Marlon Brando an Acting Legend

Marlon Brando was a legendary actor, who was known as a method actor.

Brando became an icon of the 1950's with his intense, edgy, performances. Like Elvis Presley, when Brando started out he was amazingly handsome, sexy, sensual and dangerously male. Both Marlon Brando and Elvis Presley changed drastically as they aged, becoming bloated with self indulgence in their later years.

Brando may best be known for his performance in "The Godfather", which came out in 1972, more than twenty years after he first broke out onto the acting scene.

Marlon Brando broke into the acting scene in 1950, with a performance in "The Men". It was a year later when he really took the acting world by storm with his edgy portrayal of Stanley Kowalski in "Streetcar Named Desire", a play that was written by Tennessee Williams and directed by Elia Kazan. Three years later he won an Oscar for his intense dramatic portrayal in "On the Waterfront", also directed by Kazan. In "On the Waterfront" Brando had a line that was often quoted, "I could have been a contender"..

As the edgy, hot, young actor of the 1950's, Brando starred in several films, including:

The Men (1950)
Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Guys and Dolls (1955)
The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956)
The Wild One (1953)
On The Waterfront (1954)
Sayonara (1957)
Desiree (1954)
Julius Caesar (1953)
Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)

The film that revived Brando's career, and probably his best known, was "The Godfather", which was directed by Francis Ford Coppola in 1972. Brando had garnered a reputation of being difficult by this time. Coppola had to fight for the studio to accept the casting of Brando for what may have been his most famous role.

The story of a Mafia Don Vito Corleone and his family was a masterpiece of it's time. "The Godfather" occasionally gets a mention in the current mob story, hit HBO series, "The Sopranos".

Brando won his second Oscar for "The Godfather", but he turned it down, a move that astonished the Academy and the movie watching public. Brando did not appear at the award event to turn down his Oscar, but sent a representative to make a defiant statement and refuse it.

"The Godfather" was followed up by an entirely different kind of movie, "Last Tango in Paris". Brando played a depressed man in Paris who has an affair with a French woman. The movie, released in 1973, was X rated.

Later films include:
Apocalypse Now (1979)
A Dry White Season (1989
The Freshman (1990)
Don Juan DeMarco (1995)
Christopher Columbus; the Discovery (1992)
The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996)

Brando's acting career was varied. Young audiences may not have ever had the chance to see the intensity of the young Brando. It is worth it to look up his movies , especially his movies from the 1950's.

Marlon Brando's personal life was full of controversy. He was married three times and lived in Tahiti for several years. In his later years he lived in Los Angeles.

A tragic scandal occurred in 1990, when his son, Christian Brando shot and killed Dag Drollet, who was the lover of Dag's sister (Marlon Brando's daughter) , Cheyenne Brando. Christian was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Brando's daughter, Cheyenne Brando, committed suicide in 1995.

Brando reportedly spent millions in the defense of his son, Christian, and ended up heavily in debt. In his later years he lived on Social Security income and a pension from the Screen Actors Guild. There were conflicting reports that his estate was worth millions,.

Marlon Brando died in 2004, at the age of 80. The cause of death was Pulmonary Fibrosis, a condition that causes scarring of the lungs.

Marlon Brando had a unique and legendary career. Anyone who would like to explore a fascinating acting career, and see a great acting legend would do well to look for his movies. Audiences who have not previously had the chance to see his early films may be impressed with what they see. Cable channel TCM is airing several of his early movies.

Resources:
ccn.com
imbc.com
Channel Guide Magazine