Marlon Brando

American actor

• Born: April 3, 1924
• Birthplace: Omaha, Nebraska
• Died: July 1, 2004
• Place of death: Los Angeles, California

Through his realistic and naturalistic portrayals of alienated, rebellious individuals and through his use of mumbling diction, Brando created an archetypical American adolescence that was at once rebellious and dutiful. His unique acting style, which revolutionized film and theater, has been embraced by virtually every modern theatrical and film actor.

Early Life

Marlon Brando (BRAN-doh) was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the only son of salesman Marlon Brando, Sr., and aspiring actor Dorothy “Dodie” Pennebaker Brando. In 1930 the family moved to Evanston, Illinois. Brando and his two sisters, Jocelyn and Frances, grew up in a family that on the surface created the impression that they were average, middle-class Midwesterners. Even during the Depression, the Brandos did not appear to suffer economically. The family did, however, suffer from emotional instability: Brando’s father was a taciturn, stern, and unyielding moralist, and his mother was an alcoholic. In 1935 his parents separated; they reconciled two years later and then moved the family to Libertyville, Illinois. In this emotionally unstable environment, Brando soon became a rebellious individual.

The most influential person in young Brando’s life was probably his mother. Her predictable cycle of long periods of sobriety followed by debilitating alcoholic binges created an atmosphere in which Brando would withdraw into himself or even run away. However, Dodie’s aspirations to become an actor greatly influenced her son. She was pretty, high-spirited, and cultured, and she was instrumental in the success of the new Omaha Community Playhouse, which would become one of the most solidly established amateur theatrical companies in the United States. She not only performed some leading roles at the theater and became somewhat of a local celebrity but also directed some performances there. Brando greatly admired her talent, and she appears to have nurtured his creative talents, much to the objections of his father.

As a young boy growing up in Evanston, Brando was attractive, blond, and rather shy but determined. Early on he developed a knack for imitating the mannerisms of others. He was not a good school student, however. Brando’s refusal to accept his father’s discipline and his poor academic achievement led to discord in the Brando household, so much so that when he became a teenager his parents sent him to Shattuck Military School in Fairbault, Minnesota. Although Brando enjoyed playing football until he injured his knee and also did well in drama, his time at the military school was one of the most terrible periods in his life. Fortunately, Brando’s drama instructor appears to have recognized and encouraged his talent in acting.

Although he established rapport with the other students, Brando’s personality clashed with the school’s strict military regimentation. He soon began to rebel and gained the reputation of a practical joker. In addition, his academic record was dismal, and he was expelled from the school. Although he was offered the chance to return the next year, Brando declined and did not finish high school.

By 1944 both of Brando’s sisters were living in were chosen. Frances was studying to be an actor. At age eighteen, Brando left a job as a ditch digger, which had been arranged by his father, and moved to Greenwich Village in Manhattan to live with Frances and pursue his own career as an actor. His father supported Brando during the first six months in New York.

Life’s Work

Brando soon came under the tutelage of his first and most influential acting teacher, Stella Adler. He enrolled in her acting classes at the New School in Greenwich Village, and by January of 1944, he was cast in Erwin Piscator’s production of Gerhart Hauptmann’s dream play Hannele’s Way to Heaven. Brando had a dual role in the play, performing as an eponymous heroine’s beloved schoolteacher and as a dark angel who haunts the long slumber into which the heroine sinks after a suicide attempt. After receiving good notices for that performance and for his performance in William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, he was signed by his first agent, Maynard Morris of the Leland Hayward office. Brando’s first Broadway performance came when he was cast in I Remember Mama in 1944, produced by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, in which he played the role of Nils, the family’s youngest son.

Despite these successes, Brando was still struggling as an actor, and fame seemed a long way away. In the late 1940’s he became a member of the famed Actors Studio in New York City, where he developed a technique based on realism, spontaneity, thinking, feeling, and reacting in a manner that made his lines seem to come as an afterthought. He would become the most famous exponent of a technique that became known as the Method, a series of exercises highly derivative of techniques developed by Russian actor Konstantin Stanislavsky . Method exercises taught an actor how to use personal experiences, memories, and emotions to make a character believable.

