The godfather of the acting "method": what you need to know about Marlon Brando (10 photos)

In the history of Hollywood, very few actors have made an impact on the world. cinematography the way Marlon Brando did at the height of his career. IN first of all, it was he who popularized the system-based Stanislavsky acting "method", which has since been used by Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, Daniel Day-Lewis and other great actors. But what what else do we know about the "Godfather" of Hollywood cinema?





1. Marlon Brando films that everyone knows



During his 60-year career, Marlon Brando starred in a number of cult films - however, most of them received this status thanks to the participation of Brando. His first truly outstanding role was vulgar and rude Stanley Kowalski from A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), and before playing Kowalski on the big screen, Brando performed this role in the theater on Broadway. "Tram" brought him his first nomination for "Oscar", but Brando received the coveted statuette only three years later - for the role of Terry Malloy in the drama "On the Waterfront", which, according to critics, became turning point in Hollywood history. Before that, in 1953, Brando played Johnny Strabler, the leader of a biker gang in the movie "The Savage", which made him a real icon in the eyes of the bikers of that era. But the most legendary and memorable role in Brando's career came to him in early 70s - we are talking, of course, about mafia don Vito Corleone in "Godfather" (1972). After the overwhelming success of the film and, as consequence of a triumphant return to Hollywood, Brando also played the main character in the scandalous erotic drama "The Last Tango in Paris", Superman's real father in the first superhero movie in performed by Christian Reeve and, of course, by Colonel Kurz in "Apocalypse Now".

2. How Marlon Brando Became an Actor





As a child, Brando loved to parody friends, imitate voices, imitate animals and transform into famous characters, and found use for his talents in the school drama circle. However, Brando was troubled teenager who often got into trouble, and flatly refused to follow the rules and norms of decency. For example, it ends up expelled from high school in the small town of Libertyville, Illinois, for riding his motorcycle through the school corridors. Even from cinema where 15-year-old Brando worked as an usher, he was fired for unwillingness to wear a uniform. Brando's rebellious behavior is easy to explain. difficult situation in the family - his father, Marlon Sr., was cruel tyrant and rude misogynist, and his mother, Dodi, sought salvation from husband in alcohol; in addition, Brando himself, at the age of four, underwent sexual abuse by his young governess.

Even when he was at Shattuck Military School, his father's alma mater, Brando did not let up, and in the last year of his studies he was expelled for inappropriate behaviour. And although he was invited back next year, Brando decided to drop out and follow his sisters to New York, to study acting. His father was enraged by his decision, because most of all he feared that in the theater his son would grow up to be a “faggot” and a bugger." As for Brando himself, acting is for him was the only way to express myself without getting caught up in trouble—besides, he knew he was really good at it.

3. Stella Adler and Method



In New York, Marlon Brando wanted to first study professional aspect of acting. For this he turned to Stella Adler, actress and famous acting teacher mastery, and it was in her courses that Brando learned the "Method", adapted system of Stanislavsky. According to George Englund, a friend childhood actor, at that time in New York, 18-year-old Brando "for the first time in of my life I heard words of praise addressed to me"

While studying with Adler, Brando was different from others students with their uniqueness. One of the most famous tales of that period his biographies—how Adler asked the class to imagine that they all— chickens that are about to have a nuclear bomb dropped on their heads. Adler drew note that while most of the class was frantically running around in circles with clucking loudly, Brando sat down on the floor, pretending to lay down an egg. When Adler asked what he was doing, Brando stated that, being a chicken, he has no idea what a nuclear bomb is.

Brando was the first actor in Hollywood to bring to cinema "natural" approach to acting. According to Dustin Hoffman,Brando often chatted with cameramen and other actors about how their weekend, already after the director gave the command “Motor!”. How only Brando understood that he could now pronounce his dialogue in the same way naturally, as he led this conversation, he smoothly moved on to it. critics Brando was later accused of being a "difficult actor", but his colleagues, on the contrary, said that it was just part of his acting technology.

4. Ten years of failure and the role of the century



In the film world, actors try their best to stay relevant, jumping from one box office hit to another. Marlon Brando achieved significant success in the 50s, starring in several box office films, and in 1961 he made his debut as a director, removing western "One-Eyed Jacks" with himself in the title role. However, during the period from early 60s to 70s his career went downhill. Most films failed at the box office, and Brando himself gained that very fame difficult and commercially unprofitable actor. More and more studios refused to deal with him, but everything changed in 1972 with "Godfather".

Writing a script, searching for actors, preparing for filming, the shooting itself and the release of The Godfather were so rich in events, that last year Paramount made a whole series about it action-packed adventure - "The Proposal" (2022). Of course, a lot part of the plot revolves around the desperate attempts of director Francis Ford Coppola to get the studio to get the role of Vito Corleone Marlon. Initially, Coppola had a long list of candidates for this role, but, as he admitted in a 1975 interview: “In the end we realized that we must attract [for this role] the best actor in the world. Like this Just. The list has been reduced to Laurence Olivier and Marlon Brando, who are the greatest actors in the world."

