Marlon Brando: From Birth to Death (Jerry Skinner Documentary)

[Music] this is Marlon Brando jr. two-time Academy Award winner an eight-time nominee one of the major stars of 20th century and some of his peers consider him to be the greatest actor ever Marlon was born April the 3rd 1924 at the Omaha Maternity Hospital in Omaha Nebraska he was called bud in order to distinguish him from his dead Marlon senior but ed two sisters Jocelyn born 1919 and Francis born 1922 their mother was Dorothy Penner Baker Brando everyone called her Dodie Dodie loved the theater and was an amateur actress herself she smoked she wore pants and she drove a car she helped manage the Omaha community Playhouse and while looking for someone to play the male lead in one of the local productions that she was directing she encouraged a neighborhood boy who had home from college to audition for the part of Rick in you and I his name was Henry Fonda it was his first introduction tact the family first lived in a small house at 31:35 Mason Street it's since been burned and replaced with this one they later moved two blocks away to 1026 South 32nd Street and in 1973 after becoming famous Marlon Brando was stopped by and asked the owner if he could look through the house as he had once lived there when bud was around six years old his dad got a job with the calcium carbonate corporation in Chicago which meant that the family had to move to Illinois Dodie was against the move she was deeply involved in a theater and had her many friends after the move to Evanston both Marlon senior and Dodie started drinking heavy buds father would get drunk and abuse his wife also telling son that he was no good they did never amount to anything this verbal abuse will affect Marlon Brando for the rest of his life the Brando family had moved into a two-story house located at 1044 Judson Avenue and later the family of the moved to 524 Sheridan square close to the lakefront now the girls said they loved Evelyn it was close to the beach and a good place to ride their bicycles bud attended Lincoln Elementary School his teachers said that although bud was mischievous they noticed that he would always take up for the weaker students that others made fun of one such student was Wally Cox Wally will later be a noted character actor while his character of mr. peepers will be a television show in 1952 until 1955 Budd in Wally although an unlikely pair will become best friends and their friendship will last a lifetime until Wally's death in 1973 at the age of 48 from a heart attack it's been said that Brando took Wally's ashes against the wishes of Wally's wife and kept them in his bedroom and when Brando died their ashes were mingled and spread in the Mojave Desert when bud was 11 his parents separated Dodie took the children and moved to Santa Ana California to live with her mother two years later Bud's parents reconciled and the family moved to liver Ville Illinois on the north side of Chicago bud attended liver ville high school he was popular with the girls but the teachers considered him a troublemaker but said he spent most of his high school years getting his mother out of jail and beer joints his father was also slapping him and his mother around without cause he said when things got bad bud would go to his girlfriend car milah Pope's house and stay for several days and when the girlfriend's mother would ask bud does your mother know where you're at he would say no but she don't know where she's at either for a while but at a job on the weekends work at the town only theater the Liberty he is fired because of his attitude when bud was 17 he was expelled from high school reportedly from riding a motorcycle through the school hallways around this time bud ran upstairs got his father's gun and when his dad slapped his mother this time he put the gun to his father's head and threatened to kill him if he ever touched his mother again now this calls mr. Brando to send bud to the shack of Military Academy in Faribault Minnesota within a year bud had to be disciplined for being insubordinate to a visiting officer he was sent to his room and then he slipped out the window and went to town but he had stayed at the Academy long enough to learn that he liked acting class Marlon returned home and tried several jobs not keeping any of them very long he always resented his father for not showing him intention and always running him down and his mother's seem to always be in another world even though both parents will eventually control their drinking by going to a a meetings the damage to Marlon Brando had already been done Dodi was pleased though to learn that bud would like to try acting so she persuaded Marlon senior to finance his son's attending acting class in New York where his sister Jocelyn was already performing minor stage roles while studying at the American theatre of professional school he also took jobs as an elevator operator in a department store but he was embarrassed to