Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando, Jr. (born April 3, 1924 in Omaha , Nebraska , † July 1, 2004 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American actor . He is considered one of the greatest character actor of film history of the 20th century.

With his roles in the films Endstation Sehnsucht (1951) and Die Faust im Nacken (1954) he brought the acting technique of method acting worldwide attention. He had a lasting influence on the younger generation of actors both with his way of portraying himself and by appearing in public as a social outsider who was not interested in the rules of Hollywood .

Between 1952 and 1990 he was nominated for an Oscar seven times in the Best Actor category and once for Best Supporting Actor, twice (1955 and 1973) he won it in the Best Actor category . In 1973 he refused to accept his second award for his title role in The Godfather in protest against the derogatory treatment of the American film industry with the Indians, which had been widespread up to that time . Brando received further awards at international film festivals , including 1952 in Cannes and 1989 in Tokyo .

He was ranked fourth on a 1999 American Film Institute list of the 25 greatest male film legends of all time.

Marlon Brando used his celebrities for a wide range of socio-political engagements, for example to support the US civil rights movement of African Americans and the indigenous organization of the American Indian Movement .

Life and film career

Youth and school days

Marlon Brando was born in Omaha , Nebraska in the American Midwest in 1924, the youngest of three siblings. The family was long established in the region; the name Brando comes from ancestors named Brandau who had immigrated from the Palatinate (Bavaria) generations before . Brando's ancestors were German, English, Irish, Dutch, French, Welsh, and Scottish. The father, Marlon Brando Sr., was actually an engineer, but after the birth of the children he worked as a traveling salesman and since 1930 as a sales manager. To distinguish it from his father of the same name, Marlon Jr. was called Bud by family and friends .

The family moved from the big city of Omaha to Evanston , Illinois in 1930 . In the summer of 1936 the parents separated temporarily; the mother moved the children to Santa Ana , California, to live with their mother. She returned to her husband two years later and the family moved to Libertyville , a rural Chicago suburb , where they ran a small horse farm as a sideline. The biographers paid special attention to Marlon Brando's childhood and youth, because there are motifs that were typical of his early films, such as the motif of the youthful rebel, whose aggressive macho attitude hides a wounded and accordingly vulnerable soul .

The family conditions in which Brando grew up were mixed: his mother, Dorothy Pennebaker Myers, a politically liberal, witty woman, had a natural acting talent. Due to her family ties, she was only able to make this her job temporarily, but at least she did not hinder the artistic development of her children. Marlon's eldest sister Jocelyn also took up the acting profession ; the middle child, Frances, studied painting. However, both parents were alcoholic, did not get along and had numerous extramarital affairs. The mother made several suicide attempts . The children were often neglected and suffered from the lack of reliability, especially of the mother. The young Brando is described by his biographers as an introverted, maladjusted, poor student who met all authority with excessive aggression.

The domestic and school situation eventually came to a head that the father took the son out of high school and in September 1941 sent him to the Shattuck Military Academy in Faribault , Minnesota , where the father wanted Brando to have one last chance improve his school grades. The hopes were not fulfilled. It is true that Brando found a mentor for the first time in the English teacher Earle Wagner, who led the Academy's theater group and recognized the seventeen-year-old's talent for acting. However, given the institution's rigid discipline, Brando felt challenged to an insubordination that resulted in his leaving the Academy without a degree in May 1943.

Training and stage work in New York

Dramatic workshop

Due to a knee injury sustained while playing sports at Shattuck Military Academy , Marlon Brando was not drafted as a soldier after the United States entered World War II . With financial support from his parents, he went to New York in autumn 1943 , where the director Erwin Piscator had set up a dramatic workshop at the New School in 1940 . The workshop became famous because, alongside Brando, it produced such high-profile artists as Walter Matthau , Shelley Winters , Tony Curtis and Harry Belafonte . Far more important for Brando than the work with Piscator was the encounter with Stella Adler , who was part of the teaching staff as an acting coach .

Adler, a veteran of the group theater , became Brando's drama teacher and long-time mentor who later introduced him to key agents and directors. Of all the teachers Brando studied with, Adler had the greatest influence on his acting technique. And when interviewees later asked him about the Actors Studio , Brando corrected that he did not receive his training there, but from Stella Adler. Like Lee Strasberg , her influential colleague from the Group Theater , Stella Adler taught the method acting of the Russian actor and theater reformer Konstantin Stanislawski .

Adler, who had studied with Stanislavski, accused Strasberg of having misunderstood the teachings of the Russian on fundamental points. With Brando, Stella Adler's interpretation of Method Acting fell on fertile ground. Many of the means of representation that are so characteristic of him - such as B. his strong underplay - go back to Adler's school. Most of all, under Adler's guidance, Brando succeeded in unleashing a complexity and ingenuity in emotional expression that astonished his fellow students, who often classified him in social intercourse as an inarticulate personality of low complexity.

Marlon Brando in Endstation Sehnsucht (stage version), 1948

In the end station Sehnsucht (stage version)

In Endstation Sehnsucht (stage version), December 27, 1948; Photographer of these three pictures: Carl van Vechten

Beginnings on Broadway

After conflicts with Erwin Piscator, Brando had to leave the workshop in the summer of 1944. This was not a disadvantage for his career, as Brando was already being looked after by the influential MCA agent Maynard Morris, who was able to arrange a first engagement for him for the following season. From October 1944 on, Brando played a small role on Broadway in the musical I Remember Mama . From the spring of 1945 he also took dance and drum lessons at the Katherine Dunham School of Dance .

In February 1946, Brando, who was now being looked after by MCA agent Edith Van Cleve, took on an engagement for the Broadway show Truckline Café . Although the highly gifted Elia Kazan was the producer of the piece, it was a commercial failure and stopped after ten performances. Since Brando showed his acting intensity in the small but central role that he had taken on in a way that no one - including his agent - would have expected, the producer and director managed to name him in a widely acclaimed press aftermath as “one of the hottest talents far and wide ”.

A brief engagement in a production of George Bernard Shaw's comedy Candida was followed by a period of unemployment. When Louis B. Mayer offered Brando a seven-year film contract with MGM during this time , he turned it down anyway, because under such a "gag contract" he would not have been able to choose his roles himself. He found his next two stage roles in the political play A Flag is Born (from September 1946), which was played among Holocaust survivors, and in Jean Cocteau's drama The Eagle Has Two Heads (from December 1946).

“Endstation Sehnsucht” and Actors Studio

From August 1947, Irene Mayer Selznick - daughter of Louis B. Mayer and wife of David O. Selznick - prepared a stage production of the 1946 play Endstation Sehnsucht by Tennessee Williams . She engaged Elia Kazan as a director, Jessica Tandy was selected for the role of Blanche, and Kim Hunter and Karl Malden appeared in other roles . Marlon Brando was given the role of Stanley Kowalski after Edith Van Cleve stood up for him at Kazan. Rehearsals began on October 6, 1947 and director Kazan took the risk of forcing Brando, whose personality had many points of contact with the Kowalskis, into a confrontation with himself while interpreting the role. For Brando this was an unheard-of impertinence, but this gave his performance a persuasive power to which this production owed its success.

The play was previously performed in New Haven , Boston and Philadelphia and had its New York premiere on December 3, 1947 at the Ethel Barrymore Theater . The production was a sensational success, in which Marlon Brando received far more attention than the actual leading actress, Jessica Tandy. For the public, the figure of Kowalski became an icon , a new symbol of American masculinity. The costume designer Lucinda Ballard made a not unimportant contribution by providing Brando with blue jeans and T-shirts for the role, which - unusual at the time - were skin-tight.

Male actors with such blunt sexual charisma did not exist in American cultural life at all. In addition, Brando was able to give this new type of sex appeal an interesting complexity right from the start: the sexuality he stood for was not daring and conquering (like that of Errol Flynn or Clark Gable , for example ), but slow, capricious and of Self-doubt subdued. This paralysis was typical of the silent generation of Americans born around 1930 and offered contemporaries of the same age great opportunities for identification. On top of that, Brando gave the character Kowalski a moment of uneasiness and subliminal danger - a motif that he later took up again and again in his film roles regularly and in ever new variations.

While working at Endstation Sehnsucht , Marlon Brando also occasionally attended events at the Actors Studio , which was only founded in October 1947 and where Lee Strasberg's version of Method Acting was maintained.

Early Films (1949–1953)

The men

In the fall of 1949, producer Stanley Kramer Brando offered the leading role in the film The Men . Brando was in the fortunate position of being one of the first film actors in Hollywood to be able to sign a one-picture deal , ie a contract with which he was only signed for a single film. At that time, it was still common for the industry to have seven-year studio contracts , which as a rule did not allow the actors to freely choose their film roles. Brando had this freedom from the start. Filming, directed by Fred Zinnemann , began at the end of October.

Brando played the role of a young infantry lieutenant in the film, who was paralyzed after a war injury and went through the nightmare of rehabilitation. Even before the film was released in July 1950, influential gossip columnist Hedda Hopper had announced Brando as “Hollywood's new sensation”. Unfortunately, the premiere took place two weeks after the start of the Korean War , at a time when the audience wanted more patriotic material than stories of disabled people. Although The Men at the box office had little success, the press acknowledged Brando's extremely credible account with exuberant reviews.

End of the line longing

After Endstation Sehnsucht had been so successful on Broadway, producer Charles K. Feldman prepared a film adaptation. Filming began on August 14, 1950, and, like the Broadway version, directed by Elia Kazan. The actors were also the same as in the stage production. Only the role of Blanche should be cast with a star who would have more pulling power at the box office than Jessica Tandy . Initially, there had been negotiations with Olivia de Havilland ; since it was too expensive, Vivien Leigh got the role. Although significant cuts were made under pressure from the Catholic Legion of Decency before its September 1951 release, the film was hugely successful with both audiences and critics, establishing Brando's fame as a movie star.

Viva Zapata!

The next movie, Viva Zapata! , was a free film adaptation of the biography of the Mexican revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata , an adventure film with no particular political depth. Kazan, who directed, insisted that Brando appear in the title role even though he was blonde and had to be completely transformed from the mask to appear. During the shooting, which began in May 1951, Kazan relied on Brando's intuition, as he had done before, and gave him wide artistic leeway. Brando used this to masterfully work out the inner turmoil and confusion of the figure, who in his interpretation was on the one hand an idealistic macho and on the other a peasant striving for the bourgeoisie . After the film hit theaters in February 1952, Brando was disappointed with its performance because, in his opinion, he should have portrayed the revolutionary harder and less romantic. However, the role earned him his second Oscar nomination, a prize at the Cannes Film Festival and a British Film Academy Award .