The hard work paid off, and in 1947, Brando received his big break. He was cast on Broadway as Stanley Kowalski, a leading role in the Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire . Under the direction of Elia Kazan, Brando’s riveting performance earned him rave reviews, and his portrayal of Stanley became the definitive interpretation of the role. His unique performance, which was beautifully spoken and seemly in demeanor, was a break from the standard characterizations presented by actors. Brando’s role in A Streetcar Named Desire (both the Broadway performance and the 1951 motion-picture version) made him a hero to young people growing up in the 1950’s and also made him a star. Brando left the stage for good in 1953, following his starring role in a Boston production of George Bernard Shaw’s play Arms and the Man.

Success followed success for Brando. He was widely praised for his portrayal of an embittered paraplegic in his first film, The Men (1950). To prepare for the role, he spent one month in a physical therapy ward. In Julius Caesar (1953), Brando showed that he could discard the mumbling, rebellious individualist characters of earlier performances and successfully portray the lead role of the classic Shakespearean play. Brando received four successive nominations for an Academy Award for Best Actor for A Streetcar Named Desire, Viva Zapata! (1952), Julius Caesar, and On the Waterfront (1954), for which he finally won the award. His peak performance in his “naturalistic” style was in On the Waterfront , in which he brought to life the rough dock walloper Terry Malloy, a common man struggling for transcendence. It was in this motion picture that he mumbled one of his most famous lines, “I coulda been a contender,” a line that became a part of American popular culture.

Brando’s role as a motorcycle gang leader in The Wild One (1954) enhanced his reputation as an actor and as a rebel in his personal life. This leather-and-jeans screen image, more than any other presented by Brando, swayed a generation of youths to imitation, and other actors, such as Elvis Presley, consciously copied the rebel style. Soon his critics were saying that he was indeed a great actor but that he could only play himself.

Brando then appeared in Désirée (1954) and made his singing and dancing debut in the poorly reviewed Guys and Dolls (1955). In 1959 he formed Pennebar Productions and produced, directed, and starred in One-Eyed Jacks (1961). This film and many of the later films appeared to be Brando’s attempt to refute the early criticism that his acting was only a reflection of himself. He achieved enormous range in such films and diverse roles as a southern U.S. Air Force ace in Sayonara (1957), a German officer in The Young Lions (1958), an English fop in Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), a much-maligned sheriff in The Chase (1966), and a man conflicted about his homosexuality in Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967).

Brando’s career was in decline at the end of the 1960’s. He was difficult to deal with as an actor and was famous for his outbursts. In 1973, for example, he broke the jaw of a photographer who angered him. Moreover, his reputation was marred by his participation in expensive, unsuccessful films. However, in 1972, he enjoyed a striking revival of his popularity for his role as Vito Corleone, the Mafia don in The Godfather . He was chosen to receive the year’s Academy Award for Best Actor for the performance. However, he refused to attend the ceremony or accept the award because of what he perceived as the negative stereotypical representation of Native Americans in Hollywood films. His later films included Ultimo Tango a Parigi (1972; Last Tango in Paris), The Missouri Breaks (1976), Superman (1978), and Apocalypse Now (1979), in which he played the iconic Vietnam War warrior Colonel Walter Kurtz.

By the end of the 1970’s, Brando had lost his struggle against gaining weight, eventually weighing some 350 pounds. Afterward, his bulky size limited the roles that he could perform. Although he announced his retirement from acting in 1980, he nevertheless continued to appear in supporting roles in films, including A Dry White Season (1989), for which he received an Oscar nomination, The Freshman (1990), Don Juan DeMarco (1995), and The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996). In his last film, The Score (2001), he appears in five scenes as a fence for an aging thief played by Robert De Niro.

