Marlon Brando Junior
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Marlon Brando revolutionized American acting with his Method performance in A Streetcar Named Desire 1951. He won two Academy Awards, for On the Waterfront 1954 and The Godfather 1972. His refusal of the 1973 Oscar brought attention to Native American rights. He died in 2004 at age 80 from pulmonary fibrosis.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Marlon Brando — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Marlon Brando by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Marlon Brando — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Omaha, Nebraska, on April 3, 1924 — Marlon Brando was born to a salesman father and an amateur actress mother who mentored Henry Fonda. Both parents were alcoholics; young Brando often retrieved his mother from jail. Expelled from Shattuck Military Academy, he moved to New York in 1943 to study acting at the New School under Stella Adler, whose Method training shaped his approach.
Brando debuted on Broadway in 1944 in I Remember Mama. His breakthrough came when he originated Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire on stage in 1947 and on film in 1951, earning his first Oscar nomination. He won his first Academy Award for On the Waterfront 1954 as Terry Malloy. Hits like The Wild One 1953 and Julius Caesar 1953 gave way to a career slump in the 1960s, tied to poor choices and weight gain. He made a comeback as Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather 1972, winning his second Oscar — which he refused. Later notable performances included Last Tango in Paris 1972 and Apocalypse Now 1979.
Brando was married three times: to Anna Kashfi 1957-1959, Movita 1960-1962, and Tarita 1962-1972. He fathered at least six children, including Christian Brando, who in 1990 killed his half-sister’s boyfriend and served prison time. Cheyenne Brando committed suicide in 1995. Brando’s closest friend was actor Wally Cox; after Cox’s death, Brando kept his ashes in a closet and spoke to them daily.
Brando inspired a generation including James Dean, Paul Newman, and Jack Nicholson, who said, We are all Brando’s children. His Method of drawing on personal experience set the standard for naturalistic performance. Posthumously, his annotated Godfather script sold for a record $312,800 at auction. He is most remembered as Don Vito Corleone, a role that earned him enduring cultural reverence.
Browse the complete filmography of Marlon Brando — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
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Every award, honor, and recognition received by Marlon Brando — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
A wall of memorable lines from Marlon Brando — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
The More Sensitive You Are, the More Likely You Are to Be Brutalised, Develop Scabs and Never Evolve. Never Allow Yourself to Feel Anything Because You Always Feel Too Much.
The Only Thing an Actor Owes His Public Is Not to Bore Them.
An Actor Is at Most a Poet and at Least an Entertainer.
Would People Applaud Me If I Were a Good Plumber?
I Don’t Know What People Expect When They Meet Me. They Seem to Be Afraid That I’m Going to Piss in the Potted Palm and Slap Them on the Ass.
I Put on an Act Sometimes, and People Think I’m Insensitive. Really, It’s Like a Kind of Armour Because I’m Too Sensitive. If There Are Two Hundred People in a Room and One of Them Doesn’t Like Me, I’ve Got to Get Out.
If You’re Successful, Acting Is About as Soft a Job as Anybody Could Ever Wish For. but If You’re Unsuccessful, It’s Worse Than Having a Skin Disease.
I Don’t Want to Spread the Peanut Butter of My Personality on the Mouldy Bread of the Commercial Press.
The Most Repulsive Thing You Could Ever Imagine Is the Inside of a Camel’s Mouth. That and Watching a Girl Eat Octopus or Squid.
With Women, I’ve Got a Long Bamboo Pole with a Leather Loop on the End. I Slip the Loop Around Their Necks so They Can’t Get Away or Come Too Close. Like Catching Snakes.
If There’s Anything Unsettling to the Stomach, It’s Watching Actors on Television Talk About Their Personal Lives.
Regret Is Useless in Life. It’s in the Past. All We Have Is Now.
Acting Is the Expression of a Neurotic Impulse. It’s a Bum’s Life. Quitting Acting Is a Sign of Maturity.
Acting Is an Empty and Useless Profession.
It Is a Simple Fact That All of Us Use the Techniques of Acting to Achieve Whatever Ends We Seek… Acting Serves as the Quintessential Social Lubricant and a Device for Protecting Our Interests and Gaining Advantage in Every Aspect of Life.
