Brando, Marlon (redirected from Marlon Brando)

Brando, Marlon, 1924–2004, American film actor, often described as the greatest of his generation, b. Omaha, Nebr. Regarded as the foremost practitioner of "method" acting as taught by American disciples of Constantin Stanislavsky at New York's Actor's Studio, the young Brando combined a rough sex appeal with a powerful immediacy and a naturalistic performance style, one which revolutionized and transformed the art of screen acting. He made his film debut as a bitter paraplegic veteran in The Men (1950). His stage reputation was firmly established with his Broadway performance as Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), a role he later committed to film (1951). His early film roles included a Mexican revolutionary in Viva Zapata! (1952), Marc Antony in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (1953), a motorcycle-riding rebel in The Wild One (1954), a battered dockworker in On the Waterfront (1954; Academy Award), and Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls (1955).

Brando made his directorial debut with One-Eyed Jacks (1961), in which he also starred. After appearing in a number of mainly forgettable movies during the late 1950s and 60s, he created two of his most acclaimed roles in 1972 films: Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, in which he played a memorable Mafia patriarch and for which he won (and subsequently refused) the Academy Award, and Bernard Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris, an erotic tour de force that created considerable controversy on its release. Brando continued to appear in many films, including in supporting roles in Missouri Breaks (1976), Apocalypse Now (1979), A Dry White Season (1988), and The Freshman (1990) and as a costar in Don Juan DeMarco (1995), The Brave (1997), and The Score (2001).

Bibliography

See his autobiography (1994); L. Grobel, Conversations with Brando (rev. ed. 1999); biographies by D. Downing (1984), N. Bly (1994), P. Manso (1994), P. Ryan (1994), R. Schickel (rev. ed. 1999), and P. Bosworth (2001); studies by T. Thomas (1973), B. Braithwaite (1977), and R. Tanitch (1994).

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Brando, Marlon, (Jr.)

(born April 3, 1924, Omaha, Neb., U.S.—died July 1, 2004, Los Angeles, Calif.) U.S. actor. He gained stardom on Broadway as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire (1947). An early member of the Actors Studio, he brought its method acting style to his first film, The Men (1950). His slurred, mumbling delivery marked his rejection of classical dramatic training, and his true and passionate performances proved him one of the great actors of his generation. After starring in the screen version of Streetcar (1951), he appeared in films such as The Wild One (1954), On the Waterfront (1954, Academy Award), The Godfather (1972, Academy Award), Last Tango in Paris (1972), and Apocalypse Now (1979).

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Brando, Marlon (Jr.) (1924–  ) film actor; born in Omaha, Nebr. After being expelled from a Minnesota military academy, he made his Broadway debut as Nels in I Remember Mama (1944). The archetypal "method" product of the New York Actors Studio, his naturalistic acting and casual delivery were ideal as the brutish Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), a part he was to reprise in the movie adaptation in 1951. Brando's first film role was as an embittered paraplegic in The Men (1950). His first Oscar was earned in On the Waterfront (1954). He won the award again in the title role of The Godfather (1972), but refused the Oscar in protest of the film industry's treatment of Native Americans. Increasingly quixotic, reclusive, and obese, he ended an eight-year absence from the screen with the anti-apartheid drama A Dry White Season (1988).