call out the number of the floors he also worked as a night watchman in factories Brenda began his career working in summer stock in 1943 when world war ii was going on he was given a 4f status from the draft board because of his trick knee from playing football at the military academy on October the 19th 1944 20 year-old Marlon Brando was first noticed by the public in the original stage production of I remember mama it opened at the Music Box Theatre in New York City Marlon will perform in several other stage plays in the next few years but his breakthrough performance was in Tennessee Williams 1947 play a streetcar named desire directed by Elia Kazan John Garfield was first picked to play the part of Stanley Kowalski but he made impossible demands and when Brando learned that part was open he went to the home of Tennessee Williams to read for the part and while he was there he fixed Williams's broken bathroom plumbing and replaced his blown light fuses and he got the part while rehearsing for streetcar Marlon exercised at the same gym as a middleweight boxing champ rocky Graziano did Graziano said that he didn't know who Brando was but the kid had sent him some tickets to a play streetcar named desire Garcia said that when the curtain opened up there was this kid from the gym and the SOB was doing me Brenda had learned as a youngster how to imitate classmates and animals and that was exactly what he was doing as Stanley Kowalski imitating rocky Graziano now after Marlon success with a stage production of streetcar in 1950 Hollywood beckoned with an offer to play in his first film called the man it was a realistic study of a disabled World War two veterans Brando spent a month in a paraplegic ward studying for his part in the film the next year in 1951 the stage production of streetcar named desire will be adapted for film Brando was star with Kim hunter and Karl Malden who was in the original stage play only Jessica Tandy will be replaced in the famous blades with Vivien Leigh and Vivien Leigh was that played Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind Brando will receive his first Academy Award nomination for streetcar although he'll lose to Humphrey Bogart of African Queen now this is Marlon I want to visit in 1951 back home in Libreville with his sister Francis and his little niece along with his mother and dead the next year in 1952 it'll be Viva Zapata with Jean Peters an Academy Award winner Anthony Quinn Brando will appear in two movies in 1953 Julius Caesar with Marlin play and Mark Anthony and James Mason as Brutus he'll also star as Johnny straggler a motorcycle gang leader that terrorizes a small California town in conflict with another gang leader played by a young Lee Marvin in the wild one Marlon purchased this house in Los Angeles at the age of 29 in 1953 he lived there until 1965 the next year 1954 he'll win his first Academy Award on the waterfront Marlon will play a washed-up boxer that lost his chance to be a contender and August the same year Marlon will lose his 57 year old mother Dodi to cancer she never knew that her son had won the Academy Award by losing his mother bud lost the only person that he wanted approval from in December of 1955 Brando would star along with Frank Sinatra in Guys and Dolls Marlon played the romantic lead Masterson it was the part that Frank Sinatra wanted and he let everybody know it there was constant tension on the set and the leading ladies gene Simmons and Vivian Blair were working under stress Brenda was kissed only because of his box-office draw but it turned out he was a splendid romantic lead with a decent singing voice although Brando did say that they had to piece his songs together from him making so many mistakes in the summer of 1956 Marlon met actress Joan O'Callahan who was using the stage name Anna Keshav now and I had the part of a Hindu girl in the movie the mountain that starred Spencer Tracy Brando had met Anna at the Paramount studio commissary she was 19 and beautiful after almost two years romance they married on the 11th of October 1957 it was the first marriage for both Marlins longtime secretary Alice Marchak said that she saw another woman in his bed the night before he got married that same year in 1957 Brando starred with James Garner Patricia Owens and Miko take a and our love story set in Japan during the Korean War it was called sayonara and at the same time Anna was appearing in Battle Hymn with Rock Hudson the next year in 1958 while still married to Anna Marlon was star in the young lands about the men dealing with World War two Marlon will play a disillusioned Nazi officer along with Montgomery cliff and Dean Martin while filming the young lines Brando offered to take Montgomery Clift to AAA meetings telling him that had helped his parents cliff refused and will later died from results of alcohol and drug abuse at the same time Anna in 1958 was starring as Jack lemons love enters in cowboy with Glenn Ford in the early part of 