It Seems to Me Hilarious That Our Government Put the Face of Elvis Presley on a Postage Stamp After He Died from an Overdose of Drugs. His Fans Don’t Mention That Because They Don’t Want to Give up Their Myths. They Ignore the Fact That He Was a Drug Addict and Claim He Invented Rock ‘N’ Roll When in Fact He Took It from Black Culture; They Had Been Singing That Way for Years Before He Came Along, Copied Them and Became a Star.
I’m One of Those People Who Believes That If I’m Very Good in This Life I’ll Go to France When I Die.
Even Today, I Meet People Who Think of Me Automatically as a Tough, Insensitive, Coarse Guy Named Stanley Kowalski. They Can’t Help It, but It Is Troubling.
Most People Want Those Fantasies of Those Who Are Worthy of Our Hate We Get Rid of a Lot of Anger That Way; and of Those Who Are Worthy of Our Idolatry. Whether It’s Farrah Fawcett or Somebody Else, It Doesn’t Make a Difference. They’re Easily Replaceable Units, Pick ‘Em Out Like a Card File. Johnnie Ray Enjoyed That Kind of Hysterical Popularity, Celebration, and Then Suddenly He Wasn’t There Anymore. the Beatles Are Now Nobody in Particular. Once They Set Screaming Crowds Running After Them, They Ran in Fear of Their Lives, They Had Special Tunnels for Them. They Can Walk Almost Anyplace Now. Because the Fantasy Is Gone. Elvis Presley Bloated, Over the Hill, Adolescent Entertainer, Suddenly Drawing People into Las Vegas Had Nothing to Do with Excellence, Just Myth. It’s Convenient for People to Believe That Something Is Wonderful, Therefore They’re Wonderful.
America Has Been Good to Me, but That Wasn’t a Gift.
I Have Eyes Like Those of a Dead Pig.
The Only Reason I’m in Hollywood Is That I Don’t Have the Moral Courage to Refuse the Money.
Privacy Is Not Something That I’m Merely Entitled To, It’s an Absolute Prerequisite.
I Don’t Mind That I’m Fat. You Still Get the Same Money.
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.
I Always Enjoyed Watching John Wayne, but It Never Occurred to Me Until I Spoke with Indians How Corrosive and Damaging and Destructive His Movies Were Most Hollywood Movies Were.
Everybody Ought Not to Turn His Back on the Phenomenon of Hatred in Whatever Form It Takes. We Have to Find Out What the Anatomy of Hatred Is Before We Can Understand It. We Have to Make Some Attempt to Put It into Some Understandable Form. Any Kind of Group Hatred Is Extremely Dangerous and Much More Volatile Than Individual Hatred. Heinous Crimes Are Committed by Groups and It’s All Done, of Course, in the Name of Right, Justice. It’s John Wayne. It’s the Way He Thinks. All the Crimes Committed Against Indians Are Not Considered Crimes by John Wayne.
Three or Four Times, I’ve Pulled a Gun on Somebody. I Had a Problem After Charles Manson, Deciding to Get a Gun. but I Didn’t Want Somebody Coming in My House and Committing Mayhem. the Hillside Strangler Victims One of the Girls Was Found in Back of My Los Angeles House. My Next Door Neighbor Was Murdered, Strangled in the Bathroom. Mulholland Drive Is Full of Crazy People. We Have Nuts Coming up and Down All the Time.
I Know I’m Not an Easy Person to Get Along With, I’m No Walk in the Park.
Never Confuse the Size of Your Paycheck with the Size of Your Talent.
Little-known facts about Marlon Brando — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
An avid internet user in his final years, Brando often entered chat rooms to start arguments.
Expelled from high school for riding a motorcycle through the halls.
His signature was so valuable to collectors that many personal checks he wrote were never cashed; his autograph was worth more than the check amount.
During an acting class, when asked to act out a chicken hearing an air-raid siren, he stood still, explaining that a chicken would not know what an air-raid siren is.
He asked The Godfather co-star James Caan what he would wish for; Caan said love, and Brando admitted that he too wished for love, but asked him not to tell his wife.
In his autobiography, he stated he was attracted to Vivien Leigh during the filming of A Streetcar Named Desire but refrained because he respected Laurence Olivier.
Two years before refusing his Oscar for The Godfather, he had asked the Academy to replace the one stolen from On the Waterfront; he had been using it as a doorstop.
