Many consider him one of the most outstanding
actors of the 20th century. Many women completely lost their heads over him, but not all of
his love affairs were destined to become serious relationships. His principles were so
important to him that he rejected an Oscar. He is a grieving sufferer under the mask of
an eccentric and charismatic rock'n'roll guy. Today we will tell the story of the
film industry legend Marlon Brando.
Why did Frank Sinatra despise the actor,
and why did Al Pacino respect him? Which of Brando's children broke his heart?
You are on the Biographer channel. Get comfortable, and we're getting started.
THE FOUNDATION OF THE CHARACTER OF MARLON BRANDO
Marlon Brando Jr. was born on April 3, 1924, in
Omaha. He is the son of Marlon Brando Sr. and Dorothy Julia Pennebaker. Marlon was the third
child in the family and had two older sisters, Jocelyn and Frances. Brando was
raised as a Christian scientist.
The boy's ancestors were mostly
German, Dutch, English and Irish.
We also know that his father produced pesticides
and chemical feed. And the mother, better known as Dodie, was unconventional for her time. She
wore pants, smoked and drove a car. Dorothy was an actress and theater administrator. By the way,
she helped Henry Fonda begin his acting career. Sometimes his mother paid little attention to
him because of problems with alcohol. Brando Sr. often brought her home from Chicago bars.
Already in his later years, Marlon would write an autobiographical book, Songs My Mother Taught Me,
in which he would sadly remember his mother:
Inset quote: “The anguish that her drinking
produced was that she preferred getting drunk to caring for us.” (Marlon Brando)
Brando's parents became members of Alcoholics Anonymous to solve the problem.
But they had not only one problem. Marlon's childhood is a sad period of his life.
When he was four years old, Brando was sexually abused by his teenage governess. Brando became
attached to her, but it was quite a traumatic experience. The boy went crazy when the girl left
him. And for the rest of his life, Brando would be stunned by her loss. And that depravity from
childhood would transfer to his later work.
At the same time, parents cared about their
personal problems. Around 1930, they moved to Evanston, Illinois, when his father got a job in
Chicago, but separated in 1935 when Marlon was 11 years old. His mother took the three children to
Santa Ana, California, where Brando Jr. and his sisters lived with their grandmother. Two years
later, his parents reunited and left Evanston by the following year. They moved to a farm in
Libertyville, a small town north of Chicago.
Marlon worked as a doorman in a single
cinema in the city, The Liberty, from 1939 to 1941. And if he spoke of his
mother in his autobiography with sadness, then he had much more unpleasant feelings for his
father, for everything that he had to endure:
Inset quote: “I was his namesake, but nothing
I did ever pleased or even interested him. He enjoyed telling me I couldn't do anything
right. He had a habit of telling me I would never amount to anything.” (Marlon Brando)
He hated his father for his callousness. It prompted the guy to find a job as soon as possible
and improve his life. "Bud", as Marlon was called by childhood friends, had expressive facial
expressions from the early years. He developed the ability to absorb the mannerisms of the children
he played with and dramatically portray them.
At the same time, he was introduced to a
neighborhood boy, Wally Cox, and they were the closest friends until Cox's death. In the 2007
biopic, another childhood friend, George Englund, recalls that in the beginning, Brando imitated
the cows and horses on the family farm to distract his mother from drinking. He would
not lose that ability throughout his life.
But Marlon did not even think about becoming an
actor yet. His sister Jocelyn was the first to begin her acting career and went to study at
the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. She played on Broadway, then in films
and television. Brando's sister, Frances, left college in California to study art in New York.
Brando showed his creative thinking differently. He was stuck at school for an extra year and
then expelled from Libertyville High School for riding his motorcycle down the corridors.
Soon, he was sent to the Shattuck Military Academy in Minnesota, where his father studied. Brando
excelled at the theater and did well in school, but continued to do what he wanted. In 1943,
in his final year, he was put on probation for disobeying a visiting army colonel during
maneuvers. He was confined in his room but escaped, made his way to the town and was
caught. The faculty voted for his expulsion, but the other students, who felt
it was too harsh, supported him.