Julius Caesar

For his fourth film, Julius Caesar , a classic drama based on Shakespeare , Brando ventured into the area where his greatest acting uncertainty lay. Because he missed school, he lacked a systematic education and his diction when reading texts aloud remained a problem throughout his life. Since he in the film u. a. performed alongside the great British Shakespeare actor John Gielgud , he feared looking like a beginner. It was also very important to him to gain distance from his low-life and hooligan image and more intellectual respectability through a classic role .

For the shooting, which began on August 8, 1951 and was directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz , Brando, who was to play the role of Antonius , prepared himself with training with the MGM's vocal coach, Gladys Fogoler, and with the help of vinyl recordings Shakespeare actor before. His performance - especially the famous speech "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears ..." - was so convincing thanks to this good preparation that the press was full of praise after the premiere of the film in June 1953 and Brando was again received a British Film Academy Award and an Oscar nomination.

The wild

In September 1952 Brando signed a contract with Stanley Kramer for the second time: in the film Der Wilde , directed by László Benedek, he was to play the leader of a motorcycle gang that invaded a small American town and for days the hysterical, bourgeois population there stirs up. The story was brand new; it was based on an authentic incident which had caused an additional stir in the public discussion that had flared up in the post-war period about the new phenomenon of juvenile delinquency . Brando had great sympathy for underdogs of all kinds and saw a chance to make the causes of the rebellion visible through a differentiated interpretation of his role.

In preparation, he studied the language and appearance of the members of a motorcycle gang who were to appear in the film as extras and supporting actors. Brando also rode a motorcycle himself, albeit with modest technical skill. The film, shot on the grounds of Columbia in Burbank and premiered in December 1953, suffered from the fact that Brando's and Kramer's social analysis fell short on the one hand and that Benedek's direction , who did not have the whole subject , was not based on a convincing concept either. Although the film cemented Brando's image as a “Hollywood rebel”, it received little approval from the critics, and Brando was also disappointed with the result.

Heroes

In order to help actor friends from New York who had become unemployed to get involved, Brando suggested a stage production of Shaw's comedy Heroes , which was produced by Morton Gottlieb and in which he only played a small supporting role. The piece went on tour in New England in the summer of 1953 . Since Brando didn't like learning text or the routine of a theater actor, this was his last stage appearance.

The fist in the neck (1953/1954)

As early as 1952, Elia Kazan had worked with the writer Budd Schulberg to prepare a film drama that was supposed to deal with corruption in the New Jersey dock workers' union . Due to the cumbersome subject, the project initially did not attract any interest from the film producers; Sam Spiegel , whose small company Horizon ultimately produced the film, turned out to be the “savior” . Spiegel had a strong influence on the script and demanded that the male lead be cast with Marlon Brando, who was now represented by MCA agent Jay Kanter. Brando accepted the offer reluctantly, because between Kazan and he passed severe tensions after Kazan, in the McCarthy era on the list blacks stood in April 1952 before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) had made a statement by which some of his colleagues had been politically incriminated.

The film was entitled On the Waterfront (German: Die Faust im Nacken ). Brando played the role of Terry Malloy, a young dock worker whose brother is deeply involved in the machinations of the corrupt union. For the filming, which began on November 17, 1953, Brando, who last boxed during his school days, prepared himself with boxing lessons, among other things. The characterization Brando bestowed on the figure of Terry was extraordinarily complex and encompassed delicate, feminine traits as well as harsh, masculine behaviors.

Kazan again forced Brando to reveal himself in front of the camera - which the actor was very reluctant to do, but which gave the film much of its unusual persuasiveness and quality. Kazan was also the only director who succeeded not only in encouraging Marlon Brando to improvise efficiently, but also to guide this improvisation in a regular manner and to subordinate it to a mature directing concept. After its American premiere in July 1954, the film was welcomed by the press as a masterpiece of cinematic realism. Brando received the best reviews of his career as well as several major film awards, including his first Oscar .

Films 1954–1958

After finishing the film The Fist in the Neck , Brando signed a contract with 20th Century Fox . He was to play the title role in the Cinemascope film Sinuhe the Egyptians . Under the impression of the lack of talent of his screen partner Bella Darvi and after the first meeting with the director, Michael Curtiz , who was known for not communicating well with actors, Brando lost interest in the project and broke the contract in January 1954. This decision was devastating for his career, Brando was discredited by the producers and from now on he was under pressure for a long time to work in artistically inferior but box-office films for often low salaries.

Désirée

The first film in this series was another cinemascope strip from 20th Century Fox: the period film Désirée , in which Brando appeared alongside Jean Simmons in the role of the young Napoléon Bonaparte . During filming, which began in June 1954, Henry Koster proved to be a poorly conceptual director, who largely left Brando to himself in front of the camera and was thus responsible for an uninspired performance by his leading actor.

Heavy boys - easy girls

Then Samuel Goldwyn offered Brando the lead role in Schwere Jungs - Licht Mädchen . The film was supposed to be the very expensive cinemascope version of a musical that was shown with great success on Broadway. Since audiences were very popular for music films, Goldwyn calculated that Brando, who had never sung or danced in front of the camera before, would make the film a sensational success. For $ 200,000 - one of the highest film fees paid in Hollywood in 1954 - Brando accepted the offer and starred in the film alongside Frank Sinatra in the role of a New York player who falls in love with a missionary sister, Jean Simmons .

Brando, who had already taken dance lessons in previous years, prepared for the role with the help of a dance teacher, the choreographer Michael Kidd. Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz , with whom Brando had already shot Julius Caesar . After its release in November 1955, Schwere Jungs - Leicht Mädchen was, as expected, extremely successful with the audience. The industry journal Variety listed the film, which grossed more than $ 13 million, as the biggest box-office hit of 1955.

The little tea house

One film project that aroused greater personal interest in Brando was the MGM production Das kleine Teehaus , which was also based on a successful Broadway musical. At the side of Glenn Ford , Brando played a Japanese who worked as a translator for the American occupiers at the end of the Second World War. The shooting took place in the spring of 1956 in Japan. Brando, who had read books about Japanese culture and learned some Japanese in preparation, saw this role as an opportunity to gain sympathy for the idea that the defeated Japan should not be infiltrated with the culture of the American occupation forces. Although Brando was allowed to choose his director, Daniel Mann , this time, the finished film, which was released in November 1956, was a disappointment.

Foundation of Pennebaker Productions

In the 1950s, many Hollywood stars - including Burt Lancaster , Frank Sinatra, and Kirk Douglas - started their own production companies to gain greater control over their films. However, because of their limited capital, these companies were under great pressure to produce films that reaped their box office costs. With George Englund and his father as partners - George Glass and Walter Seltzer joined them later - Marlon Brando also founded his own production company in the spring of 1955, which had its offices on the Paramount premises . The "Pennebaker Productions" were, like other companies of this type, mostly dependent on the cooperation with larger production companies due to their limited funds.

Sayonara

The first Pennebaker Productions film was the love melodrama Sayonara . In addition to James Garner and Red Buttons and the inexperienced Japanese-American actress Miiko Taka , Brando played an officer of the American occupation forces stationed in Japan who fell in love with a local actress. The script, based on a bestseller by James Michener and a Broadway show, was full of ethnic stereotypes, but Brando was interested nonetheless because it offered the opportunity to denounce the bigotry of American occupation policy, which wanted peace, its soldiers fraternization with the defeated Japanese however prohibited.

Brando was also attracted by the taboo subject of love between the races, which was still explosive under the Production Code ; Sayonara became one of the first Hollywood films in which the love of an East Asian-American couple finds a happy ending. The film's director, Joshua Logan , recommended himself because he had just received a Golden Globe for his film Picnic . During the shooting for Sayonara , which took place in Japan in the spring of 1957, he disappointed Brando, however, as he left him largely without support in shaping his role. Sayonara premiered in December 1957, and although criticism was reserved, the film remained the most lucrative Brando had appeared in until The Godfather (1972) was released.

The young lions

The shooting of Brando's eleventh film, The Young Lions - a 20th Century Fox production based on a bestseller by Irwin Shaw - began in June 1957. Directed by Edward Dmytryk , most of the shooting took place in Paris and Berlin in the summer of 1957 . Brando stood here for the first and only time with Montgomery Clift in front of the camera: the one of his fellow actors with whom Brando was most often compared and who - alongside James Dean - was his closest competitor in the audience's favor. Brando and Clift could only be seen together in one scene, in which they had no dialogue with each other.

Brando played a young Nazi officer in the film, and in order to comply with the stereotypes that were binding in Hollywood at the time, he had practiced a German accent and had his hair bleached. Deviating from the novel and going well beyond the script, he characterized the young German as a likeable figure and made him go through an impressive inner development from a staunch Nazi follower to a skeptic to a tragic hero.

After the world premiere, which took place in April 1958, Brando was honored with a Laurel Award and nominated for a British film award for his performance . Although the film was also successful with the audience - The Young Lions remained the last film with Marlon Brando that grossed a lot of money for a long time - the American film critics were largely negative.

The possessed (1958–1961)

After the company had existed in name only for many months and had come under pressure from the tax authorities, Pennebaker Productions resumed operations in 1958 and prepared to produce three films in which Brando did not play a role: Handshake of the Devil (1959) , A man goes his way and Paris Blues (both 1961).

Brando was to star in a fourth film that Pennebaker wanted to produce with Paramount funding . In order to ensure a box office success for the production, the choice fell on a Western fabric . The preparation of the script required several authors one after the other and was not yet completed when shooting began. Directed should Stanley Kubrick lead that just did not work out the bill had staged and thus recommended as one of the most important new talents. When there was tension between Brando and Kubrick during production preparations, Kubrick was fired. Brando, who had often worked quite independently on sets , got the impression that he had mastered the craft and therefore decided to direct it himself.

Filming in Monterey and Death Valley began in December 1958. In addition to Brando, who provided an impressive portrait of fragile masculinity in the role of Rio, Karl Malden and Pina Pellicer, who was very popular in Mexico at the time , played in the film . Brando ran the project with great artistic commitment and skill, but was overwhelmed with the practical organization of the shooting. The filming could not be completed until June 1959 and contributed to a drastic budget overrun. Paramount, who disagreed with Brando's planned conclusion of the plot, insisted on additional shots for a modified ending. Since Brando had created a disproportionately large amount of exposed film material, the post-production also dragged on for many months.

