No actor ever exercised such a dramatic influence on succeeding generations of actors as Marlon Brando did. More than 50 years after he appeared the first time on the screen, in 1951, as Stanley Kowalski in the movie version of Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire,” and 25 years after his last performance as Col.Kurtz in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now” (1979), all American actors are still being measured by the yardstick that Brando was.
Brando’s painful childhood
"I admire Marlon's talent, but I don't envy the pain that created it," Anthony Quinn said.
Marlon Brandon Jr. was born on April 3, 1924, in Omaha, Nebraska.
Both his anguish and his early inspirations started with his artistically inclined but troubled mother. Brando’s mother Dorothy, sadly, was an alcoholic as well as his father Marlon Brando Sr., a calcium carbonate salesman. Dorothy would drink to the point of insensibility and young Brando would play-act for her to get her out of that oblivion or just plainly to attract her attention and love. He loved his mother dearly regardless of the obvious truth that she was an exceedingly neglectful mother. As a young boy he played a reversed role, looking after an alcoholic mother, rescuing her from jail or dragging her home drunk. Those repetitive, constant events surely had traumatized the young Brando, but on the other hand they may have been a crucial factor for creating and bringing out a unique talent shown early in his performances.
His two sisters, Jocelyn and Frannie, took after their mother who had theatrical talents. Jocelyn was an actress too, while their sibling Frannie was a visual artist.
In 1943 Brando moves to New York
A high-school dropout and rejected by the military due to a knee injury, Brando left Midwest for New York encouraged by his sisters. Just as his sister Jocelyn, he knew that acting was the only thing he was good at and decided to make it his career.
In 1943, he followed in his sister’s footsteps and being honest to his heart’s desires he found himself in The Big Apple where he enrolled in Erwin Piscator’s Dramatic Workshop. He met there the Russian theatrical actor and director Konstantin Stanislavski. It was, in a way, a fatal meeting because Stanislavski told him, “Think of your experiences and use them truthfully,” and that was for Brando the best advice he could have received if we look back on his life experiences provided by his talented but troubled mother.
The boards of Broadway
Brando made his debut on Brodway in “I Remember Mama,” in 1944 and the play was a great success.
His film debut was made some time later, in 1950, in Fred Zinnemann’s “The Man.”
When Brando worked with Elia Kazan in the “Trackline Café,” Kazan found that Brando’s persona and presence was absolutely magnetic, re-blocking the play as in his words “the audience could not take its eyes off of him.”
Brando revolutionized American acting by introducing "The Method" into American consciousness and culture. “The Method” acting was rooted in the Moscow Art Theatre of Stanislavsky's theories. It was introduced to the Group Theatre as a more naturalistic style of performing, engendering a close identification of the actor with the character's emotions.
A string of Academy Award nominated performances
In 1951, he was nominated first time for the Academy Award for his performance in the movie “The Streetcar Named Desire.” The Academy Award nominations followed year after year. In 1952, he was nominated for his performances in “Viva Zapata!”, in 1953 in “Julius Caesar” and in 1954 Brando was nominated and won his first Oscar in Elia Kazan’s “On the Waterfront.”
In his career from 1955-62, Brando managed to establish his name as one of the best actors as well as a Top-Ten movie star, continuing with his Award nomination performances. In 1957, he received his fifth Best Actor Oscar nomination for his performance in “Sayonara.”
In 1958, Marlon Brando played in “The Young Lions,” the adaptation of Irvin Shaw’s novel and the film was a major hit.
Brando’s decade of fiascos
He even tried his luck at directing and made the film “One-Eyed Jacks” in 1961, but a short time after that, he said that cutting was an absolutely long and boring process, hence Brando never again directed another film.
Throughout the 60s the films he made were of little success. In 1963 “Ugly American,” in 1966 “The Chase” and in the following year “Reflections in a Golden Eye,” then “Bedtime Story” in 1964 and “A Countess from Hong Kong” in 1967, followed by yet another underachievement in 1968 “The Night of the Following Day.”
From the fiasco back to the Oscar again
It was, by now the legendary Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather,” in 1972 that brought Brando his second Oscar for the Best Actor in a Leading Role. But a capricious Brando refused to accept the award. The reason he gave for not accepting the award was that the U.S. and especially Hollywood were discriminating against Native American People. He refused to show up at the ceremony and sent a fake Indian woman, who later turned out to be an unknown Californian actress, Maria Cruz.
His iconic portrayal of Don Vito Corleone in the gangster movie “The Godfather” brought him an Oscar, and for the movie itself the recognition as one of the greatest American films of all time.
In the same year he featured in the scandalous “Last Tango in Paris.”
His grand comeback with “The Godfather” and “Last Tango in Paris” made Brando again a Top-Ten box office star and brought him the title of the greatest actor of his generation. The same year he was on the cover of “Time” magazine and proclaimed to be the highest-paid actor in the history of motion pictures by the end of the decade.
Brando’s private life
Brando’s private life was a tumultuous one. His three wives were all pregnant when he married them. It is speculated that he fathered at least nine children.
His first marriage was to actress Ana Kashfi in 1957 and lasted only two years. They had one child together.
The second time he married actress Movita in 1960, and that marriage lasted two years, too. They had two children.
Soon after he divorced Movita in 1962, he remarried. His third wife was a little known actress Tarita Teriipia. This marriage lasted 10 years, but he divorced Teriipia, too, in 1972. Two children came from this marriage.
About his success, his fame and his role as a father Brando said:
“This is a false world. It's been a struggle to try to preserve my sanity and sense of reality taken away by success. I have to fight hard to preserve that sense of reality so as to bring up my children.”
Awards and nominations
Throughout his outstanding, rich and impressive career Brando has won 2 Oscars, another 30 wins and 22 nominations.
Marlon Brando died on 1 July 2004 at the age of 80 from a pulmonary fibrosis, at UCLA Medical Centre, in Los Angeles, California.
Branka Cubrilo - Branka Cubrilo is a novelist, short story writer and a journalist. Her novels and short stories are published worldwide.