Marlon was invited back the following
year, but decided to drop out instead. The guy worked as a ditch-digger as a summer
job arranged by his father. At the same time, Brando tried to enlist in the army. But, his
initial medical examination revealed that a football injury he had gotten at Shattuck had
left him with a trick knee. Doctors determined him to be physically unfit for military service,
so, as IV-F, he was not taken to the army.
Then Marlon finally made up his mind and followed
his sisters. He went to New York to study at the American Theater Wing Professional School, part
of the Dramatic Workshop of the New School, with influential German director Erwin Piscator.
His sister Jocelyn recalled:
Inset quote: "He was in a school play and
enjoyed it ... So he decided he would go to New York and study acting because
that was the only thing he had enjoyed. That was when he was 18." (Jocelyn Brando)
George Englund recalled Brando started playing in New York because "he was accepted there. He
wasn't criticized. It was the first time in his life that he heard good things about himself."
However, he did not become rich. In the beginning, Brando had to sleep on the couch with one of his
friends. For a time, he lived with Roy Somlyo, who later became a hugely successful Broadway
producer and a four-time Emmy Award winner.
Marlon was an energetic student and proponent of
Stella Adler, from whom he learned the methods of the Stanislavsky system. This technique
encouraged the actor to study the internal and external aspects of the character being
ideally portrayed. Brando's innate insight and sense of realism were evident from the start.
As an example, Adler once told the class to act like chickens and added that a nuclear
bomb was about to fall on them. Most of the class clucked and ran wildly around, but Brando
sat quietly and pretended to lay an egg. Asked by Adler why he chose this reaction, he said:
"I'm a chicken—what do I know about bombs?"
However, despite the general opinion that Marlon
Brando is a method actor, he did not think so. In addition, he recalled that he hated Lee
Strasberg's teachings, who was known in creative circles as a talented theater director and acting
teacher. Although many had a hand in developing method acting, Lee Strasberg was considered
the "father of method acting in America". He has mentored several theater generations and
film celebrities, including Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman, Montgomery Clift, James Dean, and
Marilyn Monroe, who literally idolized Strasberg. Marlon, in turn, claimed the following:
Inset quote: “After I had some success, Lee Strasberg tried to take credit for teaching
me how to act. He never taught me anything. He would have claimed credit for the sun and
the moon if he believed he could get away with it. He was an ambitious, selfish man who
exploited the people who attended the Actors Studio and tried to project himself as an acting
oracle and guru. Some people worshipped him, but I never knew why.” (Marlon Brando)
The actor recalled that he sometimes visited the Actors Studio on Saturday mornings for Elia Kazan
exercises and because there were usually a lot of attractive girls. Strasberg never taught him how
to play. Probably because of this, his training quickly paid off. Marlon Brando was the first to
bring a natural approach to acting in films. He often chatted with cameramen and other actors
on the set, and even after hearing “Action!”, he started the role with confidence that he
looks natural in the shot. From that moment, his film career began.
IS HE RESTLESS?
Brando first showed off his impersonation skills
in two summer stock roles in Sayville, New York, on Long Island. Brando was a model of erratic,
insubordinate behavior, although he participated in only a few performances. Because of his
behavior, he was kicked out of the cast of the New School's production at Sayville, but
he appeared soon in a locally produced play.
Brando often showed his character. In 1944,
the actor made his way to Broadway in the bittersweet drama I Remember Mama, playing
the son of Mady Christians. At the same time, the family of directors Alfred Lunt and Lynn
Fontanne decided that Marlon could play the role of Alfred Lunt's son in O Mistress Mine.
Lunt actually coached him before the audition, but Brando didn't even try to read his lines
at the audition, and he was rejected.
Then he played the role of a suffering veteran
in Truckline Café. It was a commercial failure, but the New York Drama Critics named
Brando the "Most Promising Young Actor".