58 on the May the 11th Marlon and Anna had a son Christian within a year and a half after their marriage they will divorce on April the 22nd 1959 it'll begin a six-year battle over the custody of Christian one month before their divorce and Acacia f-- appeared in her last movie role in the night of the quarter moon with Julie Andrews and John drew barrymore it's been alleged that her short movie career ended from her overuse of drugs and alcohol and the loss of her mental stability in an interview years later and have stated that she was having seizures and prescribed seizure drugs that made her unable to function causing her to lose custody of her son now this is a picture of Anna slapping her ex-husband while walking out of court where he had just one temporary custody Christian said things were not much better with his father he was having marriages that didn't last having children that he would be introduced to at breakfast table not a stable environment and as he got older he said he got worse the next year in 1960 while fighting for custody of Christian Brando at the age of 36 mary's actress Movida Castaneda on June the 4th 1960 Mullen and Movida had met in 1951 while sharing a taxi Marlon was doing research for his upcoming movie at that time Viva Zapata she was of Mexican descent but raised in Los Angeles she was a noted 43 year old actress and had appeared in several major movies not the least of was the 1935 film mutiny on the bounty there starred Clark Gable and Charles Laughlin she also appeared in Fort Apache with John Wayne Henry Fonda and Shirley Temple on February the 26 1961 movida and Marlon had a son Miko Castaneda Brando three months before Miko's birth Brando starred and directed one-eyed Jack with veteran actor Karl Malden the movie was considered a financial failure which begins several years of unsuccessful projects for Brando the next year in 1962 Marlon was star in a remake of the 1935 movie mutiny on the bounty this time starred Marlon Brando as Fletcher Christian in place of Clark Gable and Trevor Howard is Captain Bligh instead of Charles Laughlin during the filming of mutiny on the bounty Brando becomes involved with his 19-year old co-star Tara - Tara Thea filming was done on location in Tahiti and Brando will be at the height of his career although bounty will be another financial failure he began gaining weight probably from heaven planes fly in him and champagne to the set you'll fall in love with French Polynesia and four years after the movie in 1966 he'll by his own three square mile island some 30 miles north of Tahiti Spain Island it's believed that Marlon and Movida divorced in 1962 over his affair with Tara Tay however in 1968 it was reported that she obtained an annulment from the California courts if they did not divorce in 1962 his managed to tear to will not be legal however she would still be considered a common-law wife on August the 10th 1962 tera CheY and Marlon well marry she was 20 and he was 38 tarah taya was born in a bamboo hut in a village in bora-bora french polynesia she was one of seven children she started floor dancin and dishwashing as a teenager at the Tahiti resort where she was discovered her only film was mutiny on the bounty Brando and not let her work anymore she would not move to Hollywood with him she was leery of his promiscuous lifestyle he bought an estate for her and would visit on occasion sometimes spending months in the islands on May the 30th 1963 they had a son named salmon they called to to tear at a stated that Marlin could quickly change his moods and even resort to physical and mental cruelty on occasions one month before Simon or tutu was born Universal Pictures released the ugly America Marlin starred with Sandra Church and he also arranged for his sister Jocelyn to have a part and two years later in 1965 Joslin will work again with her brother in the chase with Robert Redford also in 65 on 17 July Marlin Jocelyn and Francis lost their father Marlin center to heart disease he was 70 years old and had been the executor in charge of his sons production company pennybaker productions that he named in honor of his mother although Marlin placed his father head of his company he still resented his father for the harsh way that he had treated his mother in him in 1966 to avoid the Holocaust that Brando believed was coming to the world about his own Polynesian island for himself in Polynesian wife while still married to Tara T Brando in his second wife Movida Castaneda had a daughter named Rebecca Rebecca will be the child that will grow up protecting her father's name she would try and show that her had a warm side especially towards his children and just couldn't maintain a long-lasting relationship with women Marlon Brando was known for all the romantic one-night stands and partners through the years he was not a shame of his sexual export but it caused heartbreak for many he was involved with he could be charming and loved to play pranks and