Overview (5)

Mini Bio (1)

Spouse (3)

Trade Mark (7)

Bizarrely unique voice with an extreme nasal tonality spoken in mumbles



The pioneering use of Method Acting



Often improvised his own dialogue



Was known for being very difficult to work with



Usually received top-billing in movies. Even if didn't have the titular role or was the most seen character



Frequently cast as military men



Trivia (223)

Ranked #13 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]





He balked at the prospect of Burt Reynolds in the role of Santino Corleone in Der Pate (1972).



Eldest son Christian Brando was arrested for murdering his half-sister's boyfriend Dag Drollet in 1990. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in March 1991 and released in January 1996.

Worked as a department store elevator operator before he became famous. He quit after four days due to his embarrassment in having to call out the lingerie floor.





Was roommates with childhood friend Wally Cox during his theatrical training in New York City. The two remained lifelong friends, and Brando took Cox's sudden death from a heart attack at age 48 extremely hard.

Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#14) (1995).





Two years before Brando declined his Oscar for Best Actor in Der Pate (1972), he had applied to the Academy to replace the one he had won for Die Faust im Nacken (1954), which had been stolen. Prior to its theft, Brando had been using the Oscar as a doorstop.

Owned a private island off the Pacific coast, the Polynesian atoll known as Tetiaroa, from 1966 until his death in 2004.





Native of Omaha, Nebraska. His mother once gave stage lessons to Henry Fonda , another Nebraska native.



Lived on infamous "Bad Boy Drive" (Muholland Drive in Beverly Hills, California), which received its nickname because its residents were famous "bad boy" actors Jack Nicholson Warren Beatty and Brando.

Was the youngest of three children of Marlon Brando Sr. and Dorothy Pennebaker Brando.





His son Miko C. Brando was once a bodyguard for Michael Jackson . Jackson and Brando remained good friends thereafter.

Born to alcoholic parents, Brando was left alone much of the time as a child.





While filming The Score (2001), he refused to be on the set at the same time as director Frank Oz , referring to the former "Muppets" director as "Miss Piggy".

Daughter Cheyenne committed suicide in 1995, aged 25.



In April 2002, a woman filed a $100-million palimony lawsuit in California against Brando, claiming he fathered her three children during a 14-year romantic relationship. Maria Cristina Ruiz, 43, filed the breach-of-contract suit, demanding damages and living expenses. The lawsuit was settled in April 2003.



Ranked #12 in Entertainment Weekly's "Top 100 Entertainers" of all time (2000).





Received more money for his short appearance as Jor-El in Superman (1978) than Christopher Reeve did in the title role. Brando later sued for a percentage of the film's profits.



He used cue cards in many of his movies because he refused to memorize his lines. His lines were written on the diaper of the baby, "Kal-El", in Superman (1978).

One of the innovators of the Method acting technique in American film.





Was mentioned in Das süße Leben (1960) in a discussion about salary paid to film stars.



Adopted child: Petra Barrett Brando, whose biological father is author James Clavell and biological mother is Caroline Barrett

Said that the only reason he continued to make movies was in order to raise the money to produce what he said would be the "definitive" film about Native Americans. The film was never made.



Expelled from high school for riding a motorcycle through the halls.



His signature was considered so valuable to collectors, that many personal checks he wrote were never cashed because his signature was usually worth more than the amount on the check.



Studied at the Dramatic Workshop at the New School for Social Research in New York City.





Appeared on the front sleeve of The Beatles ' classic album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" as Johnny in Der Wilde (1953).

Had English, as well as smaller amounts (to varying degrees) of Dutch, French, German, Irish, Scottish and Welsh, ancestry. He is descended from Johann Wilhelm Brandau (b. 1670), who was a German immigrant. The surname was eventually changed to "Brando". One of Marlon's maternal great-grandfathers, Myles Joseph Gahan, emigrated to the United States from Ireland.



Helped out a great deal of minorities in America, including African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans and Native American Indians.





He reputedly suggested that his cameo role as Jor-El in Superman (1978) be done by him in voice-over only, with the character's image onscreen being a glowing, levitating green bagel. Unsure if Brando was joking or not, the film's producers formally rejected the suggestion.



Russell Crowe wrote and sang a song about him called "I Wanna Be Marlon Brando".



He was offered a chance to reprise his role as Vito Corleone in Der Pate 2 (1974) and Jor El in Superman II - Allein gegen alle (1980), but he turned them both down due to his own credo that once he finished a role, he put it away and moved on. He turned down both films despite being offered three times more money than any of his co-stars.



Is one of the many movie stars mentioned in Madonna 's song "Vogue".



Film critic Roger Ebert praised Brando as "the Greatest Actor in the World".

Empire magazine profiled him as part of their "Greatest Living Actors" series. The issue containing this feature was published a week before his death.



He was voted the 7th "Greatest Movie Star" of all time by Entertainment Weekly.





