brando: A Hollywood Family Tragedy
• Premiere: Remembering Brando

Obituaries

• Marlon Brando, Oscar-Winning Actor, Is Dead at 80
• 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)