After extensive cuts, demanded by Paramount, One-Eyed Jacks (German: The possessed ) was not released until March 1961. Although the criticism was highly praised and Brando was awarded the grand prize for his performance at the San Sebastián Film Festival , the film failed to reap its high production costs of six million dollars.

Superlative productions (1958–1962)

The man in the snakeskin

In 1957, Tennessee Williams completed his play Orpheus Rises , whose leading roles he had written for Marlon Brando and Anna Magnani . Brando, who was no longer interested in theater roles, had not wanted to take part in a stage production of the play. Since 1958, however, Martin Jurow and Richard Shepherd finally prepared a film adaptation, which should be financed with funds from the United Artists . For a million dollars - a record fee that no Hollywood star had ever received - Brando agreed in December 1958 to participate in it. Since Magnani had also agreed and United Artist promised an unprecedented box office success from the duo Brando-Magnani, the high fee was approved. Joanne Woodward had signed for another role .

The Man in the Snakeskin became the first film in Hollywood history in which three main roles were starring Oscar winners. However, during filming, which began at Poughkeepsie in Upstate New York in June 1959, the expensive production turned out to be unhappy. Personal tensions between Brando and Magnani resulted in an uninspired game between the two stars. During a pre-release of the film in December 1959, the audience reacted so negatively that the film was re-cut and shortened again. Even after the official release in April 1960, the reviews were devastating and the cinemas remained empty. The film received awards only at the San Sebastián Film Festival, for Joanne Woodward's acting performance and for Sidney Lumet's directing.

Mutiny on the Bounty

Mutiny on the Bounty ( MGM ), which emerged in Hollywood in the early 1960s as one of the most lavish and expensive productions in American film history, was the remake of a film from 1935 . With attention to detail, recordings in the original locations and one of the greatest American film stars - Marlon Brando - the remake was to generate peak income. The shooting, which for the most part on the islands of Tahiti and Bora Bora took place, began in late November 1960. In addition to Trevor Howard and Richard Harris played Brando the role of Fletcher Christian , a naval officer, who in the historic mutiny aboard the British expedition ship Bounty a Had played a key role.

Brando's interest in the project had two reasons. On the one hand, he needed money to fight the custody battle that he had been waging since 1959 over his son from his first marriage. The more than 1.25 million fee MGM offered him came in handy. On the other hand, he was interested in the aftermath of the historic mutiny on the Bounty , which was treated differently in the 1935 film. Brando interfered in the drafting of the script and in the direction and was therefore responsible for some of the delays, which in the end significantly exceeded the budget. Also Carol Reed received allegations of non-compliance of the schedule, for this reason he was dismissed in February 1961 by Lewis Milestone replaced. However, the actual responsibility for the sprawling production was borne by the MGM management, which had given the artistic staff relatively great freedom of choice.

At the beginning of 1962 a rough cut was made from the filmed material, but Brando did not agree with the end of the film. In August 1962, post-shots were held, directed by George Seaton . The film was released in November 1962. While Harris and Howard received positive reviews, Brando criticized that he had interpreted the role of Fletcher Christian as a pure eccentric and dandy - without depth and without reference to the dramatic plot of the film. Although the film grossed $ 20 million at the box office and abroad, the production cost was $ 30 million. MGM got into great trouble as a result of the loss, and film historians consider Mutiny on the Bounty to be one of the films that made the Hollywood star system obsolete and eventually ended.

Marlon Brando with Charlton Heston and James Baldwin on August 28, 1963 at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom , where Martin Luther King gave the famous speech " I Have a Dream ".

Brando with the writer James Baldwin at the March on Washington , 1963

Films 1962–1971

In 1962, Pennebaker Productions , which had been in trouble since 1961, was bought by Universal Studios for one million dollars . Marlon Brando also had to undertake to take part in five Universal productions. The films that were made under this contract were of inconsistent artistic quality. Brando often turned out to be miscast or only poor acting.

The ugly American

The first film in this series, The Ugly American , was a Cold War film adaptation of the political novel of the same name , published in 1958 , which tells how the United States lost the fight against communism in a civil war-ravaged Southeast Asian country. Brando played the role of an intelligent, educated and elegant American ambassador who got caught between the fronts in this political conflict. The explosiveness that initially aroused Brando's interest in the material was lost again during the filming, which took place in Thailand in the summer of 1962, among other places ; because George Englund, whom Brando himself had chosen as director, had no experience in this function and directed a film that made his political statement too clumsy and morally sour and was in no way visually appealing. After the cinema premiere in April 1963, the audience was hardly interested in the film.

Two successful seducers

In the universal comedy Two Successful Seducers , which was to continue the success of such frivolous comedies as Bettgeflüster and Company Petticoat , Brando played a gigolo with David Niven as a partner who fights single women on the Riviera . Brando took part in the film, which was shot in the early summer of 1963 and was released in June 1964, only because he was contractually obliged to do so and needed the money; he made no attempt to give any multidimensionality to his role, for which the critics felt that he was completely miscast.

Morituri

The fact that Brando also had to act in the film Morituri had nothing to do with his obligation to Universal, but was a late consequence of his breach of contract with 20th Century Fox in 1954. Morituri was a war espionage thriller in which Brando starred alongside Yul Brynner , Trevor Howard and Janet Margolin play a German deserter who is blackmailed by the British secret service into helping to extradite a German blockade breaker. During the filming, which was made in the fall of 1964 on a cargo ship from the Second World War and directed by Bernhard Wicki , Brando developed no interest in the film, which was a pure adventure story, nor in the character of Robert Crain and played the role as such flat that its portrayal was later critically reviewed. The film, which came out in August 1965, received critical acclaim only for its cinematography by Conrad L. Hall .

A man is being hunted

In April 1964, Brando signed for a second time a role in a film by producer Sam Spiegel. In A man is hunted he was supposed to play the young sheriff of a small Texas town who tries to protect an escaped prisoner from the lynching of the racist population. Due to the political dimension of the plot, Brando had a strong personal interest in the film project and beyond that the conditions for the production of an interesting film were actually favorable: in addition to Brando, unconventional young talents such as Jane Fonda , Robert Redford and Angie joined in A man is hunted Dickinson on; on top of that, director Arthur Penn was known for his films having little to do with the mainstream .

During the shooting, which took place in the spring and summer of 1965, Penn treated his actors with great respect and Brando provided him with many interesting ideas. Despite the great commitment of all those involved, the film was considered to be partially unsuccessful; Above all, it turned out to be dramaturgically difficult to combine the criticism of the hypocrisy of the small town bourgeoisie with the action elements of the film into a consistent overall concept. The film lost further context in terms of content when Spiegel hastily cut it without consulting the rest of the team. Brando was very unhappy about the finished film, which premiered in February 1966.

Southwest to Sonora

The third film in which Brando had to participate as part of his contract with Universal was Southwest to Sonora (original title: The Appaloosa ), a western in which Brando was supposed to play a white settler who was chasing a Mexican bandit who gave him his horse stole. The script was immature and Brando only accepted the role because he needed the fee. Filming, which took place in St. George , Utah and Wrightsville, California in August 1965 , was weighed down by tension between Brando and director Sidney J. Furie . After the premiere in September 1966, both received bad reviews. Brando was accused of delivering the caricature of a rough loner in the character of Matt Fletcher and thus having crossed the artistically delicate border to self-parody. In her essay Marlon Brando: An American Hero , Pauline Kael complained that Brando had degenerated from rebel to eccentric out of disappointment with the course of his career and the lack of artistic challenges.

The Countess of Hong Kong

In the universal comedy The Countess of Hong Kong Brando was supposed to play an American ambassador, in whose cabin a Russian countess fleeing forced prostitution seeks refuge as a stowaway. Brando was initially enthusiastic about the film project because one of his greatest idols - Charlie Chaplin - was to direct. During the filming in the London Pinewood Studios , which began in January 1966, however, there were tensions between Brando and his partner Sophia Loren . Conflicts that arose between Brando and Chaplin were even more momentous.

While Brando needed a lot of space for improvisation in front of the camera, Chaplin was a meticulously planning choreographer who gave his performers very precise guidelines. Brando was extremely reluctant to imitate what he was told to do. Since the 76-year-old Chaplin was such a venerable institution, Brando submitted, but provided a leaden and lifeless interpretation of his role, which resented the criticism after the American cinema premiere in March 1967. The Countess of Hong Kong is considered one of Brando's worst films and was also the swan song of Chaplin's career.

Reflection in the golden eye

In the early 1960s, Warner Bros. had begun planning the adaptation of the Carson McCullers novel of the same name . The preparations were initially postponed repeatedly. One of the reasons was the explosive theme of the film: alongside Elizabeth Taylor , Brando was supposed to play the role of an American officer who wrestled with his repressed homosexuality and killed his wife's sexually ambivalent admirer at the height of the conflict. Reflection in the Golden Eye was supposed to be the first film in Hollywood history to explicitly deal with the subject of homosexuality. Since Brando feared that his already tarnished image could be further damaged, he initially hesitated to accept the role. However, he then realized that portraying this extremely complex character gave him the opportunity to revive his talent that had not been used for years.

During filming, which began in Rome in the fall of 1966, it was a stroke of luck that it was directed by John Huston : a man who was used to giving his actors as much freedom as possible in front of the camera. Brando immersed himself in the role and worked out the complexity of the character - Penderton's repressed sexuality, his smoldering anger and his latent violence - exactly. When it was released in October 1967, the film was received coolly by audiences and critics, but Huston considered the ambitious work one of his best.

Candy

The next film Brando starred in, the bizarre sex farce Candy , was not a worthless project from the start. Terry Southern , who provided the novel, had previously u. a. on the script for Kubrick's award-winning film Dr. Strange or: How I Learned to Love the Bomb was co-written and screenwriter Buck Henry recommended himself through his involvement in the film The Graduate Exam. The production team wanted the undemanding film to be fun, imaginative and contain subversive moments.

The script called for a number of cameos by famous stars, including James Coburn , Walter Matthau , John Huston , Charles Aznavour , Richard Burton and Brando, who took on the role of a sex-addicted Indian guru . During the filming, which took place in Rome in the winter of 1967/1968, Christian Marquand - the driving force behind Candy and a close friend of Brando - proved to be an inexperienced, poorly conceptual director, whose neglect caused the film to lose its already modest potential became a low point in Brando's career.