There were more and more roles for him. In 1946
Marlon played a heroic role in the political drama A Flag is Born, refusing wages above
the Actors' Equity rate. In that same year, the actor appeared in a revival of Candida
and Jean Anouilh's Antigone. He also received an offer to play one of the lead characters in
the Broadway premiere of Eugene O'Neill's play The Iceman Cometh. Brando refused. He fell asleep
trying to read the massive script and called the play "ineptly written and poorly constructed".
In 1945, Brando's agent recommended him to play one of the leading roles in the new play The
Eagle Has Two Heads with Tallulah Bankhead, produced by Jack Wilson. Bankhead recognized
Brando's potential, despite her disdain for acting method, which was shared by most Broadway
veterans. She agreed to play with Marlon even though he barely passed the audition.
As a result, the two got into a big fight during the pre-Broadway tour when Bankhead
reminded Brando of his mother, especially her drinking problem. Wilson was largely tolerant
of Brando's behavior, but he reached his limit when Brando mumbled during dress rehearsal
shortly before the play's opening.
“I don't care what your grandmother did,”
Wilson exclaimed, “and that Method stuff, I want to know what you're going to do!”
Brando, in turn, raised his voice and acted with great power and passion. And it
worked. At the premiere, everyone hugged and kissed Brando, and he only remembered:
Inset quote: “They don't think you can act unless you can yell.” (Marlon Brando)
However, the critics were not so kind. Many commented on Brando's debut that he was "still
building his character, but at present fails to impress". On subsequent tour performances, he
corrected mistakes and received better reviews, but his colleagues recalled only random signs
of the talent he would later demonstrate. For example, in an interview in 1962, Bankhead said:
Inset quote: “There were a few times when he was really magnificent. He was a great
young actor when he wanted to be, but most of the time I couldn't even hear
him on the stage.” (Tallulah Bankhead)
Gradually on tour, the relationship
between the actors deteriorated, and Brando showed his apathy for
the production. Marlon decided to "surprise everyone" with shocking manners on
stage. He tried everything in the world to ruin the play for Bankhead and almost
drove her crazy: scratched his ass, picked his nose, and did anything on stage!
After weeks on the road, they reached Boston, by which time Bankhead was ready to dismiss him.
Surprisingly, leaving the production turned out to be one of the greatest blessings of his
career, as it brought the actor the role of Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams's
1947 play A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Elia Kazan. Bankhead declined an
invitation to the play for Blanche Dubois's role, but also gave a stinging recommendation:
Inset quote: “I do have one suggestion for casting. I know of an actor who can appear as
this brutish Stanley Kowalski character. I mean, a total pig of a man without sensitivity or grace
of any kind. Marlon Brando would be perfect as Stanley. I have just fired the cad from my play,
The Eagle Has Two Heads, and I know for a fact that he is looking for work.” (Tallulah Bankhead)
Brando based his portrayal of Kowalski on boxer Rocky Graziano, whom he studied at a local
gymnasium. Graziano did not know who Brando was, but came to the performance with tickets
provided by the young man. He said, "The curtain went up and on the stage is that son
of a b*tch from the gym, and he's playing me."
It was the first Brando success because, in
1947, he took part in the screen test of an early screenplay by Warner Brothers for the film
adaptation of the novel Rebel Without a Cause. Unfortunately, this did not give results. The
movie was released only after eight years, and it was a completely different film. But soon, Marlon
Brando still made his debut on the big screen.
The actor's first screen role was a
paraplegic veteran in the 1950 film The Men, directed by Fred Zinnemann. The actor spent a
month in bed at the Birmingham Army Hospital in Van Nuys to prepare for the role. Critics were
struck by the range of feelings Brando conveyed and how dynamic and real his character was.
According to Marlon, it was probably because of this film that his serviceability status was
changed from IV-F to 1-A. He had surgery on his trick knee, and it was no longer physically
unfit for the draft for the army. But for obvious reasons, during the Korean War, Brando avoided
military service. When the actor arrived at the induction center, he answered a questionnaire with
particular “carefulness”. He indicated that his race was “human”, his color was “Seasonal-oyster
white to beige”, and told the army doctor that he was psychoneurotic. When the draft board referred
him to a psychiatrist, Brando explained that he had been expelled from military school and
had serious problems with the authority.
