Brando, Marlon

Brando, Marlon (1924-2004), American actor, known as an exponent of the “method” style of acting. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Brando studied at the Actors Studio in New York, making his Broadway debut in 1944. His stage breakthrough came when he played Stanley Kowalski in the Broadway production directed by Elia Kazan of the Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), a role well suited to Brando’s naturalistic “method” style of acting. His performance brought him immediate acclaim and led to his transition from stage to screen acting. He made his screen debut in 1950 in The Men, directed by Fred Zinnemann, playing a World War II veteran. This was followed in 1951 by the film version, again with Kazan, of A Streetcar Named Desire, and it soon became clear that a new star had been found, one who refused to conform to the Hollywood mould, and with whom American youth could identify.

He subsequently showed his versatility in a number of film performances, including the role of Mark Antony in the film Julius Caesar (1953) and that of a motorbike rebel in The Wild One (1954). He received an Academy Award (Oscar) for Best Actor for his performance in On the Waterfront (1954, Kazan). Among his other films were The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956), The Young Lions (1958), One-Eyed Jacks (1961, which he also directed), Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), Last Tango in Paris (1973, Bernardo Bertolucci), Apocalypse Now (1979), The Formula (1980), and A Dry White Season (1989). Voted to receive the Best Actor prize at the Academy Award ceremony for his performance in The Godfather (1972, Francis Ford Coppola), Brando refused it, sending in his place an actress in Apache costume to read a statement protesting against the treatment of Native Americans by the film industry. In 1966 he bought his own private Pacific Ocean island, on which he lived for a period. Although an actor of enormous power, his choice of parts in later years was considered somewhat erratic. Roles included a parody of perhaps his most famous persona, the godfather Don Corleone, in The Freshman (1990); the Grand Inquisitor Torquemada in Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (1992); and the mad doctor in The Island of Doctor Moreau (1996). He also starred in The Brave (1997), the directorial debut of Johnny Depp, and in the crime drama The Score (2001). His autobiography, Brando—Songs My Mother Taught Me, was published in 1994.