Biography of Marlon Brando

It's always him

April 3, 1924
July 2, 2004
The highest representative of the new method of acting of the Actor's Studio that was claiming in American cinema in the mid-50 's (the famous "Stanislavsky Method"), Marlon Brando has established himself as an actor of considerable thickness and then as a true icon due to its ability to live the characters who played by extending the psychological impulses, often just suggested by internal scripts. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, on April 3, 1924, the son of a salesman and a second-line actress, before being an actor initially tries a military career but, undisciplined and impatient hierarchical rules that apply to the barracks, is ejected from the Military Academy of Minnesota. He moved to New York and attends a course of drama debuting on Broadway in 1944.
Three years later triumphs in theater with the character of Stanley Kowalski, the protagonist of the poignant drama of Tennessee Williams ' a streetcar named desire ". In 1950, under the direction of Elia Kazan, attends the aforementioned famous Actor's Studio, which finally opens the doors for cinema. After the long and exhausting training course at the Actor's Marlon Brando made his debut on the big screen in the 1950 film "men" by Fred Zinneman, in which he plays a paraplegic veteran. For this role you quit for a month to study the behavior of people with disabilities in a specialist hospital. His face, his magnetism, remain imprinted in viewers who see the movie; Brando holds riveted the audience with her strength, her intense expressions, as well as a permeating sense of manhood that manages to convey almost physically. True success comes though the year after, with the same text that launched him in the theater: the film version of "a streetcar named desire" (directed by Elia Kazan, with Vivien Leigh) launched him straight into the feminine imagination of an entire generation.
Marlon Brando screen is an immense charm and her character combines contradictory characteristics that apparently struck particularly the Lord of time: not only is it beautiful so disarming, but is also at the same time hard and deeply sensitive, rebellious and nonconformist. In short, a role that could not pass unnoticed in a society so tied to the rules and conventions like America then. Unfortunately, in the years to come of this outstanding charm will remain only a shadow. Brando, inexplicably, lost completely the magnificent physical shape and, perhaps for major problems related to her family (her first child murdered lover of half-sister Cheyenne and underwent the sentence to the maximum sentence, 10 years, despite the father had testified in his favour. Cheyenne subsequently committed suicide by hanging himself), has completely let go. Will weigh something like 160 Kg and the tabloids will compete in publishing recent pictures, putting him mercilessly compared with images of the golden age. Moreover, apart from the shocking episode of the son, the rest of the private life of Brando was not exactly how to deal with a vacation. Not only was married three times (with Anna Kashfi, Movita and Tarita), but had other important relationships ended, at best, with a painful goodbye.
Among his many women Pina Pellicier committed suicide in 1961, while Rita Moreno has tried twice without success. Brando has also won eight other acknowledgements of paternity. No less troubled are his relations with most coveted statuette from all actors: after four consecutive nominations (from the years ' 50), finally with "on the waterfront" (1954), directed by Elia Kazan won the Oscar for best actor, in the role of Terry Malloy. Also won the best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival. Also in 1954, he plays a young rebel in "the wild one" by László Benedek and becomes the symbol of a generation lurch and disillusioned. To prepare for the juvenile gangs such as those described in the film attended interpretation coming to go to jail for a night. Gli anni ' 60 represent a decade of decline for the actor, only capable of putting together a series of mediocre (with the exception of its sole Director of 1961, "the two faces of vengeance"), and to create an endless array of problems on the set who frequents and productions that engage (in 1969 exasperates the usually soft-spoken Gillo Pontecorvo while filming the movie "Queimada" so much that the Director repudiated her film). In the years ' 70 Marlon Brando resurrects literally: is the 1972 when one must seize a role that will remain in the history of interpretation, that of Don Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's "the godfather" movies.
During the sudden the now famous cheat for audition Brando "become" Don Vito: hair held back with brylcreem, shades of shoe polish on the cheeks and forehead, cheeks stuffed with Kleenex. For part receives the Oscar once again but, with a surprising move, refuses to withdraw it and to protest against the way the Government uses is the Indians, send in his place a young Sioux. That same year she starred in the film scandal "last tango in Paris" by Bernardo Bertolucci, film that, among his misadventures, you see even burned in the public square. On this occasion the "brand" Brando is felt and style, attitudes become emblematic character that gives its impolite to enjoy. In 1979 it was the turn of another great, magnetic role, that of Colonel Kurz in "Apocalypse Now" by Francis Ford Coppola. His appearance in the final stages of the film is horrific, surprising, the actor looks totally unrecognizable. Critics cry to miracle, somebody Hosanna as the best actor of all time. Coppola's masterpiece finished filming the actor retires from the stage for nearly a decade: afterwards will only appear in cameo roles.
Among his notable films include "Don Juan DeMarco" (1994, with Johnny Depp), and "The Score" (2001, with Robert De Niro and Edward Norton). To understand the magnitude of Brando is significant to Al Pacino, which later became famous, who starred with him in "the godfather": "it's like acting with God". The unforgettable actor died in Los Angeles at the age of 80 years on July 2, 2004.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.