The night of the following day

The low-budget thriller The Night of the Following Day was the fifth and final film that Brando had to star in in order to fulfill his commitment to Universal. With a blonde wig and black T-shirt, he played the kidnapper of a young heiress who was morally purified at the last moment and saved the victim from his accomplices (played by Richard Boone and Rita Moreno ).

The filming took place in the autumn of 1967 in Brittany and suffered from the inexperience of the screenwriter and director, Hubert Cornfield , who had no viable directional concept and was finally dismissed under pressure from Brando and replaced by Boone. After the US premiere in January 1969, The night of the following day because of weak actor performances of the critically panned , and Brando FARMED so run with this film his reputation that now he wanted to employ any of the major movie studios in Hollywood more.

Queimada

In 1968 Alberto Grimaldi , who a little later emerged as the producer of important films by Federico Fellini and Pier Paolo Pasolini , offered Brando the leading role in the Italian-French co-production Queimada . Grimaldi envisaged Brando for the role of Sir William Walker, an envoy from the British government who was supposed to instigate a slave revolt on a fictional Caribbean sugar cane island in the 19th century in order to oust the Portuguese colonial power in favor of the British. Since Brando's explicit political message was very accommodating and the director, Gillo Pontecorvo , was an experienced expert on political films, the project should have been a lucky star.

However, filming, which began in Colombia in November 1968 , suffered from a number of plagues and problems. The film crew's work was hampered by insects, heat, rotten food and diarrhea, and there was a constant threat of robberies by armed robbers. Pontecorvo turned out to be a tightly working director who stuck to the script, which was incompatible with Brando's working style and spoiled his pleasure in the film. Brando eventually broke off the job, drove home, and demanded that work be continued at another, more tolerable location. In July 1969 the recording team moved to Morocco , where Queimada could be finished after Brando's return.

The delays and the change of location caused high costs, for which Grimaldi Brando later sued for $ 700,000 in damages. After the cinema premiere, which took place in Italy in late 1969 and in the United States in October 1970, the press criticized the hero Brando played in the film for being overly conventional. Regardless, Brando thought Queimada was wonderful and praised it as his best film to date.

The hole in the door

In the British low-budget film The Hole in the Door , a psychological thriller set in a lonely English country estate around 1900, Brando took part because he needed money and had no other choice. Brando played the role of a squat gardener who maintains a sado-masochistic relationship with the beautiful governess ( Stephanie Beacham ) and, with this bad example, lays the seeds of evil in the two orphans who grow up in the house, which ultimately leads to one Double murder leads.

The filming took place at the beginning of 1971 near Cambridge, England . Since the script was second-rate and director Michael Winner was free of artistic ambition, Brando developed no interest in his role and played it without commitment, but - quite contrary to his usual habit - behaved in an exemplary manner during the recording, as the Paramount him with great skepticism had meanwhile selected The Godfather for the film and Brando knew that his behavior was closely monitored during the filming of The Hole in the Door .

The Godfather (1971–1972)

In early 1969, Mario Puzo published his mafia novel The Godfather . In September 1969, Paramount decided to film the bestseller and commissioned Puzo with the script. Since a recently released Mafia film - commissioned Murder with Kirk Douglas - flopped, Paramount initially only intended to shoot a low-budget film and selected the young and hitherto little known Francis Ford Coppola as director , who was responsible for The project recommended not least because he had Italian ancestors and promised a sense of the special color of the film. In the course of the production preparations, however, Coppola turned out to be a man with assertiveness and an independent directing concept who, among other things, implemented a fundamental editing of the script. Puzo had already suggested to Brando at the end of 1969 to play the role of mafia boss Don Vito Corleone, but Brando initially doubted whether he could portray a 65-year-old man convincingly. Coppola also wanted Brando, and in February 1970 his decision finally prevailed against the resistance of Paramount.

The shooting of The Godfather , which took place at Coppola's will in New York and the surrounding area, began in March 1971. Since it was Coppola's peculiarity to take up suggestions that his actors put forward during the shoot, the collaboration between Brando and Coppola developed trusting and productive. The director and his leading actor also agreed that The Godfather was not primarily a mafia film, but was about American capitalism , which allows organized crime because it benefits from it. The role of the mafia godfather was extraordinary to Brando, the subjects of power and control had preoccupied him all his life, and the basic idea for characterizing Don Vito, which he followed like a red thread from now on, came to Brando while listening to voice recordings of (real ) Gangsters Frank Costello , who had a surprisingly high-pitched voice. Brando and Coppola understood that really powerful people don't need to be loud, and Brando played the Don in a high, fine, asthmatic voice. Brando's godfather was a multi-layered character: a relentlessly murderous monster, a man of civil values, a loving grandfather, a mortal old man in a tough shell of power and control. The problem of aging 46-year-old Brando by twenty years for the camera was helped by make-up artist Dick Smith , who shortly before had made up 32-year-old Dustin Hoffman as a 121-year-old old man for the film Little Big Man .

Brando's contract with Paramount provided for a $ 50,000 fixed fee as well as profit sharing, which Brando renegotiated and exchanged for a one-off payment of $ 100,000 when he needed money in the summer of 1971. That decision later turned out to be unfortunate, because after the premiere of the film on March 15, 1972, the response from audiences and critics was overwhelming, and within the first 26 days alone, The Godfather , whose production had cost 6.2 million dollars, played 26 Million dollars a.

Brando in 1973 as a guest on The Dick Cavett Show following the success of The Godfather

Brando did not accept the Oscar , which he was to receive on March 27, 1973 for his portrayal of the "godfather". Instead, the native and actress Dingen Littlefeather , whom he had sent as a spokeswoman for the Academy Awards, said Brando wanted to use this gesture to draw attention to the suppressed civil rights of the Indians and especially to the protest actions that had been taking place in Wounded Knee since the end of February .

The last tango in Paris (1972)

For acute financial reasons, Brando agreed to participate in a Paramount production in 1972, entitled Child's Play , about two teachers (Marlon Brando and James Mason ) at an exclusive Catholic boarding school, whose rivalry led to dramatic events. During filming, which began in New York in the fall of 1972 and was directed by Sidney Lumet , Brando requested that the script be rewritten and the recordings carried out elsewhere, whereupon producer David Merrick unceremoniously sacked Brando and replaced him with the actor Robert Preston replaced.

During 1971, Luigi Luraschi, head of Paramount in Rome, and the 31-year-old director Bernardo Bertolucci developed the concept for the Italian-French film that later became famous in Paris under the title The Last Tango . The script was tailor-made for Marlon Brando, but Brando only signed the contract in November 1971 after negotiations with Alberto Grimaldi, who wanted to co-produce the film. Since the production of the film Queimada , Grimaldi has been raising high claims for damages against Brando, which he offered to drop if Brando took over the role.

The last tango in Paris tells the story of a man filled with Weltschmerz, disillusioned and desperately lonely, who after the death of his wife is obsessed with a beautiful student ( Maria Schneider ) with whom he has anonymous sex in an empty apartment she dominates and submits. Although The Last Tango was later touted as a masterpiece of erotic film in Paris , Bertolucci was not interested in eroticism, but rather to show a man in sexual obsession, isolation, sadness, pain and despair.

The ten-week filming took place in Paris and began in February 1972. Bertolucci only used the script as a rough guide to put Brando in the right mood to draw on his own emotional reservoir in the spirit of Method Acting . Bertolucci gave Brando a lot of space for improvisation - entire scenes of the film are improvised - in which the psychological situation of the protagonist is explored in an almost clinical way. As in the best of his earlier films, Brando gave the character of Paul an extreme complexity and an inner conflict, under which a deep existential dilemma became recognizable. Paul used sex as a weapon to vent his subliminal seething anger and to get revenge on social conventions; at the same time, however, he displayed moments of tenderness and pain, which contrasted disquietingly with his misogyny. The last tango in Paris was a very intimate film, in which Brando revealed more of his personality than in any other film.

After its world premiere, which took place on October 14, 1972 at the New York Film Festival , the film was enthusiastically received by critics. Due to its sexual explicitness, however, a public controversy arose that the producers had not expected. For example, while the film critic Pauline Kael ruled that The Last Tango in Paris was "the most gripping erotic film that has ever been made", the Italian authorities found the film obscene and filed a lawsuit against Grimaldi, Bertolucci, Brando and Schneider, which was finally dated Court was dismissed.

When the film was only released in early 1973, the audience's expectations were high. Opinions then diverged widely; many viewers and critics found the film pornographic; others who compared it to real porn found it boring. The Last Tango in Paris was particularly sharply condemned by feminist critics. However, the production costs of $ 1.4 million were set against box office revenues of $ 45 million; Marlon Brando made at least four million dollars from the film. Two of the most well-known American critics' associations - the National Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Circle - honored his acting performance with their main prize.

Late films (1975-2001)

Duel on the Missouri

After the tremendous success of The Godfather and The Last Tango in Paris , Marlon Brando could actually have chosen any role that would have interested him artistically. Instead, he began to limit himself to cameo appearances , which he - which the criticism made him very resentful - paid extremely well in some cases. A significant part of this income flowed into the coffers of the experts who advised Brando on the project planning on Tetiaroa (see below ). The first film in this series was the Western Duel on the Missouri , directed by Arthur Penn , in which Brando was supposed to play a brutal bounty hunter alongside Jack Nicholson .

During filming, which took place in Montana in the summer of 1975 , it became a problem that the script was still full of inconsistencies. Striving to improve the script, Brando was ultimately so exasperated by the lack of control Director Penn had over the production that he began to quarrel on the set - as in previous, similar cases - and the role of Clayton as an eccentric played, spoke with an Irish accent and stole the show from the other performers with little gags that were actually unrelated to the film.

In addition to profit sharing, Brando had agreed on a fixed fee of 1.25 million dollars for his participation - an unusually high amount at the time. Duel am Missouri , which premiered in May 1976, was an artistic and commercial failure, but is considered to be the film in which Brando showed a remnant of originality and brilliance for the last time.

Apocalypse Now

In 1975 Francis Ford Coppola prepared the film adaptation of Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness , which was to be processed with an authentic report from the Vietnam War written by US officer Robert B. Rheault. Coppola was both producer and director and wanted to create his masterpiece with Apocalypse Now . In order to create an anti-war film from the material , the templates had to be reworked and the accent shifted from Rheault (in the film: Kilgore, played by Robert Duvall ) to Kurtz: the character who Coppola wanted to cast Marlon Brando.