In his autobiography Songs My Mother Taught Me,
Brando recalls the first time he met Marilyn Monroe at a party where she played the piano. Then
she was unknown to anyone, they began an affair, and even for many years after that, they
would periodically maintain relations.
During the same period, Marlon, for the first
time in his career, began to use cue cards instead of memorizing his lines. Some directors
were against it, as it is usually used by actors with memory problems, like Bruce Willis in
the last years of his career. But Brando felt it helped bring realism and spontaneity
to his performances. He believed otherwise, he would look like a reciting writer's style:
Inset quote: “If you don't know what the words are but you have a general idea of
what they are, then you look at the cue card and it gives you the feeling to the
viewer, hopefully, that the person is really searching for what he is going to say—that he
doesn't know what to say.” (Marlon Brando)
By the way, if you are interested in Bruce
Willis's career and his ups and downs, watch the video on our channel using
the link in the upper right corner of the screen. Or write in the comments whose
biography you would be interested to know!
Soon, Brando repeated his role in the 1951
Southern Gothic drama film A Streetcar Named Desire, an adaptation of Tennessee
Williams's Pulitzer Prize-winning play.
Cast and crew remained the same, including
director Elia Kazan. But Vivien Leigh was new. The performer of the role of Blanche DuBois initially
treated Brando negatively, and he, in turn, thought badly of her. But after working together,
they changed their minds and became friends.
Interestingly, it was impossible to buy the
fitted T-shirts appearing in the shot. Therefore, They washed Brando's clothes several times
and then sutured them on the back so that it fitted snugly around the actor's chest.
The film repeated the success of the play. Critics were delighted, praising the direction,
script and ensemble cast. Marlon Brando received a significant sum of $75,000 for his
sensational and revolutionary acting style.
This role is probably one of his greatest roles,
as it immediately earned him his first Academy Award nomination in the Best Actor category.
In his autobiography, director Woody Allen recalled the film and praised every
aspect of its production. There he wrote the following about Brando:
Inset quote: “And Marlon Brando was a living poem. He was an actor who came on the scene
and changed the history of acting. The magic, the setting, New Orleans, the French Quarter, the
rainy humid afternoons, the poker night. Artistic genius, no holds barred.” (Woody Allen)
Marlon's career growth was stunning. After a year, he received his second Oscar nomination for his
role in the film Viva Zapata! - an artistically embellished story about the life of the Mexican
revolutionary Emiliano Zapata. The movie tells about his upbringing in the lower class,
coming to power in the early 20th century and death. Anthony Quinn became Brando's partner
on the set, and Elia Kazan was the director.
To create tension between the on-screen actors,
the director told Quinn, who took over the role of Stanley Kowalski on Broadway after Brando, that
he was unimpressed by his performance. It's sad, but they achieved the result, and
Kazan never told Quinn that he lied.
Inset quote: “Tony Quinn, whom I admired
professionally and liked personally, played my brother, but he was extremely cold
to me while we shot that picture. During our scenes together, I sensed a bitterness toward
me, and if I suggested a drink after work, he either turned me down or else was sullen and
said little. Only years later did I learn why.” (Marlon Brando)
Marlon continued to use his method of preparing for the role. Secretly, before
filming started, he went to Mexico, to the very city where Zapata was born and lived. There, the
actor studied people's speech patterns, behavior and movements. Apparently, that influenced the
assessments of critics. Most of them focused on Brando rather than on film. Great reviews
appeared in Time and Newsweek magazines.
A year later, the actor's new film was Julius
Caesar. It was an almost exact adaptation of Shakespeare's play, in which Brando played
the role of Mark Antony. It was produced for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and directed by the younger
of two brothers, Joseph Leo Mankiewicz.
Brando delivered an impressive performance,
especially everyone noted his speech:
The film received extremely positive reviews and
was nominated in 5 categories at the 26th Academy Awards, including Best Picture and another
Best Actor for Brando. Everything pointed to the fact that sooner or later he would have
to receive it. In the meantime, the actor won a second BAFTA award for Best Foreign Actor.
