Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando was born in Omaha, Nebraska in nineteen twenty-four. He was named after his father, a salesman, but his family called him Bud. His mother, Dorothy, was an actress in the local theater. He had two older sisters.
Marlon Brando's childhood was not happy. His parents drank too much alcohol and argued often. Dorothy Brando blamed her husband for the failure of her acting career. The older Marlon Brando did not have a good relationship with his son. In a book about his life, the actor wrote that his father never had anything good to say about his son.

The Brandos moved many times when Marlon was young. His parents separated when he was eleven, but they re-united after two years. Young Marlon was always getting into trouble at school. His father decided to send him to a military school in Minnesota. Marlon did not do well in classes there. But he did find support for his interest in theater. A drama teacher urged him to begin acting in plays there and he did. But he was expelled from the school for getting into trouble.

Marlon Brando moved to New York City when he was nineteen years old in nineteen forty-three. He took acting classes at the New School for Social Research. One of his teachers was Stella Adler, who taught the "Method" style of realistic acting. The Method teaches actors how to use their own memories and emotions to identify with the characters they are playing.

Marlon Brando learned the Method style quickly and easily. Critics say he was probably the greatest Method actor ever. One famous actress commented on his natural ability for it. She said teaching Marlon Brando the Method was like sending a tiger to jungle school.

Marlon Brando appeared in several plays. He got his first major part in a Broadway play in nineteen forty-seven, at the age of twenty-three. He received great praise for his powerful performance as Stanley Kowalski in the Tennessee Williams play, "A Streetcar Named Desire."

From 1955 to 1958 people in the movie industry always voted Brando as one of the top ten film attractions in the nation. During the 1960s, however, his career had more downs than ups. In 1962 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) studios decided to remake Mutiny on the Bounty, which had originally been filmed in 1935. The movie was a disaster at the box office. It failed to earn even half of its enormous budget (the money it cost to make it). Brando's excessive self-indulgence (spoiled behavior) reached its height during the filming of this movie. He was criticized for his tantrums (fits of bad temper) on the set and for trying to alter the script. Off the set he ate too much and would not associate with the cast and crew. For the rest of the 1960s Brando acted in several movies, but none of them was considered to be of very high quality.

Brando's career was reborn in 1972 with his portrayal of Mafia (a secret, criminal organization) leader Don Corleone in the-godfather. He won his second Oscar for that role, but he refused to accept it because of how he felt Hollywood showed Native Americans in its movies. Brando did not appear at the Academy Awards ceremony to personally deny the trophy. Instead, he had a Native American Apache woman named Sacheen Littlefeather read his protest. In 1994 Brando changed his mind and tried to get the gold Oscar statuette, but his request was denied.

Brando continued to work in many films after the-godfather, both as a star and in smaller roles in dramas and comedies. Critics have said that both the movies themselves as well as Brando's performances have been of very uneven quality. Young people who have not seen Brando's amazing efforts in his early films will not find the same genius in his later movies. The small roles he has played do not demand the acting range for which he had once achieved so much praise.

The unhappy family life Brando had as a child has been mirrored in his own family life as an adult. He has had many failed marriages and has experienced personal tragedy from the actions of two of his children. A son served time in prison for manslaughter and a daughter committed suicide.

Brando's years of self-indulgence are visible. He overate until he weighed well over three hundred pounds in the mid-1990s. However, to judge Brando by his appearance today and dismiss his work because of his later, less significant acting jobs, would be a mistake. The range of the roles he played is a testament to his ability to explore many aspects of the human psyche (mind). Brando seems perfectly content knowing his best work is behind him. He still remains an influence for actors today, and has won popular acclaim and critical consensus as one of the greatest cinema actors of the late twentieth century.

Spouse(s):
Anna Kashfi (m. 1957; div. 1959)
Movita Castaneda (m. 1960; div. 1962)
Tarita Teriipaia (m. 1962; div. 1972)

Children:16

Filmography:
1950 - The Men
1951 - A Streetcar Named Desire
1952 - Viva Zapata!
1953 - Julius Caesar
1953 - The Wild One
1954 - On the Waterfront
1954 - Désirée
1955 - Guys and Dolls
1956 - The Teahouse of the August Moon
1957 - Sayonara
1958 - The Young Lions
1959 - The Fugitive Kind
1961 - One-Eyed Jacks
1962 - Mutiny on the Bounty
1963 - The Ugly American
1964 - Bedtime Story
1965 - Morituri
1966 - The Chase
1966 - The Appaloosa
1967 - A Countess from Hong Kong
1967 - Reflections in a Golden Eye
1968 - Candy
1968 - The Night of the Following Day
1969 - Burn!
1970 - King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis
1972 - The Nightcomers
1972 - The Godfather
1972 - Last Tango in Paris
1976 - The Missouri Breaks
1978 - Raoni
1978 - Superman
1979 - Apocalypse Now
1980 - The Formula
1989 - A Dry White Season
1990 - The Freshman
1992 - Christopher Columbus: The Discovery
1995 - Don Juan DeMarco
1996 - The Island of Dr. Moreau
1997 - The Brave
1998 - Free Money
2001 - The Score