Kurtz was a Colonel in the US armed forces, who, driven by perfectionism and an absolute will to act, breaks down in the helpless and uncoordinated military operation of the US Army. His boundless hatred and frustration towards the general war situation and the leadership of the US armed forces ultimately even lead to a departure from his family and his military duties. In the jungles of Cambodia , he wages war according to his own laws with the help of deserters and the indigenous population, who worship him as a “deity” and obey every order, no matter how inhuman.

After much hesitation, Brando agreed to take on the role in February 1976 for a fee of $ 3.5 million. When filming, which began in March 1976 in the Philippines , unexpectedly dragged on, Coppola ran into financial difficulties and renegotiated with Brando. He was satisfied with a fixed fee of one million dollars, but should now receive a profit sharing. When Brando, who had not been needed on the set until then, arrived in the Philippines in October 1976, Coppola was dismayed by his physical appearance. Brando had struggled with his weight since the filming of Schwere Jungs - Leicht Mädchen , but now he weighed more than 110 kg and was also in poor health.

While Brando wanted to hide his corpulence in front of the camera, Coppola then suggested using it, on the contrary, to characterize the figure and to portray Kurtz as a sybarite . Eventually they agreed that Kurtz should be filmed as a two-meter-high giant of almost mythical proportions. But even after this compromise, Brando and Coppola remained at odds over Kurtz's character. While Brando wished he could play Kurtz as a soldier who turns away from war after realizing his personal guilt, Coppola absolutely did not want to make a film on the subject of war guilt; instead, he wanted to characterize Kurtz as a seedy and insane, hulking jungle hermit.

The work with Brando was completed in October 1976, but the further recordings dragged on until May 1977. After an equally lengthy post-production, a work print was available in May 1979 that could be shown at the Cannes International Film Festival and there - together with Volker Schlöndorff's Die Blechtrommel - won the Palme d' Or. In August 1979, Apocalypse Now was also released in the US, although the criticism of Brando's portrayal was mostly few words. However, the film earned its high shooting costs of almost $ 27 million (excluding post-production) in a short time. Because Brando believed that Coppola had deceived the amount of the income, he brought a lawsuit, which was decided in his favor in 1984.

Superman

In December 1976 Brando signed a contract with producer Alexander Salkind , in which he agreed to participate in the two comic book adaptations Superman and Superman II . Both films were filmed at the same time, and Brando's only twelve-day work began in March 1977 at the Shepperton studios in London . In a flowing robe and in a solemn declamatory tone, he played the father of the title hero from the planet Krypton (played by Christopher Reeve ). Brando had no artistic interests in the film and had only given his approval because of the fee, which was supposed to be 3.7 million dollars (adjusted for inflation, this would correspond to about 11 million dollars today). Salkind had also promised him a profit share.

After its theatrical release in December 1978, Superman grossed $ 64.4 million in the first 31 days alone. Critics praised the production, but criticized the high fee Brando had received for his only 15-minute screen appearance. However, he soon got the impression that Salkind was deceiving him about the real cinema revenues and filed a lawsuit, whereupon Salkind no longer let the scenes that had been shot with Brando for Superman II be used. It wasn't until 1982 that Salkind and Warner Bros. Brando granted an estimated $ 10 to 15 million share of the profits. The scenes with Brando not used in Superman II could only be seen in a video version released in 2006.

Roots and The Formula

In the early summer of 1978, Brando offered Alex Haley a small role in the television series Roots . The series producer then suggested giving Brando the small role of American Nazi leader George Lincoln Rockwell , which Brando liked because he was cast against his type with this role. Filming for Episode 7, in which Brando was a part, took place in December 1978. The season was broadcast in the USA from February 1979. In September 1979 Brando was awarded an Emmy for his small appearance .

Brando had already announced his participation in the MGM film The Formula in September 1977, but production was then delayed and only began in December 1979. For a fee of three million dollars and a share in the profits, Brando played the role of an oil baron who tried by all means to suppress an invention that would make the raw material crude oil superfluous. Starring alongside Oscar winner George C. Scott and directed by John G. Avildsen , Brando played the fat, aging tycoon with a hearing aid that he actually used on set to read his lines. Brando was never fond of rehearsing dialogue, and The Formula was the first film in at least a decade that he didn't use cheat sheets . After its theatrical release in December 1980, the film was not well received by the public, and critics also found it gloomy, confusing and boring.

White time of drought

Between 1981 and 1983 Brando turned down several film roles despite considerable fee offers; among others he was supposed to portray Pablo Picasso , Al Capone and Karl Marx . Together with director Donald Cammell, Brando forged plans in 1982 for a Polynesian adventure film Fan Tan , from which he withdrew before the project could be implemented. At the same time he gave acting lessons - for the only time in his career; his student was the pop singer Michael Jackson , who greatly admired Brando and gave him a small role in his 2001 music video You Rock My World . Just like Fan Tan , three other film ideas that Brando dealt with between 1984 and 1988 ( Jericho , Sand Creek Massacre , The Last King ) were finally abandoned.

At the beginning of 1988 Brando signed a film contract for the first time after an eight-year break. In the apartheid drama White Time of the Drought , produced by Paula Weinstein, he played alongside Donald Sutherland , Janet Suzman and Susan Sarandon the role of a South African lawyer who fights on the side of the opponents of racial segregation. The filming, which took place in London, was directed by Euzhan Palcy , who became known as Hollywood's first color director. Since there was little money available for the committed film, Brando was willing to contribute for a fee of only 4,000 US dollars, which he also wanted to donate to an anti-apartheid organization. White Period of Drought came out on September 22, 1989, earning Marlon Brando an award (at the Tokyo International Film Festival) and an Oscar nomination for the last time in his career.

Freshman

In late August 1989, Brando signed with TriStar for a role in Andrew Bergman's movie fun game Freshman . Brando was supposed to play a shady New York businessman who "adopted" an unsuspecting student ( Matthew Broderick ) and introduced him to the world of professional crime. After he had almost only made cameo appearances since 1975, the role of Mafioso Sabatini was larger and should enable Brando to make a comeback.

During filming, which took place in New York and Toronto and began in June 1990, however, there was a dispute between Brando and the producers of the film, from which the quality of the film eventually suffered. After Freshman was released in July 1990, critics - apparently trying to encourage Brando's comeback - praised the ease and playfulness with which Brando had parodied the character of the "godfather", but at the box office Freshman was less successful than hoped.

Christopher Columbus - The Explorer

When his son Christian was on trial for murder in 1990 and his daughter Cheyenne became seriously ill, Brando again needed a lot of money for lawyers, private detectives, bodyguards, plane tickets and doctors. When Alexander and Ilya Salkind offered him a cameo appearance in the Spanish-British-American adventure film Christopher Columbus - The Explorer in November 1991 , he willingly accepted. The shooting with Brando took place in Madrid in January 1992 . Directed by John Glen . Georges Corraface , Tom Selleck , Rachel Ward and Catherine Zeta-Jones played the main roles in this adventure film, which was panned as "monumentally boring" by the critics after its cinema release in August 1992 .

Don Juan DeMarco

In February 1994, Brando signed contracts with New Line and with Coppola's American Zoetrope for a role in Jeremy Leven's romantic comedy Don Juan DeMarco . In addition to Johnny Depp and Faye Dunaway , he was supposed to play an aging psychiatrist whose last patient is a young man who thinks he is the famous seducer Don Juan . The highlight of the story lies in the fact that it is not the doctor who “cures” the patient, but rather, conversely, the patient awakens to new life the romance that has almost disappeared in the doctor's life. Don Juan DeMarco was released in the United States in April 1995 and was very well received by the public. Not so for Brando, the film was more of a vehicle for Depp, who won the London Critics Circle Film Award in 1996 for its portrayal .

The island of Dr. Moreau

Brando then worked again for New Line in the film DNA - The Island of Dr. Moreau , an adaptation of the novel of the same name by HG Wells . In addition to David Thewlis and Val Kilmer , Brando played a scientist in this science fiction film whose attempts to combine human DNA with animal DNA resulted in uncontrollable beasts. During the filming, directed by John Frankenheimer in Australia and beginning in September 1995, Brando's work was overshadowed by the grief for his daughter Cheyenne, who had killed herself that spring. The reviews for the film, which came out in August 1996, have been devastating.

The Brave

In 1996 Brando took part for the second time in a film with Johnny Depp, who this time not only worked on the script, but also directed: The Brave . Brando starred in this Jeremy Thomas-produced film, whose title means "The Brave," a rich white snuff film producer who offers an Indian living in miserable conditions $ 50,000 if he is tortured and killed on camera; however, the allegorical film does not show the death of the Indian, but the last seven days of his life.

As early as the 1950s, Brando had repeatedly forged plans for the production of a socially critical Indian film, which, however, always failed; the film The Brave represents the late realization of this plan. Filming took place in September 1996 in Los Angeles and in Ridgecrest , California , and Depp was the first director since Bertolucci with whom Brando had a harmonious and trusting relationship.

The Brave premiered on May 10, 1997 at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Palme d' Or. The critics - especially the American ones - rejected the film, which led Depp to refuse to allow it to be marketed in the USA. To this day , The Brave is only available to the American audience as an import video.

Free Money

In 1998 Brando stood in front of the camera in the Canadian province of Québec for a film production by the small Filmline International , directed by the little-known French-Canadian Yves Simoneau . Free Money (German meaning of the title: free money ) was a black film comedy about an unscrupulous prison director (Brando), who forces two good-for-nothing into a marriage with his two daughters and puts them under such pressure that they get money to flee procure, rob a train. Although such highly talented actors as Charlie Sheen , Mira Sorvino and Donald Sutherland took part alongside Brando , Free Money is considered one of his weakest films. The film, which premiered in Singapore on December 3, 1998, never hit theaters in the United States.

The Score

Brando took his last film role in 2000. Just like Free Money , The Score was shot in Québec. The film was directed by Frank Oz , who became known as co-creator of the Muppet Show in the 1970s . The Score (the title means “coup” or “thing” in the sense of “turning things”) was a heist movie about an aging master thief ( Robert De Niro ) who was stolen by his former partner (Brando) precious ancient king scepter is persuaded. Much of the dialogue between Brando and De Niro, who had a lot in common as actors, was improvised. Also starring were Edward Norton and Angela Bassett on.

When The Score premiered in July 2001, most of the critics were disappointed that the film didn't quite deliver what the high-profile cast had promised. Reports made the rounds that Brando had refused to appear on the set while director Frank Oz was present.