Interestingly, during the filming of Julius Caesar, Brando learned that Elia Kazan had
cooperated with Congressional investigators, naming a number of subversives to the House
Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC). Marlon was stunned and upset by the mentor's
decision, but continued to work with him. Later they would reunite on the set of the new film.
In the same 1953, Brando starred in the crime film The Wild One, riding his own Triumph Thunderbird
6T motorcycle. And there were several consequences associated with this at once. Triumph sellers did
not like the representation of their brand due to the presence in the film of rowdy motorcycle gangs
taking over a small town. It was criticized for such gratuitous violence. Time magazine even
stated, "The effect of the movie is not to throw light on the public problem, but to shoot
adrenaline through the moviegoer's veins."
But at the same time, Brando was extremely
surprised that the film influenced young people. His motorcycle riding and looks
inspired teen rebellion. The movie made him a role model to the nascent rock 'n' roll
generation and future stars like James Dean and Elvis Presley. After the film's release, sales
of leather jackets and motorcycles skyrocketed. Years later, the actor recalled:
Inset quote: “More than most parts I've played in the movies or onstage, I
related to Johnny, and because of this, I believe I played him as more sensitive
and sympathetic than the script envisioned. There's a line in the picture where he snarls,
'Nobody tells me what to do.' That's exactly how I've felt all my life.” (Marlon Brando)
By 1954, Brando had become a real Hollywood star. During that period, he was surrounded by women and
even dated several at one time. He had a whirlwind romance with actress Rita Moreno. When she became
pregnant, the actor insisted on an abortion, which was unsuccessful. At that time, Marlon had
already fallen in love with Tarita Teriipaia, and Moreno attempted to kill herself.
At the same time, Brando participated in the summer comedy production of Arms and the Man by
George Bernard Shaw, but it was just the beginning compared to what success awaited him. That year
became a turning point in Marlon Brando's career.
SUPERSTAR
Marlon felt the rise of popularity, and his career moved up in
1954. The actor starred in Elia Kazan's new film, the crime drama On The Waterfront.
When Brando received the role offer, he was stung by Kazan's testimony to HUAC, was
outraged and initially refused the offer. Terry Malloy's role nearly went to Frank Sinatra!
The director believed that Sinatra, who grew up in Hoboken (where the film took place and was
filmed), was a perfect fit for the role. Frank even attended the initial costume fitting. But the
producers persuaded Brando by signing a contract with him for $100,000. Kazan didn't mind.
According to him, he always preferred Brando over the rest. He even allowed him to improvise
since Marlon did not like the implausibility of the scene where, according to the script, his
character spoke with a gun for a long time. After filming, Kazan expressed admiration for
Brando's instinctive understanding of the movie, an unusual contrast between the rough
guy and the extreme delicacy and gentleness of his behavior.
Marlon himself was rather dismissive of his speech:
Inset quote: “On the day Gadg showed me the complete picture, I was so
depressed by my performance I got up and left the screening room ... I thought I
was a huge failure” (Marlon Brando)
Critics were delighted and praised the film
very highly, calling it an unusually powerful, exciting and creative use of the screen by
professionals. When film critic Roger Ebert watched the film years later, he praised it,
stating that Brando and Kazan changed acting and cinema forever. The box office was extremely
successful. The film grossed $9.6 million.
For the role of Terry Malloy, Marlon Brando was
nominated for an Oscar for the fourth year in a row and finally received a statuette.
It was his 6th film, 4th nomination and first Oscar. It is difficult to imagine a
more rapid career rise. In those years, the competition in the film industry was not at the
nowadays level, but we should not underestimate Marlon's talent. He deserved the Oscar.
However, after that, Brando seemed to relax. He was still a commercially attractive actor,
but critics were less and less flattering about him. They lacked the intensity and
focus found in Marlon's earlier work, especially with Elia Kazan.