sometimes the pranks would border on being cruel on the other hand he felt sympathy for the Native American plant he fought for the underdog with sincerity he always showed empathy for his children in need on 20th February 1970 charity and Marlon had their second child a daughter Cheyenne Cheyenne to be raised in the islands with her mother and brother now this is Cheyenne Holden an island friend in 1975 Brando said that both Cheyenne antutu was too innocent to bring to the United States in 1972 Marlon and tera chey will divorce although he will continue to visit the island and see his ex-wife and children by 1972 Brando's career was almost to a standstill and he was satisfied doing cameo appearances however it all changed that year because at the age of 47 Brando got the small part of vito corleone The Godfather of the 1940s crime family Brenda will win the Academy Award for the Godfather he will refuse it and let Jeanine Littlefeather represent him by bringing attention to the plight of the Native American that same year Brando will be in The Last Tango in Paris he receive an Oscar nomination for his role as an American winner who finds love in Paris with a younger woman with Godfather and Tango in Paris Marlon Brando will regain his box-office draw in tango he tried to get the director to allow to read his lands off his co-star Murray Snyder's backside he didn't like learning his lands but the director said no he had to alert his lands like everybody else he received praise for his to parts in those movies but he made fun of both parts and thought they were silly while Brando was in France filming The Last Tango in March of 1972 13-year old Christian Brando was taken out of school by his mother who took him home with her and then she and a friend took Christian to a motel in Baja California Mexico she stated she left Christian with her friend James Worcester when she returned later to Mexico he was missing the Mexican authorities finally located Christian living in a tent with a group of hippies the hippies testified that Ana had offered them money to kidnap her son it is possible that Christian was abused by the kidnappers when Marlon got worth of kidnapping he immediately flew home and made his son at the airport when Christian returned to California Marlon was given primary custody of Christian his mother was not allowed to see him for one year Marlon took him to France to finish the film and they vacationed in Tahiti it had been 13 years of a nasty custody battle that left scars on their son after the kidnapping of Christian he turned to drugs and buying gun afraid he might be kidnapped again when Christian was 15 Alice Marchak another of Marlins longtime personal assistants stated that she looked at her office window and seen Christian with a gun to his head standing in the driveway when she notified Marlin he said if he's got a gun I'm not coming out she went out and talked him into putting the gun down Christian was placed in therapy but he seemed saying it was his father that needed therapy not him in 1974 when Christian was 16 he quit school and run away to Kalama Washington Christian love the small town where he was away from all the turmoil and when Marlon found out where Christian was he gave his permission and he bought Christian a cabin to live in and for a while the boys seemed to be almost content in Washington in 1976 Marlon Brando was started with his next-door neighbor Jack Nicholson in the Missouri Breaks they were neighbors for almost 40 years and become close friends Jack Cole Marlon bud like his family did he also said that bud was the best actor that had ever lived that they had planned a lots of projects together but Missouri Breaks was the only one that had worked out in 1977 Marla's ex-wife Tara T had a child with a Frenchman who abandoned her and Brando will adopt her daughter manatee in 1978 Brando will become the father of Superman Brando again in order to not have to learn his lines wrote the lands on baby Superman's and diapers as he placed the baby in a pod Marlon works a total of 13 days on Superman and it was reported that he made three point seven million and a percentage of the gross Marlon was close friends with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton and Burton once said that Lea's and Brando both became famous too young that was their problem the next year in 1979 Brando would spend weeks alone in a hut on one of his islands without electricity or running water in preparation for his role as Colonel Walter Kurtz in Apocalypse Now Marlon co-stars were Robert Duvall and Martin Sheen by this time Marlon had gained almost 300 pounds and the director had to shoot him in shadows in order to hide his weight in 1982 territoy will adopt her brother's daughter who had abandoned her marlon will also adopt her brother's daughter Raya Tula two years later in 1984 marlon brando will adopt the 14 year old daughter of Carolyn Barrett Barrett was the personal assistant to Marlin from 