Final plans and death

In the spring of 2004 Brando was in negotiations with the Tunisian director Ridha Behi . Behi wanted to direct a feature film called Brando and Brando , which would be about a young Tunisian who is chasing his American dream - played by Marlon Brando. Brando was supposed to play himself in this film. However, since Brando was soon no longer available, Behi decided to rewrite the script and use it for a semi-documentary film that was to be titled Citizen Brando . The film was slated to premiere in 2007, but this has been postponed to 2010.

Marlon Brando, who had long-term lung fibrosis , died of lung failure on July 1, 2004, at the age of 80, at UCLA Medical Center , a Los Angeles hospital. Four days later he was cremated in an undisclosed location in Los Angeles with close relatives.

Under the supervision of Tarita Tumi Teriipaia, Maria Christina Ruiz, their sister Angela, and Brando's children Miko, Teihotu and Tuki, half of Brando's ashes were scattered in the wind in Death Valley . Tarita took the other half and scattered them in a lagoon on Tetiaroa in 2005 .

Private life

Marlon Brando was considered sexually very active and had countless short and long-term affairs with women (including Marilyn Monroe , Marlene Dietrich , Joanne Woodward , Pier Angeli , France Nuyen , Ursula Andress , Katy Jurado ) and, according to her own information, with men . Brando et al. Had more lasting relationships. a. with Stella Adler's daughter Ellen and the actresses Rita Moreno and Jill Banner . On October 11, 1957, he married the actress Anna Kashfi , who, however, filed for divorce a year later. Brando and Kashfi fought a legal battle that lasted until 1974 over custody of their son Christian , who was born in May 1958 .

On June 4, 1960 Brando married - unnoticed by the press - the Mexican-American actress Maria "Movita" Castenada , who filed for divorce in June 1967. During the marriage two children (Sergio, called Miko ; Rebecca) were born, but their paternity is disputed. For 43 years, until his death, Brando was with the Polynesian dancer Tarita Tumi Teriipaia and had two children with her, Teihotu and Cheyenne . Brando also had three children (Ninna Priscilla, Myles Jonathan, Timothy Gahan) with his Guatemalan housekeeper Cristina Ruiz. For decades, Brando had close friendships with the makeup artists Phil and Marie Rhodes, the film producer George Englund and the actors Wally Cox and Christian Marquand .

Since 1967 the atoll Tetiaroa, 42 km north of Tahiti , was in Brando's possession. He discovered its beauty in late 1960 while filming Mutiny on the Bounty . Plans to set up a colony for artists and intellectuals, a lobster farm and a hotel complex on the archipelago were pursued by Brando at great expense, but turned out to be impracticable in the mid-1970s. Brando also devoted a lot of time to his hobby, amateur radio, on Tetiaroa . As Brando only found out in 1995, Tetiaroa was affected by the underground nuclear weapons tests that France had been carrying out since 1966 in the area of ​​the Mururoa Atoll, 1225 km south-east .

The worst event for Marlon Brando was the manslaughter that his son Christian committed on the boyfriend of his pregnant daughter Cheyenne (Christian's half-sister). The incident occurred at Brando's Beverly Hills home on May 16, 1990. Cheyenne, diagnosed with schizophrenia shortly afterwards , hanged himself in 1995. Christian died on January 26, 2008 of pneumonia.

Political commitment

Civil rights movement

Marlon Brando's political commitment was initially to the American civil rights movement . He repeatedly announced publicly that he would withdraw from the film business in order to devote himself entirely to this political work. In the summer of 1963 he organized with a few other fellow actors - including Paul Newman and Burt Lancaster - the work of civil rights activists who were to support Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Hollywood that he led. His friend Harry Belafonte was a close confidante of King. Brando used his celebrities to raise funds and campaigned for the goals of the civil rights movement at demonstrations. Hollywood was considered a stronghold of racism among liberals, Brando and his colleagues called for a comprehensive reform of the television and film business with the aim of giving people of color and members of other minorities in Hollywood equal opportunities to work and self-expression.

At the beginning of 1968 Brando also made contact with the Black Panther Party , whose program and militancy initially fascinated him. When Panther member Bobby Hutton was shot dead by the Oakland police shortly after King's murder in April 1968, Brando gave a television interview in which he classified the incident as a politically motivated murder. The police then initiated proceedings against Brando for damages, which three years later were dismissed by the highest court. As the political program of the panthers became increasingly radical, Brando broke off contact with them just a few weeks after the interview, which was not noticed by the public, who continued to associate his name with the panthers. Instead, Brando acknowledged King's principle of non-violence and after the shooting of Robert Kennedy he joined a committee of Hollywood actors that campaigned for gun control.

Civil rights struggle of the Indians

Marlon Brando in 1963 at the closing rally of the March on Washington organized by the Civil Rights Movement

During his involvement in the civil rights movement, Brando's attention had also turned to the political struggle of the Indians and he used his prominence to raise funds and to draw attention to some of their political actions. In March 1964, Brando took part in a protest action - a fish-in - in Washington State, where the Puyallup Indians demanded their fishing rights, which were contractually guaranteed in the 19th century.

A protest action by the American Indian Movement (AIM), whose members occupied the town of Wounded Knee , located in the desperately poor Pine Ridge Reservation , in February 1973 , brought Brando worldwide attention by rejecting the Oscar he won for the Film The Godfather Should Receive. Brando stayed away from the occupation itself, which was only ended in May, but took part in the subsequent court proceedings as an observer in order to support the squatters - including the charismatic AIM spokesman Dennis Banks and Russell Means - with effective publicity.

Brando repeatedly supported the work of the AIM with his own funds; in the hope of finding imitators, he also signed part of his private land property to the American Indian Development Association in late 1974 .

In late January 1975, Brando took part in a protest by a group of Menominee Indians who had occupied an Alexian monastery in Gresham, Wisconsin since New Year's Day . During this action, he came into conflict with the violent occupiers he had wanted to support and became so disillusioned with his engagement that he gradually withdrew from the activities of the AIM from 1976 onwards. Brando hit the headlines one last time in connection with the AIM when he supported activists Dennis Banks and Leonard Peltier , who were hunted by the FBI after another shooting in the Pine Ridge Reservation and sought refuge in Brando's house in the summer of 1975 .

effect

Countless actors have orientated themselves on Marlon Brando's performance style, including Rod Steiger and Ben Gazzara . The actor who most fervently emulated Brando's role model was James Dean . Brando was originally intended for his second film role (in ... because they don't know what they're doing ) - and like the young Brando, Dean impressed himself on the audience as the actor of brooding, rebellious, inarticulate young men. Even Richard Burton has Brando's acting style very carefully studied. Early in his career, Paul Newman had to fight the stigma that he was just a copy of Marlon Brando. Jane Fonda , who Brando got to know while filming A Man Is Hunted , was deeply impressed by his combination of artistry and political commitment and found him to be the archetype of an artist engagé .

Robert F. Smallwood published a play about Marlon Brando (Brando, Tennessee, & Me. A Play) in 2006 . Scott Wannberg wrote a poem about Brando called Omaha Light . Brando is also mentioned in numerous pop and rock songs, such as It's Hard to be a Saint in the City ( Bruce Springsteen , 1973), Is This What You Wanted? ( Leonard Cohen , 1974), China Girl ( Iggy Pop , 1977 and David Bowie , 1983), Pocahontas ( Neil Young , 1979), We Didn't Start the Fire ( Billy Joel , 1989), Vogue ( Madonna , 1990), Gangster Moderne ( MC Solaar , 1997), Eyeless ( Slipknot , 2000), The Ballad of Michael Valentine ( The Killers , 2004), Back to Tupelo ( Mark Knopfler , 2004), Kings For A Day (Tak Matsumoto Group, 2004), Advertising Space ( Robbie Williams , 2005), Amsterdam ( Mando Diao , 2006), Rhododendrons ( Bloc Party , 2007) and Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando And I ( REM , 2011). The New Zealander Russell Crowe , who worked as a rock 'n' roll singer in his home country before his film career in Hollywood, brought out a single entitled I Want to Be Like Marlon Brando (1980) during this time . Elton John released a song Goodbye Marlon Brando in 1988 .

In the song Eyeless by Slipknot, the line “You can't see California without Marlon Brando's eyes” is used in the chorus.

Further information

Stage appearances

• 1944: Bobino ( Children's Theater , Broadway; author: Stanley Kauffmann)
• 1944: Hanneles Himmelfahrt ( Dramatic Workshop ; Author: Gerhart Hauptmann ) - schoolmaster Gottwald; Stranger in Hanneles dream
• 1944: Dr. Sganarelle ( Dramatic Workshop ; Author: Milton Levene)
• 1944: What you want ( Dramatic Workshop ; Author: William Shakespeare ) - Sebastian
• 1944/1945: I Remember Mama (Broadway; author: Martin Chamin, composer: Richard Rodgers ) - Nels
• 1945: Truckline Café (Belasco Theater, Broadway; Author: Maxwell Anderson ) - Sage MacRae
• 1945: Candida (guest tour, Chicago; author: George Bernard Shaw ) - Marchbanks
• 1946: A Flag is Born (Alvin Theater, Broadway; author: Ben Hecht , music: Kurt Weill ; with Paul Muni ) - David
• 1946: The Eagle Has Two Heads (guest tour, Washington, DC, Boston; author: Jean Cocteau ; with Tallulah Bankhead ) - Stanislas
• 1947–1949: End Station Sehnsucht (guest tour through New Haven, Boston, Philadelphia; Ethel Barrymore Theater, Broadway; author: Tennessee Williams ) - Stanley Kowalski
• 1953: Heroes (touring; Rhode Island , Massachusetts , Connecticut ; author: George Bernard Shaw) - Sergius

Filmography

• 1950: The men (The Men)
• 1951: Endstation Sehnsucht (A Streetcar Named Desire)
• 1952: Viva Zapata!
• 1953: Julius Caesar
• 1953: The Wild (The Wild One)
• 1954: The fist in the neck (On the Waterfront)
• 1954: Désirée
• 1955: Heavy boys - easy girls (Guys and Dolls)
• 1956: The small tea house (The Teahouse of the August Moon)
• 1957: Sayonara
• 1958: The Young Lions (The Young Lions)
• 1960: The Fugitive Kind (The Fugitive Kind)
• 1961: The Possession (One-Eyed Jacks)
• 1962: Mutiny on the Bounty (Mutiny on the Bounty)
• 1963: The Ugly American (The Ugly American)
• 1964: Two Successful Seducers (Bedtime Story)
• 1965: Morituri (Morituri)
• 1966: A Man Is Chased (The Chase)
• 1966: Southwest to Sonora (The Appaloosa)
• 1967: The Countess of Hong Kong (A Countess from Hong Kong)
• 1967: Reflections in a Golden Eye (Reflections in a Golden Eye)
• 1968: Candy
• 1969: The Night of the Following Day
• 1969: Queimada (Burn! / Queimada)
• 1971: The Hole in the Door (The Nightcomers)
• 1972: The Godfather (The Godfather)
• 1972: The last tango in Paris (Ultimo tango a Parigi)
• 1976: Duel on the Missouri (The Missouri Breaks)
• 1978: Superman
• 1979: Apocalypse Now
• 1980: The formula (The Formula)
• 1989: A Dry White Season (A Dry White Season)
• 1990: Freshman (The Freshman)
• 1992: Christopher Columbus: The Discovery
• 1994: Don Juan DeMarco
• 1996: DNA - The island of Dr. Moreau / DNA - Experiment of Madness (The Island of Dr. Moreau)
• 1997: The Brave
• 1998: Free Money
• 2001: The Score

Director

• 1961: The Possession (One-Eyed Jacks)

Awards

Marlon Brando is - next to Joanne Woodward , Jack Lemmon , Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor - the most award-winning American film actor of his generation.

