Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he received numerous accolades throughout his career which spanned six decades, including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and three British Academy Film Awards. Brando was also an activist for many causes, notably the civil rights movement and various Native American movements. Having studied with Stella Adler in the 1940s, he is credited with being one of the first actors to bring the Stanislavski system of acting and method acting, derived from the Stanislavski system, to mainstream audiences.
He initially gained acclaim and his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role for reprising the role of Stanley Kowalski in the 1951 film adaptation of Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire, a role that he originated successfully on Broadway. He received further praise, and a first Academy Award and Golden Globe Award, for his performance as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront, and his portrayal of the rebellious motorcycle gang leader Johnny Strabler in The Wild One proved to be a lasting image in popular culture. Brando received Academy Award nominations for playing Emiliano Zapata in Viva Zapata! (1952); Mark Antony in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's 1953 film adaptation of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar; and Air Force Major Lloyd Gruver in Sayonara (1957), an adaptation of James A. Michener's 1954 novel.
The 1960s saw Brando's career take a commercial and critical downturn. He directed and starred in the cult western One-Eyed Jacks, a critical and commercial flop, after which he delivered a series of notable box-office failures, beginning with Mutiny on the Bounty (1962). After ten years of underachieving, he agreed to do a screen test as Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972). He got the part and subsequently won his second Academy Award and Golden Globe Award in a performance critics consider among his greatest. He declined the Academy Award due to alleged mistreatment and misportrayal of Native Americans by Hollywood. The Godfather was one of the most commercially successful films of all time, and alongside his Oscar-nominated performance in Last Tango in Paris (1972), Brando reestablished himself in the ranks of top box-office stars.
After a hiatus in the early 1970s, Brando was generally content with being a highly paid character actor in supporting roles, such as Jor-El in Superman (1978), as Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now (1979), and Adam Steiffel in The Formula (1980), before taking a nine-year break from film. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Brando was paid a record $3.7 million ($16 million in inflation-adjusted dollars) and 11.75% of the gross profits for 13 days' work on Superman.
Brando was ranked by the American Film Institute as the fourth-greatest movie star among male movie stars whose screen debuts occurred in or before 1950. He was one of only six actors named in 1999 by Time magazine in its list of the 100 Most Important People of the Century. In this list, Time also designated Brando as the "Actor of the Century".
He initially gained acclaim and his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role for reprising the role of Stanley Kowalski in the 1951 film adaptation of Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire, a role that he originated successfully on Broadway. He received further praise, and a first Academy Award and Golden Globe Award, for his performance as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront, and his portrayal of the rebellious motorcycle gang leader Johnny Strabler in The Wild One proved to be a lasting image in popular culture. Brando received Academy Award nominations for playing Emiliano Zapata in Viva Zapata! (1952); Mark Antony in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's 1953 film adaptation of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar; and Air Force Major Lloyd Gruver in Sayonara (1957), an adaptation of James A. Michener's 1954 novel.
The 1960s saw Brando's career take a commercial and critical downturn. He directed and starred in the cult western One-Eyed Jacks, a critical and commercial flop, after which he delivered a series of notable box-office failures, beginning with Mutiny on the Bounty (1962). After ten years of underachieving, he agreed to do a screen test as Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972). He got the part and subsequently won his second Academy Award and Golden Globe Award in a performance critics consider among his greatest. He declined the Academy Award due to alleged mistreatment and misportrayal of Native Americans by Hollywood. The Godfather was one of the most commercially successful films of all time, and alongside his Oscar-nominated performance in Last Tango in Paris (1972), Brando reestablished himself in the ranks of top box-office stars.
After a hiatus in the early 1970s, Brando was generally content with being a highly paid character actor in supporting roles, such as Jor-El in Superman (1978), as Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now (1979), and Adam Steiffel in The Formula (1980), before taking a nine-year break from film. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Brando was paid a record $3.7 million ($16 million in inflation-adjusted dollars) and 11.75% of the gross profits for 13 days' work on Superman.
Brando was ranked by the American Film Institute as the fourth-greatest movie star among male movie stars whose screen debuts occurred in or before 1950. He was one of only six actors named in 1999 by Time magazine in its list of the 100 Most Important People of the Century. In this list, Time also designated Brando as the "Actor of the Century".
Known for
Marlon Brando in Paradise
Martin Scorsese, l'Italo-Américain
Sly
Star 67
Johnny Depp: The Love of the Bizarre
The Brando Interregnum: The Decade of Marlon's Dirty Dozen 1962-1972
Becoming Al Pacino
Mr. Saturday Night
Daniel Day-Lewis: The Hollywood Genius
Val
Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It
kid 90
Jay Sebring… Cutting to the Truth
Sophia Loren, une destinée particulière
Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood
Sacheen: Breaking the Silence
Making Montgomery Clift
The Madding Crowd
Listen to Me Marlon
Tab Hunter Confidential
Marlon Brando: An Actor Named Desire
Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's “Island of Dr. Moreau”
And the Oscar Goes To...
Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen
Hollywood Invasion
Smash His Camera
Reel Injun
Ballybrando
Brando: An Icon Is Born
Brando: The Documentary
You Will Believe: The Cinematic Saga of Superman
Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut
Superman Returns
Look, Up in the Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman
An Actor Named Brando
The Godfather and the Mob
Behind the scenes: Last Tango in Paris
Celebrities Uncensored
Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There
Naqoyqatsi
Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration
Goldwyn: The Man and His Movies
You Rock My World
The Score
A Huey P. Newton Story
Taking Flight: The Development of 'Superman'
Making 'Superman': Filming the Legend
Hollywood Screen Tests: Take 1
Free Money
Lee Marvin: A Personal Portrait by John Boorman
The Brave
The Island of Dr. Moreau
E! True Hollywood Story
All Power to the People!
Tennessee Williams: Orpheus of the American Stage
Don Juan DeMarco
Marlon Brando: The Wild One
In the Name of the Father
Christopher Columbus: The Discovery
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse
Movie Tough Guys
Anthony Quinn: An Original
The Freshman
The Godfather Family: A Look Inside
A Dry White Season
Black Leather Jacket
Hello Actors Studio
Happy Birthday, Bob: 50 Stars Salute Your 50 Years with NBC
Montgomery Clift: The Hidden Star
The Godfather Epic: 1901-1959
The Godfather 1901–1959: The Complete Epic
The Formula
The Making of 'Superman: The Movie'
Apocalypse Now
Roots: The Next Generations
Superman
Mario Puzo's The Godfather: The Complete Novel for Television
The Hollywood Greats
The Missouri Breaks
Last Tango in Paris
The Godfather
The Nightcomers
King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis
Burn!
The Night of the Following Day
Candy
The Dick Cavett Show
The Movie Orgy
Reflections in a Golden Eye
A Countess from Hong Kong
Meet Marlon Brando
The Appaloosa
The Chase
Morituri
Bedtime Story
The Ugly American
Mutiny on the Bounty
One-Eyed Jacks
The Fugitive Kind
The David Susskind Show
The Young Lions
Sayonara
The Teahouse of the August Moon
Cinépanorama
Guys and Dolls
Désirée
On the Waterfront
The Wild One
Julius Caesar
The Oscars
Viva Zapata!
A Streetcar Named Desire
The Men
The Ed Sullivan Show
Acting
1994
Tennessee Williams: Orpheus of the American Stage
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Stanley Kowalski / Valentine 'Snakeskin' Xavier (archive footage)