So, in 1954 he portrayed Napoleon in the historical biographical film Désirée. He
put little effort into the role, claiming he did not like the script, and later dismissed the
entire film as "superficial and dismal". Brando was especially contemptuous of director Henry
Koster, probably for his pedantry and interest in studying the personality of Napoleon.
The actor agreed to star in Désirée due to a legal contract. He had previously turned down the
lead role in the same year's film The Egyptian and was forced to star in this. Jean Simmons
was Marlon's colleague on the project. Later, they starred in the film adaptation
of the musical Guys and Dolls.
Guys and Dolls was Brando's first and last
"musical" role. The film was different from the original musical. Critics described Marlon as
"sings in a faraway tenor that sometimes tends to be flat". In Edward Murrow's Person to Person
interview that year, he admitted to having a problem with his singing voice. He called
it "pretty terrible." In fact, the sound we heard in the film was the result of countless
singing takes that were combined into one.
Inset quote: “I couldn't hit a note with
a baseball bat; some notes I missed by extraordinary margins ... They sewed my
words together on one song so tightly that when I mouthed it in front of the camera,
I nearly asphyxiated myself.” (Marlon Brando)
At the same time, relations between Marlon
Brando and his co-star Frank Sinatra were frosty. The two men were diametrically
opposites: Marlon needed multiple takes, and Frank hated to repeat himself. As a result, a
conflict arose between them. The actors constantly exchanged caustic comments. When they first
met, Sinatra chuckled, "Don't give me any of that Actors Studio shit." - he said. Brando later
replied: "Frank is the kind of guy, when he dies, he's going to heaven and give God a hard time
for making him bald." Probably after that, Sinatra called Brando "the world's most overrated
actor" and referred to him as "mumbles".
Critics gave mixed reviews for
the film, but the commercial success of Guys and Dolls was assured.
During that time, the actor was engaged to 19-year-old French actress Josanne Mariani, but
they soon broke off the engagement when Brando's other girlfriend, Anna Kashfi, became pregnant.
Brando and Kashfi met in 1955. The actress was born to a British family in colonial India. As a
result of the affair, Kashfi became pregnant. They got married in 1958 and soon, on May 11 of the
same year, their son Christian was born in Los Angeles. And in a year the couple divorced, and
it would be the only divorce for the actor.
Christian rushed between his mother and
father. His parents became increasingly hostile and abusive towards each other and
engaged in a protracted custody battle. The courts and the uncontrollable
nature of the mother due to drug and alcohol abuse influenced the young Christian.
Meanwhile, Marlon played several military roles. First, in 1956, he played Sakini, a Japanese
interpreter for the U.S. Army in post-war Japan, in The Teahouse of the August Moon. Preparing for
the role, Brando starved himself and liked the stunt. He spoke with a crazy accent, grinning
boyishly and made tricky foot movements.
The next year, Marlon appeared in the technicolor
drama film Sayonara as a United States Air Force fighter pilot during the Korean War who fell in
love with a famous Japanese dancer. He used an unscripted Southern accent for the character
over the objections of director Joshua Logan. Logan would later say in an interview:
Inset quote: “I've never worked with such an exciting, inventive actor. So pliable.
He takes direction beautifully, and yet he always has something to add. He's made up
this Southern accent for the part; I never would have thought of it myself, but, well, it's
exactly right – it's perfection.” (Joshua Logan)
The film was controversial due to
openly discussing interracial marriages, but proved a great success, earning 10 Academy
Award nominations, including Brando's Best Actor nomination. The movie managed to win four
Oscars, and although Marlon didn't get an award, he did not leave empty-handed. His manager Jay
Kanter signed a lucrative contract, according to which Brando got ten per cent of the film's box
office. It automatically made him a millionaire, since the movie grossed over $
26 million at the box office!
By the way, Teahouse and Sayonara were the first
in a string of films Brando would strive to make over the next decade and which contained socially
relevant messages. He wanted to make films with "social value that would improve the world".
Marlon partnered with Paramount to establish his own production company called Pennebaker.