• 1952: Oscar nomination (Best Actor) for Endstation Sehnsucht (1951)
• 1952: Cannes International Film Festival , Best Actor Award for Viva Zapata! (1952)
• 1952: Jussi (merit diploma for the best foreign actor) for Endstation Sehnsucht (1951)
• 1953: Oscar nomination (Best Actor) for Viva Zapata! (1952)
• 1953: British Film Academy Award (Best Foreign Actor) for Viva Zapata! (1952)
• 1954: Oscar nomination (Best Actor) for Julius Caesar (1953)
• 1954: British Film Academy Award (Best Foreign Actor) for Julius Caesar (1953)
• 1954: New York Film Critics Circle Award (Best Actor) for Die Faust im Nacken (1954)
• 1955: Oscar (Best Actor) for Die Faust im Nacken (1954)
• 1955: Golden Globe (Best Actor, Cinema Section) for Die Faust im Nacken (1954)
• 1955: British Film Academy Award (Best Foreign Actor) for Fist in the Neck (1954)
• 1957: Golden Globe nomination (Best Actor in a Comedy / Musical) for The Little Tea House (1956)
• 1958: Oscar nomination (Best Actor) for Sayonara (1957)
• 1958: Golden Globe nomination (Best Actor in a Drama) for Sayonara (1957)
• 1958: Laurel Award (Golden Laurel for the best male acting performance) for The Young Lions (1958)
• 1959: Nomination for the British Film Academy Award (Best Foreign Actor) for The Young Lions (1958)
• 1961: Golden Apple Award: Sour Apple, least cooperative actor award
• 1961: Festival Internacional de Cine de Donostia-San Sebastián (Golden Shell) for The Obsessed (1961)
• 1964: Golden Globe nomination (Best Actor in a Drama) for The Ugly American
• 1967: Western Heritage Awards (Bronze Wrangler) for South to Sonora (1966)
• 1972: Fotogramas de Plata, Best Foreign Actor Award for Queimada (1969)
• 1973: Oscar (Best Actor) for The Godfather (1972, rejected out of solidarity for the American Indian Movement )
• 1973: Golden Globe (Best Actor, Movies Section) for The Godfather (1972)
• 1973: Golden Globe: Henrietta Award (Most Popular Male Actor Worldwide)
• 1973: Nomination for the British Society of Film and Television Arts Award (later BAFTA Award; Best Actor) for The Godfather (1972)
• 1973: Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award (Best Actor) for The Godfather (1972)
• 1973: Jussi (Actor of the Year)
• 1974: Oscar nomination (Best Actor) for The Last Tango in Paris (1972)
• 1974: Nomination for the British Society of Film and Television Arts Award (Best Actor) for The Last Tango in Paris (1972)
• 1974: Golden Globe: Henrietta Award (Most Popular Male Actor Worldwide)
• 1974: National Society of Film Critics Award (Best Actor) for The Last Tango in Paris (1972)
• 1974: New York Film Critics Circle Award (Best Actor) for The Last Tango in Paris (1972)
• 1979: Emmy Award (Best Supporting Actor in a TV Series) for Roots - The Next Generations (1979)
• 1981: Golden Raspberry nomination (worst supporting actor) for Die Formel (1980)
• 1989: Tokyo International Film Festival (Best Actor) for White Period of Drought (1989)
• 1990: Oscar nomination (Best Supporting Actor) for White Period of Drought (1989)
• 1993: Golden Raspberry Nomination (Worst Supporting Actor) for Christopher Columbus - The Explorer (1992)
• 1997: Golden Raspberry (worst supporting actor) for The Island of Dr. Moreau (1997)
• 1997: Golden raspberry nomination (worst screen pair) for The Island of Dr. Moreau (1997)
• The American Film Institute voted him number 4 on the list of the 25 greatest male film legends of all time.

A star is dedicated to the actor on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (at 1777 Vine Street).

German dubbing voices

The actors who lent Marlon Brando their voices in the German dubbed versions include:

• Harald Juhnke (The men , The fist in the neck , The savage , Sayonara , The young lions , The possessed , Morituri , Southwest to Sonora , A man is hunted , reflection in the golden eye)
• Peer Schmidt (End Station Sehnsucht , The Ugly American)
• Horst Niendorf (Julius Caesar)
• Heinz Reincke (Désirée)
• Gert Günther Hoffmann (The Man in the Snakeskin , Mutiny on the Bounty)
• Rainer Brandt (The Countess of Hong Kong)
• Claus Biederstaedt (Two successful seducers , The evening of the following day , Queimada , The last tango in Paris)
• Wolfgang Kieling (duel on the Missouri)
• Michael Chevalier (The Hole in the Door , The Isle of Dr. Moreau)
• Gottfried Kramer (The Godfather , Apocalypse Now , White Time of Drought)
• Christian Brückner ( The Godfather , TV version)
• Rolf Schult (Superman)
• Thomas Fritsch ( Apocalypse Now , Redux version)
• Helmut Krauss (Der Godfather , Christopher Columbus - Der Entdecker , Freshman , Don Juan DeMarco , The Brave , Free Money , The Score)
• Hans Dieter Zeidler (Heavy boys - light girls , The small tea house)

Films about Marlon Brando (selection)

• 1966 - Meet Marlon Brando. Script and direction: Albert and David Maysles , short documentary film.
• 1981 - The Rebels: Marlon Brando. Written and directed by Claurio Masenza, Italy, video documentary.
• 1991 Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse. Written and directed by Fax Bahr and George Hickenlooper , documentary about the making of the feature film Apocalypse Now .
• 1996 - Marlon Brando: The Wild One. Written and directed by Paul Joyce, television documentary.
• 2003 - James Dean and Marlon Brando. Written and directed by Laurent Preyale, France, short television documentary.
• 2006 - The Godfather and the Mob. Written and directed by Simon George, Great Britain, television documentary.
• 2006 - The Hollywood Greats. Episode: Marlon Brando, part of a television documentary series.
• 2006 - Citizen Brando. Script and direction: Ridha Behi, France, Tunisia, Great Britain, started in 2004, canceled in 2006, see IMDb .
• 2011 - Always Brando. Script and direction: Ridha Behi, Tunisia, Always Brando in the Internet Movie Database (English) and Always Brando .
• 2013 - Marlon Brando - The hard and the delicate. Documentary, France, 2013, 89:50 min., Script and director: Philippe Kohly, production: Roche Productions, arte , Ciné +, Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS), first broadcast: December 14, 2014 on arte, synopsis by ARD .

Quotes

"He'd created not only a standard of acting, but a style, which was unfortunate, since everybody after that wanted to act like Marlon Brando." (Robert Lewis, co-founder of the Actors Studio , about Marlon Brando)

"Not only did he create a new benchmark for acting, he created a style that was disastrous because after that everyone wanted to play like Marlon Brando."

"Monty knew what he was doing all the times - not that he wasn't full of emotion and feeling, but it was approached intellectually. Marlon acted out of some innate emotive force. It wasn't studied, it just happened. " (The actor Kevin McCarthy on Montgomery Clift and Marlon Brando)

“Monty always knew what he was doing - not that he wasn't full of emotion and feeling, but the approach was intellectual. Marlon acted out of an innate emotional power. It wasn't rehearsed, it just happened. "

"He was innately brilliant but it was all scattered, almost as if he'd been told early on that he was nothing and worthless. Yet his work was so beautiful and so pure that there was no explaining where it came from. He still didn't love acting, he didn't love the theater and he didn't respect his own talent, but his gift was so great he couldn't defile it. He could put on pounds, he could say that it was all shit, but he still couldn't destroy it. " (The actress Julie Harris on Marlon Brando)

“He was naturally brilliant, but it was all squandered, almost as if he had been told early on that he was worthless and worthless. But his work was so pure and so beautiful that it was hard to explain where it came from. While he didn't love acting, he didn't love the theater, and he didn't respect his own talent, his gift was so great that he couldn't defile it. He could put on body weight, he could say that it was shit, but he couldn't destroy it. "

“Brandos Kowalski, when he brutally brushed aside the bourgeois exuberance of the Blanche DuBois, produced a small excess of brutality that was not purely violent. Rather, something tearful mingled with the violent and something sadistic with the tearful. The motorcycle rocker Johnny is not only indomitable with pride, but also full of self-pity, he is an outlaw who takes pleasure in the ugliness of the philistine society that makes him an outsider. This is how sadism and masochism work hand in hand: Because it suffers, it is also allowed to distribute evil. It increases his attitude towards life that he feels the meanness of the common man in his back. The character, nourished from various sources, noble and cloudy, was probably the greatest innovation that he introduced into the smooth heroic genre of Hollywood; it was by no means just the animalistic, body-beautiful and instinctive that film critics later praised. "

literature

Autobiography

• Marlon Brando and Robert Lindsey: My Life. Autobiography. Goldmann, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-442-43141-7 ; Original edition: Songs My Mother Taught Me. Modern Library, 1994, ISBN 0-679-41013-9 .

novel

• Marlon Brando and Donald Cammell: Madame Lai . Introduction by Truman Capote . Translated by Gregor Hens . marebuchverlag, Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-86648-058-2 .