1976 until 2001 25 years Barry had a daughter with a man that refused to pay support and brando even went to court with Carolyn trying to get support for her daughter Petra in time brando decided to adopt petra and support her financially its believes she's known an attorney in London in 1988 Marlin was start of 14 year old man's with Maria Ruiz his housekeeper the next year in 1989 on 13 May they'll have a child a daughter that they named Nina Priscilla brando and then the next year in his 20 year old polynesian daughter Cheyenne will have an automobile accident that will leave her scarred Cheyenne had been acting erratic Oh for months and taking drugs she had attempted suicide her parents had had her in and out of expensive institutions and doctors she was finally diagnosed as schizophrenic Marlon had sent for Cheyenne to come to the states to live with him and for a while things got better Cheyenne had brought her Island boyfriend dag Drollet with her to her father's LA home she was pregnant with DAGs baby on May the 16th 1990 and Brendo half-brother to Cheyenne arrived at the Brando estate with a 45 in his hand he had been drinking heavily Christian was the oldest child of brando clan and he felt a responsibility to the others he had met shine at the Meuse oh and Frank's restaurant and Cheyenne had told Christian that dag had been beatin her even though she was pregnant which was found later not to be true it seems that she was looking for sympathy Christian finds dag in the living room watching TV he said he first stopped in to his dad's room who was watching television to say hi he stated that he only wanted to scare dag he didn't intend to kill him Marlon Brando supported Christian in court with expensive lawyers in order to get the murder charge down from murder to manslaughter Cheyenne was first sent back to Tahiti and then flown to a psychiatric clinic in Paris with her mother and doctor this was to help Cheyenne and also to keep the only witness other than her brother from testifying Christian it will be sentenced to ten years in prison and serve five while in prison Christian will correspond with bonny Lee Bakley she will claim to have Christian names baby after he gets out of prison in 1996 DNA will prove that the child belong to Robert Blake in 1992 two years after dag was killed Marlon and Marie rewsey will held their second child miles Jonathan Brando on 16 January 1992 two years after Myles was born Murray and Marlon will held their third child Timothy gay and Brando on January the 6th 1994 although Brando will by Murray a four hundred and fifty thousand dollar home and Mercedes to drive she'll end up filing a hundred million dollar lawsuit that'll be settled in 2002 against Brando in 1995 Brando played as a psychiatrist trying to help a would be suicidal 21 year old played by Johnny Depp who goes around wearing a costume looking like bizarre and claiming to be done one in the movie done one DeMarco this movie will become far too real for the famous actor for the same year Don Juan DeMarco was made on 16 April 1995 25 year old Cheyenne Brando will take her own life at her mother's home in Tahiti by hanging she never recovered from the loss of her son's father dag Drollet after DAGs death her mental health steadily declined and she finally lost custody of her son to key to her mother cheyenne is buried next to day at the roman catholic cemetery and the tahitian islands years later on January the 11th 2008 Christian Brando was rushed to the Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital in a coma and with double pneumonia he was found by his girlfriend on the floor of the rented apartment in Hollywood Christian will pass away at 1:47 a.m. on a 26th of January 2008 at the age of 49 Marlon Brando would not suffer through the death of a second child he himself will pass away for years before Christians death after Christian was charged with the death of DAG and the suicide of Cheyenne the actor was a broken man his second son Michael came to his father's aid helping him through Christians trial and Cheyenne's death Mikko said that his dad had always took care of him and now it was his turn and the actors last years his health was failing and he had to use a wheelchair to get around and wearing oxygen to assist in breathing Marlon had been suffered from diabetes from being overweight and liver cancer on July the 1st 2004 the iconic actor Marlon Brando jr. will pass away at the UCLA Medical Center of respiratory failure from preliminary fibrosis with congestive heart failure the 80 year old actor will be cremated and his ashes mingled with his lifelong friend Wally Cox and scattered in the Mojave Desert that he loves so much and also in the islands of Tahiti [Music] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Jerry Skinner

Views: 313,871

Rating: 4.8428626 out of 5

Keywords: Marlon Brando

Id: 74iiXvCQeak

Length: 34min 28sec (2068 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 19 2020