Shortly before his death, doctors told him that only oxygen tubes could prolong his life; he declined, preferring to die naturally.
His best friend was Wally Cox, whom he knew from childhood and later reunited with in New York; Brando said he thought of Cox every day and even kept his pajamas after his death.
He turned down a chance to reprise Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II because he believed in leaving roles behind and resented Paramount’s treatment during the first film.
He used cue cards on set, refusing to memorize lines; in Superman 1978, his lines were written on the baby Kal-El’s diaper.
Contrary to belief, Brando was not an atheist; at his son’s trial he stated, While I do believe in God, I do not believe in the same way as others, thus refusing to swear on a Bible.
He disliked signing autographs for collectors, which ironically raised the value of his signature; he once told a fan that one John Wayne autograph equaled two of his.
Received top billing in nearly every film even when not the lead.
In his book The Way It’s Never Been Done Before, George Englund wrote that Brando was offered a Lifetime Achievement Oscar on condition he attend; Brando refused, calling the condition disingenuous.
At his death, Brando suffered from congestive heart failure, advanced diabetes, pulmonary fibrosis, and a liver tumor; he died before surgery.
While filming The Score 2001, he refused to be on set with director Frank Oz, referring to the former Muppets director as Miss Piggy.
Paramount wanted him for Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby 1974, but he demanded $4 million, an unheard-of sum.
His ashes were scattered in Tahiti and Death Valley.
He suggested that his cameo in Superman be a glowing green bagel; producers rejected the idea.
Spoke French fluently from his marriage to Tarita.
He called Johnny Depp the most talented actor of his generation.
Lived on Mulholland Drive, known as Bad Boy Drive, alongside Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty.
Believed he could control pain through meditation; he wanted to undergo circumcision without anesthesia to prove it, but the doctor refused.
Was roommates with Wally Cox during their New York training; Cox’s sudden death at 48 devastated him.
His son Miko C. Brando was a bodyguard for Michael Jackson; Brando and Jackson remained friends.
Daughter Cheyenne committed suicide in 1995 at age 25.
He said he only continued making movies to fund a definitive film about Native Americans, which was never made.
Earned more for his short role in Superman than Christopher Reeve did, and later sued for a percentage of profits.
Both Oscar-winning roles were referenced by Robert De Niro: De Niro played young Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II, and his Raging Bull character imitates Brando’s I coulda been a contender speech.
Eldest son Christian murdered his half-sister’s boyfriend in 1990 and served ten years.
A 2005 auction of Brando’s personal effects fetched $2.3 million; his annotated Godfather script brought a world record $312,800.
He liked to box; during a stage run of A Streetcar Named Desire, a stagehand broke his nose, and he later removed bandages to get time off, causing improper healing.
His Sacheen Littlefeather protest at the 1973 Oscars led the Academy to ban nominees from sending surrogates onstage.
Enjoyed talking to strangers on his ham radio using fake names like Mike or Matin Bumby and speaking in accents.
He suggested that Jor-El wear the S insignia as a family crest in Superman.
One of the innovators of Method acting in American film.
In 1995, he started shooting Divine Rapture in Ireland with Johnny Depp, but the film was never completed due to financial issues.
Was offered $2 million for four days’ work in Scary Movie 2 but had to withdraw due to pneumonia; James Woods replaced him.
Born to alcoholic parents, he was often left alone as a child.
Refused to be interviewed for the Apocalypse Now documentary because he claimed Coppola still owed him $2 million.
Kept Wally Cox’s ashes in a closet and later scattered both his and Cox’s ashes in Death Valley.
Close friends with Michael Jackson, appearing in his 2001 music video You Rock My World; his last outing was to Neverland Ranch in 2003.
In his final years, he filmed acting lessons for a series called Lying for a Living starring Sean Penn, Jon Voight, and Nick Nolte; the DVDs were never released.
He earned four consecutive Oscar nominations from 1951-1954, a feat shared with only a few actors.
Donated his $25,000 salary for Roots: The Next Generations to the American Indian Movement.
His legendary eating habits included consuming junk food and large quantities; he would order two steaks, potatoes, two apple pies, and a quart of milk for dinner during the filming of One-Eyed Jacks.
Tithed a tenth of his income to black civil-rights organizations.
Helped many minorities in America, including African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Marlon Brando.
Celebrities similar to Marlon Brando — same craft, ranked by reach.
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