Biographies

• Patricia Bosworth : Marlon Brando. Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd), English, 2002, ISBN 0-7538-1379-3 .
• Jörg Fauser : Marlon Brando. The silver-plated rebel. Alexander, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89581-113-0 .
• Marli Feldvoss, Marion Löhndorf and others: Marlon Brando . Bertz + Fischer Verlag , Berlin 2004 (film: 15), ISBN 3-929470-86-1 .
• Carlo Fiore: Bud: The Brando I Knew. The Untold Story of Marlon Brando's Private Life . Delacorte Press, 1974, ISBN 0-440-01815-3 .
• Charles Higham: Brando. An Unauthorized Biography. Dutton Adult, 1987, ISBN 0-453-00543-8 (English).
• Peter Manso: Brando. The biography. Hyperion, New York 1994, ISBN 0-7868-6063-4 .
• Richard Schickel: Marlon Brando. Tango of life. Heyne, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-453-05566-7 . Original edition: Brando: A Life in Our Times. Thunder's Mouth Press, 2000, ISBN 1-56025-291-X .
• Bob Thomas: Marlon. Portrait of the Rebel as an Artist. Random House, New York 1973, ISBN 0-394-48728-1 .
• Stefan Kanfer: Somebody: the reckless life and remarkable career of Marlon Brando. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY 2008, ISBN 978-1-400-04289-0 .

Further literature

• Gary Carey: Marlon Brando: The Only Contender. St. Martins, New York 1985, ISBN 0-312-51543-X .
• George Englund: Marlon Brando. The Way It's Never Been Done Before. Harper Perennial, 2005 (Reprint), ISBN 0-06-083286-X (English).
• Lawrence Grobel: Conversations with Brando. Hyperion, New York 1991, ISBN 1-56282-990-4 (English).
• Anna Kashfi , EP Stein : Brando For Breakfast. Berkley, 1980, ISBN 0-425-04698-2 . The Kiss-and-Tell Memoirs of Brando's First Wife .
• Yves Mourousi: Le Destin Brando. Editions Michel Lafon, Paris 1991 (French).
• Christopher Nickens: Brando. A Biography in Photographs. Doubleday, New York 1987, ISBN 0-7924-2147-7 .
• Darwin Porter: Brando Unzipped. A Revisionist and Very Private Look at America's Greatest Actor. Blood Moon Productions, 2006, ISBN 0-9748118-2-3 (English).
• Sam Shaw: Brando in the Camera Eye. Exeter Books, New York 1979, ISBN 0-89673-031-X .
• Tarita Teriipaia, Lionel Duroy: Marlon - my love, my sorrow. Heyne, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-453-60030-4 ; French original edition: Marlon Brando, mon amour, ma déchirure. Pocket, 2006, ISBN 2-266-15831-7 .
• Tony Thomas : The Films of Marlon Brando. Citadel Press, Secaucus, NJ 1973, ISBN 0-8065-1309-8 (English).
• Tony Thomas, Joe Hembus: Marlon Brando and his films. Citadel Film Books , Goldmann, 1985, ISBN 3-442-10209-X .
• Pierre-Henri Verlhac: Marlon Brando. Pictures of a life . Henschel Verlag, Leipzig 2010, ISBN 978-3-89487-676-0 .

Web links

Commons : Marlon Brando  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Marlon Brando in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Marlon Brando  in the German Digital Library
• Irmgard Zündorf: Marlon Brando. Tabular curriculum vitae in the LeMO ( DHM and HdG )
• Marlon Brando in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Marlon Brando in the Internet Broadway Database (English)
• Brando in the nndb (English)
• Marlon Brando in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• Truman Capote : Profiles. The Duke in His Domain. In: The New Yorker , November 9, 1957 (English).
• Pauline Kael : Marlon Brando: An American Hero. In: brando.crosscity.com. 1966, archived from the original on April 4, 2007 ; accessed on March 24, 2011 . 
• Marli Feldvoss: The Wild One. Marlon Brando will be 80 years old on April 3rd. An appreciation. In: Jungle World No. 13, March 17, 2004 (abridged preprint from: Marli Feldvoss / Marion Löhndorf et al: Marlon Brando . Bertz-Verlag, Berlin 2004).
• Michael Althen : Tragedy of a not so ridiculous man. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , April 3, 2004, accessed on March 4, 2014.
• Jens Jessen: Like a toad on its way into the swamp. Marlon Brando brought the moral twilight to Hollywood movies. To the death of the actor of the century. In: Die Zeit No. 29, July 8, 2004.

Individual evidence

1. ^ List of film awards for Marlon Brando on imdb.com
2. ^ Genealogies of some of the Old Dutch Families of Greene County ( Memento July 4, 2007 in the Internet Archive ); New England Historic Genealogical Society ( memo dated November 22, 2005 on the Internet Archive ); according to other sources, e.g. B. Manso, the ancestors came from Alsace
3. ^ Ethnicity of Celebs | What Nationality Ancestry Race
4. ↑ Manso, pp. 1-19
5. ↑ Manso, pp. 19-62; Even as an adult, Brando, according to his own admission and according to statements from friends, suffered from an abundance of emotional problems (Manso, pp. 225, 246, 282). For this reason, from the end of 1948 onwards, he subjected himself to a psychoanalysis that lasted for decades (Manso, p. 243f).
6. ↑ Manso, pp. 61-97
7. ↑ Thomas, p. 15; Manso, pp. 98-141
8. ↑ Manso, pp. 141-157
9. ↑ Manso, pp. 167-173
10. ↑ Manso, pp. 179-192
11. ↑ Manso, pp. 219-225
12. ↑ Manso, pp. 228-233; en: Silent Generation
13. ↑ Manso, pp. 261-262
14. ↑ Manso, pp. 275-288; Brando: Songs My Mother Taught Me. P. 432
15. ↑ Manso, pp. 291-304
16. ↑ Manso, pp. 304-318
17. ↑ Manso, pp. 118, 318-336, 348, 428; Thomas, p. 73
18. ↑ Manso, pp. 337-348; Thomas, p. 80
19. ↑ Manso, pp. 349-353
20. ↑ Manso, pp. 353-369, 377-380
21. ↑ Manso, pp. 381-384
22. ↑ Manso, pp. 387-389, 391-394
23. ↑ Manso, pp. 399-406
24. ↑ Manso, pp. 406-412
25. ↑ Manso, pp. 412-416; Thomas, p. 127
26. ↑ Manso, pp. 420-426, 435-438
27. ↑ Manso, pp. 441, 445-452, 456-460, 465f
28. ^ Manso, p. 468
29. ↑ Manso, pp. 468-497
30. ↑ Manso, pp. 478, 497-514
31. ↑ Manso, pp. 478, 514-555; Thomas, p. 173
32. ↑ Manso, pp. 559-561
33. ↑ Manso, pp. 562-569; Thomas, p. 195
34. ↑ Manso, pp. 572f, 579; Thomas, p. 196
35. ↑ Manso, pp. 579-589
36. ↑ Manso, pp. 594-599
37. ↑ Manso, pp. 608-617; Marlon Brando: An American Hero ( April 4, 2007 memento in the Internet Archive )
38. ↑ Manso, pp. 621-624
39. ↑ Manso, pp. 629-634
40. ↑ Manso, pp. 634-638
41. ↑ Manso, pp. 640-647; Thomas, p. 216
42. ↑ Manso, pp. 648-649, 674-678, 686-689, 724
43. ↑ Manso, pp. 701, 705-710
44. ↑ Manso, pp. 701-705; Thomas, p. 230
45. ↑ Manso, pp. 710-728
46. ↑ Manso, pp. 705, 751-754
47. ↑ Manso, pp. 768-775
48. ↑ Manso, pp. 731, 734
49. ↑ Manso, pp. 728-730, 735
50. ↑ Manso, pp. 735-745, 754-760
51. ↑ Manso, pp. 761-763
52. ↑ Manso, pp. 806, 810-814
53. ↑ Manso, pp. 831, 837-844, 890
54. ↑ Manso, pp. 806, 831-834, 847-849, 872
55. ↑ Manso, pp. 853-856
56. ↑ Manso, pp. 849f, 858-860
57. ↑ Manso, pp. 869-871, 891-896, 905-909, 912; en: You Rock My World
58. ↑ Manso, pp. 909-911
59. ↑ Manso, pp. 914-918
60. ↑ Manso, pp. 1003-1005
61. ^ Manso, p. 1020
62. ↑ The island of Dr. Moreau in the Internet Movie Database ; The Island of Dr. Moreau ; New York Times ( Memento from April 19, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
63. ↑ The Brave in the Internet Movie Database (English); Filming The Brave
64. ^ The Brave (1997) New York Times
65. ↑ Free Money. Internet Movie Database , accessed June 8, 2015 . 
66. ^ ^{A b} Free Money (1998) New York Times
67. ^ The Score. Internet Movie Database , accessed June 8, 2015 . 
68. ↑ Brando and Brando ; Citizen Brando ( Memento from October 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
69. ^ Notice of death on CNN ( Memento of July 5, 2004 in the Internet Archive ); Message from the BBC about the cremation
70. ↑ Cheyenne is procreated by artificial insemination, as he then no longer wanted to have any physical contact with his wife, from whom he lived separately. The wife of the tyrant welt.de February 26, 2005
71. ↑ Manso
72. ^ Manso, various passages in the text
73. ↑ ERIC MALNIC in LA-Times: Daughter of Brando Kills Herself in Tahiti: Suicide: The actor's child Cheyenne was the linchpin of the 1990 case in which her half-brother Christian was charged with killing her lover. She had been troubled by mental problems since. dated April 18, 1995
74. ↑ Manso, pp. 923-996; en: Christian Brando
75. ↑ Spiegel Online.de: Marlon Brando's oldest son is dead
76. ↑ Manso, pp. 650-657, 661-673
77. ↑ Manso, pp. 657f; Washington Fish-in
78. ↑ Manso, pp. 768-795
79. ↑ Manso, pp. 795-797
80. ↑ Manso, pp. 797-805, 809-819
81. ↑ Manso, pp. 267, 390f, 511, 602, 631; Thomas, p. 125
82. ^ German voice actors ( Memento of April 22, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
83. ↑ Thilo Wydra : Marlon Brando - Injured through life. In: Tagesspiegel , December 13, 2014, review by Marlon Brando - The hard and the tender .
84. ^ Manso, p. 233
85. ↑ Manso, pp. 446f
86. ↑ Manso, pp. 633f
87. ↑ Jens Jessen, in: Die Zeit, 2004