It turned out that Mario Puzo, the author of the underlying film novel and co-author of the script, before that even wrote a letter to Brando, in which described Vito Corleone as a character and invited Brando to think does he want to play it. However, Puzo and Coppola were disappointed in in the form of a sharp statement by the president of the Paramount Pictures studio: “While I the president of this studio, Marlon Brando, will not be in this picture, and I I forbid you to discuss it further." Fortunately, an impressive cast Brando's game eventually won - the heads of the studio were smitten on the spot a short video in which Brando puts on his own make-up and immediately comes up with Vito's characteristic way of speaking, and the film finally found his Don Corleone. True, the actor had to make concessions: agree to a ridiculously low fee for his status and take personally take full responsibility for potential delays filming caused by his typical antics.

5. How Marlon Brando Became One of the Highest Paid Actors in Hollywood History



The role of Don Vito Corleone was a turning point in acting career of Marlon Brando. Brando triumphantly returned to the top Hollywood hills after a decade of stagnation, having received (though not having taken, but more on that later) his second Oscar for Best Male role. In the same year, he played the American Paul in the controversial, but yet the box office hit "Last Tango in Paris" by the Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci.

From that moment, Brando began to demand the appropriate status of fees, and reached the second peak of his career. Brando paid $3.7 million for just two weeks of work on the role Jor-El in "Superman" (1978), and at that time Brando, as they talked, became completely lazy, and read out all his remarks with hanging everywhere - including the bodies of their stage partners - signs. Although the film was a box office success, the producers turned down Brando's demand for the same fee in the sequel. Brando also received $1 million for three weeks of work on the role of Colonel Walter E. Kurtz in Apocalypse today" (1979). These three weeks have been a real hell for everyone. participants in the filming, Brando was so unbearable on the set, but Coppola apparently has no regrets and counts the actor's fee worked out well, because later he spoke of the film simply: “I am sure that I created a work of art and could not have done better”

6. Series starring Marlon Brando



Nowadays, great actors do not disdain serials, rather on the contrary, they often play their best roles there. But it wasn't like that always, and for most of his career, Brando performed on the stage of the theater and filmed for the big screen. However, he also appeared in at least three television series: televisionBrando made his debut in 1949 in the episode "I'm Not a Hero" from The Actor's Studio on ABC/CBS. brando also played Jimmy Brand in the pilot episode of Come Out Fighting (1950). His last television work was the role of George Lincoln. Rockwell in the ABC drama miniseries Roots: The Next Generations.

7. Marlon Brando's personal life



Marlon Brando lived to the fullest, met with many actresses, married three times and fathered at least 11 children. In his Brando's autobiography even stated that he had a brief affair with Marilyn Monroe, after which they kept pretty cool friendly relations.

Brando's first wife was Anna Kashfi, whom he married, learning that she is pregnant. They married in 1957 and divorced in 1959 year, after the birth of Christian, the first official son of Brando. Despite this marriage, from 1954 to 1962, Brando was in a relationship with actress Rita Moreno, star of West Side Story. In 2021 89-year-old Morena said in an interview that Brando's constant betrayals for 8 years of their relationship regularly brought her to tears, but at some point she found a way to get back at him by having an affair with Elvis Presley - which, by her own admission, still could not be compared with Brando.

Brando married Movita Castaneda in 1960 and remained in married to her until 1968. He also had a marriage with a young actress Tarite Teriipie, whom he met in Tahiti on the set of Mutiny on the Bounty. The official union lasted from 1962 until 1972, and Tarite is now Brando's only living wife. The actor had 11 recognized children, the most famous of which are the late Christian and Cheyenne Brando - total of 8 biological and three adopted. With everything this actor did not hide his bisexuality and spoke openly about same-sex relationships in the past, adding that he has nothing to be ashamed of. His true "soul mate" he called his best friend actor Wally Cox, whom he has been friends with since he was 10 years old and whose ashes after his death kept in his house for a long time; in his will, Brando asked mix your ashes with Cox's and scatter them together.

8. Rejection of the "Oscar" and other nominations



During his career, Brando has accumulated many nominations for prestigious awards and, of course, repeatedly became their laureate. In total he received eight Academy Award nominations, winning, as mentioned, twice. However, Brando surprised everyone by refusing a second Oscar, for "Godfather". That time, Brando didn’t show up for the ceremony at all: instead himself, he sent Sasha Littlefeather, an actress and activist fighting for Native American rights. Refusing to take the figurine in hand, Littlefeather delivered a message from Marlon Brando, in which he expressed his dissatisfaction with how Hollywood portrays indigenous Americans in cinema. The actress was not allowed to finish her speech, and she left the stage to the whistle and dissatisfied exclamations of star spectators.

In addition to the Oscars, Brando has also been nominated eight times for British Academy Film Award and won three times, and out of nine nominations he has four wins at the Golden Globes. However, Brando did not bypass anti-award "Golden Raspberry": the actor was nominated three times for the worst male supporting role, and once he even won - for "Island Dr. Moreau (1996).

9. Other works by Brando



Few people in Hollywood can boast of a filmography, in which has so many extremes: in Brando's career they were like real masterpieces, and complete garbage, barely crawled into the rental. Here are a couple more not mentioned. above roles in which film fans might be interested to see the great actor: Kenneth Vilcek in "Men" (1950), Brando's debut in a big movie; Emiliano Zapata in Viva Zapata! (1952), Mark Antony in film adaptation Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar" (1953), Sky Masterson in the musical "Guys and dolls" with Frank Sinatra and the role of Ian McKenzie in "Dry White season "(1989). Marlon Brando's last film was "The Safeguard" in 2001. of the year starring Robert De Niro and Edward Norton. Three years Marlon Brando later died at the age of 80.