He chose this name as a tribute to his mother, who had died in 1954. The actor was devastated by
her death. According to biographer Peter Manso, She was the one who could give him approval like
no one else could and, after his mother died, it seemed that Marlon stopped caring. Brando
appointed his father to run Pennebaker, because "it gave Marlon a chance to take
shots at him, to demean and diminish him."
In 1958, Brando appeared in the epic
World War II drama film The Young Lions, based on the Irwin Shaw novel of the same
name. The film was directed by Edward Dmytryk, and Montgomery Clift and Dean Martin
were Marlon's co-stars. Unfortunately, the gorgeous trio is never seen together in
the same shot during the film, because their scenes were filmed at different times.
For the role, Brando dyed his hair blonde and prepared a German accent, but he later
admitted that the attempt wasn't convincing. The actor made his adjustments to the script:
Inset quote: “The original script closely followed the book, in which Shaw painted all Germans
as evil caricatures, especially Christian, whom he portrayed as a symbol of everything
that was bad about Nazism; he was mean, nasty, vicious, a cliché of evil... I thought the
story should demonstrate that there are no inherently 'bad' people in the world, but
they can easily be misled” (Marlon Brando)
The film was successful commercially,
and critics were pleased with it. Abel Green of Variety positively reviewed the movie,
describing it as a full-fledged blockbuster.
At the end of the decade, the actor starred
in the film The Fugitive Kind along with Anna Magnani and Joanne Woodward. The film was
based on another Tennessee Williams play, but not as successful as A Streetcar Named
Desire. By the end of 1960, Marlon Brando's success was not incredible. The actor surprised
the audience less and less, and his films turned out to be mediocre. But it was too early to
write off such talent, maybe after some time.
That same year, Brando married Mexican-American
actress Movita Castaneda. A year later, they had a child, Miko Castaneda Brando,
and five years later, their daughter, Rebecca Brando, was born. But in 1968, their
marriage was annulled after it turned out that Castaneda's previous marriage was still valid!
In 1961, a rather interesting story happened. At the end of the last decade, work on the western
One-Eyed Jacks with Marlon Brando playing the lead role began. The film was an adaptation
of the novel The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones by Charles Neider, and the adaptation
never worked out. Marlon Brando's Pennebaker Productions paid $40,000 for the rights to The
Authentic Death and then signed Stanley Kubrick to direct the film for Paramount Pictures.
Kubrick in those years was not yet a respectful director in the 70s. He took on the project, but
while Brando constantly changed screenwriters, Kubrick, for unknown reasons, was fired just
two weeks before filming began. Then the actor volunteered to take the post, and Paramount made
him the director. It is worth saying that Kubrick, at the same time, worked on the film adaptation
of Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, and his career went uphill. But Marlon was not easy.
Brando's penchant for retakes and character exploration as an actor carried over into his
directing, and soon the film was over-budgeted by 2x! Paramount expected the film to take three
months to complete, but filming stretched to six and cost over $6 million. Brando's inexperience
as an editor also delayed post-production, and Paramount eventually took control of the film.
Marlon did his best while working on the film because he should play and direct the filming.
He filmed 5 hours of additional scenes, but many of them were not used. Exhausted by filming, the
actor realized he did not want to be a director. He never directed films again, only starred.
Inset quote: “You work yourself to death. You're the first one up in the morning... I mean, we
shot that thing on the run, you know, you make up the dialogue the scene before, improvising,
and your brain is going crazy” (Marlon Brando)
The script was different from the novel. Karl
Malden was the only actor in the film who, according to Paramount, did not lie in comparison
with the original source. When he was asked who actually wrote the One-Eyed Jacks story,
he replied, “There is one answer to your question—Marlon Brando, a genius in our time.”
Critics met One-Eyed Jacks with mixed reviews, and due to the doubled budget, the film was
a commercial failure. However, over time, it has become a cult film and has been mentioned
in culture more than once - first in the TV series Twin Peaks and the computer game Cyberpunk
2077. In 2016 the film was shown as part of the Cannes Classics section at the 2016 Cannes
Film Festival. A 4K restored version supervised by Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg,
and The Film Foundation was there.
