Marlon Brando (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor and activist. Considered one of the greatest actors of the 20th century, he received numerous accolades throughout his career, which spanned six decades, including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, one Cannes Film Festival Award and three British Academy Film Awards. Brando is credited with being one of the first actors to bring the Stanislavski system of acting, and method acting, to mainstream audiences.
Brando fell under the influence of Stella Adler and Stanislavski's system in the 1940s. He began his career on stage, adeptly reading his characters and consistently anticipating where scenes flowed. He transitioned to film, initially gaining acclaim and his first Academy Award for Best Actor nomination for the role of Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). He received further praise and his first Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for his performance as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront (1954), which remains a watershed moment in the history of Hollywood, and his work continues to be studied and interpreted. His portrayal of the rebellious motorcycle gang leader Johnny Strabler in The Wild One (1953) became an emblem of the era's generational gap.
The 1960s saw Brando's career take a commercial and critical downturn. He directed and starred in One-Eyed Jacks (1961), a commercial flop, after which he delivered a series of notable box-office failures, beginning with Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), which damaged his career. After ten years of underachieving and markedly diminished interest in his films, he starred as Vito Corleone in The Godfather (1972), which helped him win his second Academy Award and Golden Globe Award in a performance considered among the finest in the art form's history, based on extensive surveys of critics, directors, and other actors. With this and 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 of varying quality such as Jor-El in Superman (1978), as Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now (1979), and as Adam Steiffel in The Formula (1980) before taking a nine-year break from film. The last two decades of Brando's life were marked with controversy, and his troubled private life received significant attention. He struggled with mood disorders and legal issues. Brando continues to be held in high regard and respected.
Marlon Brando Jr. was born on April 3, 1924, in Omaha, Nebraska, as the only son of Marlon Brando Sr. and Dorothy Pennebaker. His father was a salesman who often traveled out-of-state and his mother was a stage actress, often away from home. His mother's absence resulted in Marlon becoming attached to the family's housekeeper, who eventually left to get married causing Brando to develop abandonment issues. His two elder sisters were Jocelyn and Frances. In 1930, when Brando was only 6 years old, the family moved to Evanston, Illinois, where Brando mimicked other people, developed a reputation for pranking and met Wally Cox, whom he remained friends with until Cox's death in 1973. In 1936, his parents separated and Dorothy took her children to Santa Ana, California. Two years later, they reconciled and Marlon Sr. purchased a farmhouse in Libertyville, Illinois. Brando attended Libertyville High School, excelling at sports and drama, but failing in every other subject. Consequently, he was held back for a year and with his history of misbehaving, he was expelled in 1941.
Brando's father sent his son to Shattuck Military Academy, where he himself studied before. There, Brando continued to excel at acting until 1943 when he was put on probation for being insubordinate to an officer during maneuvers. He was confined to the campus, but sneaked into town and was caught. The faculty voted to expel him although he was supported by the students who thought expulsion was too harsh. Brando was invited back for the following year but decided instead to drop out of high school. He then worked as a ditch-digger as a summer job arranged by his father and tried to enlist in the Army, but his routine physical revealed that a football injury he had sustained at Shattuck had left him with a trick knee; he was classified physically unfit for military service.
Brando was known for his tumultuous personal life and his large number of partners and children. He was the father to at least 11 children, three of whom were adopted. In 1976, he told a French journalist, "Homosexuality is so much in fashion, it no longer makes news. Like a large number of men, I, too, have had homosexual experiences, and I am not ashamed. I have never paid much attention to what people think about me. But if there is someone who is convinced that Jack Nicholson and I are lovers, may they continue to do so. I find it amusing."
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- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 small onion, diced
- 2 (28-ounce) cans baked beans, undrained
- 6 hot dogs, thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
- 1 cup corn chips
- Preheat grill to medium-high heat. Melt butter in a cast iron skillet. Add onion and sauté until tender.
- Add remaining ingredients, except corn chips; mix well and cook 12 to 15 minutes, or until heated through, stirring occasionally.
- Top with corn chips and serve.
Jerry Dick