Brando also was a political activist and championed civil rights causes on behalf of African Americans and Native Americans. Unfortunately, his private life was filled with problems that received much more attention in the press. His biographers claim that he had affairs with Wally Cox, Cary Grant, and Rock Hudson, and he told one biographer that he had indeed had homosexual affairs and was not ashamed of it. He maintained close friendships with controversial figures, such as singer Michael Jackson. His stormy marriages to Tarita Teriipia, Maria Castaneda, and Anna Kashfi, along with highly publicized court battles over child custody rights, made Hollywood headlines. His oldest son, Christian, killed the boyfriend of his half sister, Cheyenne. Cheyenne committed suicide after the murder. Legal fees, support for his nine children, and alimony payments battered his finances. Following Cheyenne’s suicide in 1994, Brando went into seclusion.

During the filming of Mutiny on the Bounty, Brando acquired a lifelong affection for Tahiti and Tahitians. He bought a small atoll, Tetiaroa, with the intention of creating an environmental station and resort. He wanted to build a hotel, but the project languished. His last years were plagued by illnesses, often complications from obesity, including diabetes. He died in Los Angeles, California, on July 1, 2004. His ashes were scattered in Tahiti and in Death Valley, California.

Significance

Brando introduced a new realism into modern acting. No actor before him ever seemed so spontaneous or natural. He redefined the nature of screen heroism and the standards of screen acting, and he helped the post-World War II generation define itself. From his first major role as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire to his last critically acclaimed performance as Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now, Brando created in his audiences a new expectation of psychological truth and behavioral honesty from motion-picture and theater performers. It was this savage realism that made him a star.

The reverence the acting profession has for Brando is unshakable. In addition, through his portrayals of alienated, rebellious individuals and his use of mumbling diction, Brando created an archetypical American adolescence that was at once rebellious and dutiful. Torn T-shirts, motorcycle jackets, and lines such as “Stella!” and “I coulda been a contender” and “I made him an offer he couldn’t refuse” have all become a part of the cultural psyche and led to Brando becoming a cultural icon.

Brando had a significant influence on acclaimed actors who were to follow him, including James Dean, De Niro, Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, and Johnny Depp. Two of the motion pictures in which Brando starred were ranked in the top ten of the American Film Institute’s 100 Greatest American Films: The Godfather (no. 3) and On the Waterfront (no. 8). Two others were also included on the list: Apocalypse Now (no. 28) and A Streetcar Named Desire (no. 45). One of his late films, Last Tango in Paris, though not on the list, is considered to be among his best and most self-revealing performances. As Adam Bernstein wrote in his Washington Post obituary of Brando on July 2, 2004, “His artistry in his greatest films transcended everything.”

Bibliography

Bosworth, Patricia. Marlon Brando. New York: Viking Press, 2001. Succinct biography, focusing on Brando’s life and career until the mid-1970’s. Discusses his acting style and its lasting impact on American theater and cinema. One of the volumes in the Penguin Lives series.

Kazan, Elia. A Life. 1988. New ed. New York: Da Capo Press, 1997. Presents personal and insightful reflections on Brando as an actor and as a person. Kazan was the director who took Brando to instant fame in A Streetcar Named Desire.

Manso, Peter. Brando: The Biography. New York: Hyperion, 1995. A full Brando biography presented in chronological order that is very detailed and very well researched.

Schickel, Richard. “The Actor: Marlon Brando.” Time, June 8, 1998. Concretely places Brando as one of the most significant Broadway and screen actors in the history of screen and theater performance. Discusses his influence upon the profession of acting.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Brando: A Life in Our Times. New York: Atheneum, 1991. Drawing on a remarkable sense of film and social history, the author sets Brando’s films firmly within the context of their times. This book clearly defines Brando’s influence upon film and theater. Includes a list of all his films, their dates, his starring roles, and the films’ directors.

Staggs, Sam. When Blanche Met Brando: The Scandalous Story of “A Streetcar Named Desire.” New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2006. In interviews with surviving cast members, Staggs provides a behind-the-scenes account of the New York stage production and the subsequent film of Tennessee Williams’s play, which propelled Brando to stardom.