“This is visually stunning, what he did,” said
Scorsese, introducing the restored version, “It’s kind of a cross between the old style
of production and the new styles that were going to come in the sixties. The essence
of it is of the old Hollywood in a way.”
But Brando was burned out and
disgusted with the film industry, and it would have a negative
impact in the future.
BURNOUT AND DOWNFALL
The actor was accused of deliberately sabotaging
almost everything related to Metro-Goldym-Mayer's remake of Mutiny on the Bounty. In an
article in The Saturday Evening Post titled Six million dollars down the drain: the mutiny
of Marlon Brando, the filmmaker commented:
Inset quote: “The executives deserve
what they get when they give a ham actor, a petulant child, complete control over
an expensive picture.” (Lewis Milestone)
The movie didn't ruin Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's
economy, though it would have lost about $55 million nowadays. Although the project
was hindered by numerous delays, sometimes unrelated to Brando's behavior, many
studios began to fear the actor's difficult reputation. Critics pointed out his constantly
fluctuating weight, and all those accusations accompanied the actor for years.
While working on Mutiny on the Bounty, the actor fulfilled his long-standing
dream. He finally visited Tahiti.
Disappointed in his career, Brando became
distracted by his personal life and considered acting as a means to achieve financial
goals. French actress Tarita Teriipaia, who portrayed Brando's love in the film,
became the actor's third wife on August 10, 1962. She was 18 years younger than
Marlon. Tarita was only 20 years old, but the actor liked her naivety.
Thanks to Tarita, Marlon fluently spoke French, gave interviews in it, and eventually used it in
his career. The couple would have two children: Simon Teihotu Brando and Tarita Cheyenne
Brando. Despite the couple's divorce in 1972, Marlon adopted Teriipaia's child, Maimiti
Brando, and niece Raiatua Brando.
Critics protested when he started accepting roles
in films many considered unworthy of his talent, or because he could not match the better roles.
But the actor's opinion was different:
Previously, Marlon signed short-term deals with
film studios, but in 1961 the actor signed a five films deal with Universal Studios. A contract
would torment him for the rest of the decade.
There were: the adventure film The Ugly
American, the comedy Bedtime Story, the spy war film Morituri, the western The
Appaloosa, the romantic comedy A Countess from Hong Kong and the Technicolor crime film The
Night of the Following Day failed at the box office and disappointed Brando himself.
Just The Ugly American had positive reviews from critics, and the actor was nominated
for a Golden Globe for his performance. But the stronger contender won that year. The
actor was lucky enough to work with his sister Jocelyn Brando and ex-girlfriend, actress Reiko
Sato, who was chosen at Brando's insistence.
But most of all, the actor was disappointed with
A Countess from Hong Kong - a romantic comedy film scored, written, and directed by Charlie Chaplin,
with whom the actor was looking forward to working. It was the last film of a no longer young
legend. Brando's partners on the set were Sophia Loren and Sydney Chaplin - the second son of
Charlie Chaplin and Lita Grey. The director also appeared in the frame, playing a small role.
Chaplin was one of Brando's heroes... Until that moment. But, the experience was unsuccessful.
Brando was horrified at Chaplin's didactic leadership style and his authoritarian approach.
The director literally showed the actors on their fingers what they must do. Many appreciated
Chaplin's unusual approach, but Marlon Brando felt humiliated and wanted to leave the
project before the end of filming. The director hardly managed to convince him to stay.
The actor considered him a "fearsomely cruel man", especially drawing attention to
how cruelly Charlie treated his son Sydney, who had a supporting role:
Inset quote: "Chaplin was an egotistical tyrant and a penny-pincher. He harassed people
when they were late, and scolded them unmercifully to work faster. Chaplin was probably the most
sadistic man I’d ever met." (Marlon Brando)
The film production was often interrupted and
postponed due to Brando's standard lateness, and his unexpected hospitalization with
appendicitis. In addition, during the filming, Chaplin and Brando managed to get the
flu, and Sophia Loren got married.