Biographer Peter Manso said that at the time of production of flops such as Südwest nach Sonora (1966), Brando had turned down the leading role of a Hamlet production in England, with Laurence Olivier



Mentioned in the song "The Ballad of Michael Valentine" by The Killers, the song "American Horse" by The Cult , and the song "Eyeless" by the heavy metal band Slipknot

During an acting class, when the students were told to act out "a chicken hearing an air-raid siren", most of the students clucked and flapped their arms in a panic, while Brando stood stock-still, staring up at the ceiling. When asked to explain himself, Brando replied, "I'm a chicken - I don't know what an air-raid siren is.".



Received top billing in nearly every film he appeared in, even if not cast in the lead role.





Was offered $2 million for four days work to appear as a priest in Scary Movie 2 (2001) but had to withdraw when he was hospitalized with pneumonia in April 2001. Consequently, the role was played by James Woods



In his book "The Way It's Never Been Done Before: My Friendship with Marlon Brando", George Englund relates how Brando told him a couple of years before his death that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences offered him a Lifetime Achievement Oscar on the condition that he attend the ceremony to personally accept the award. Brando refused, believing that the offer should not be conditional, and that the condition that he appear on the televised ceremony showed that the Academy was not primarily focused on honoring artistic excellence.



He was reportedly interested in making a film of Rolf Hochhuth 's controversial play "The Deputy", an indictment of the alleged silence of Pope Pius XII (God's "Deputy" on Earth) over the Nazi persecution of the Jews during World War II. The film was never made.



He attended a staging of Eugene O'Neill 's autobiographical "Long Day's Journey Into Night" with an eye towards starring in a proposed film of the play. The play deals with the drug addiction of Mary Tyrone, modeled after O'Neil's own mother, which, along with her husband's miserliness and her oldest son's alcoholism, has blighted her youngest son's life. When asked his opinion of the play, Brando, whose mother was an alcoholic and had died relatively young in 1954, replied, "Lousy". Jason Robards , who originated the role of older son James Tyrone, Jr. in the original Broadway production in 1956, subsequently appeared in Sidney Lumet 's 1962 movie.



He was reportedly once interested in playing Pablo Picasso on film and was trying to reduce weight on a banana diet. The film was never made.



In his autobiography, he said that he was physically attracted to Vivien Leigh during the making of Endstation Sehnsucht (1951). However, he could not bring himself to seduce her, as he found her husband, Laurence Olivier , to be such a "nice guy".



According to friend George Englund in his book "The Way It's Never Been Done Before: My Friendship with Marlon Brando", he testified at the manslaughter trial of his son Christian Brando that his mother and father and one of his two sisters had been alcoholics.



Paramount studio brass wanted him to appear as Jay Gatsby in Der große Gatsby (1974), but he wanted $4 million, an unheard-of salary at the time.



According to co-producer Fred Roos , Brando was scheduled to make a cameo appearance in Der Pate 2 (1974), specifically in the flashback at the film's ending in which Vito Corleone comes back to his home and is greeted with a surprise birthday party. In fact, he was expected the day of shooting but did not show up due to a salary dispute. According to Francis Ford Coppola , he had not been paid for Der Pate (1972) and thus would not appear in the sequel.

Was a huge fan of Afro-Caribbean music, and changed from being a strict drummer to the congas after becoming enthralled by the music in New York City in the 1940s.





Took possession of friend Wally Cox 's ashes from his widow in order to scatter them at sea but actually kept them hidden in a closet at his house. In his autobiography, Brando said he frequently talked to Cox. The Los Angeles Times on September 22, 2004 quoted Brando's son, Miko, to the effect that both his father's and Cox's ashes were scattered at the same time in Death Valley, California in a ceremony following Brando's death.



Asked Der Pate (1972) co-star James Caan what he would want if his wishes came true. When Caan answered that he would like to be in love, Brando answered, "Me too. But don't tell my wife.".



Was scheduled to appear in the David Lean -directed "Nostromo" (1991), but when Lean died, the production came to a halt. Thus, the world missed the last of three chances to see one of the world's greatest actors work with one of the world's greatest directors. Producer Sam Spiegel , who had won an Oscar for Die Faust im Nacken (1954), offered Brando the title role in Lean's Lawrence von Arabien (1962), which he turned down, saying he did not want to ride camels in the desert for two years. Brando was Lean's first choice for the male lead in Ryans Tochter (1970), but Brando, who at that time was considered box office poison by movie studios, never was offered the role.



Brando tried to join the Army during World War II but was rejected due to a knee injury he had sustained while playing football at Shattuck Military Academy. After he made Die Männer (1950), the Korean War broke out, and he was ordered by the draft board to report for a physical prior to induction. As his knee was better due to an operation, he initially was reclassified from 4-F to 1-A, but the military again rejected him, this time for mental problems, as he was under psychoanalysis.



The story about his mother his character Paul tells Jeanne in Der letzte Tango in Paris (1972), about how she taught him to appreciate nature, which he illustrates with his reminiscence of his dog Dutchy hunting rabbits in a mustard field, is real, based on his own recollections of his past.



His best friend was Wally Cox , whom he had known as a child and then met again when both were aspiring actors in New York during the 1940s. According to Brando's autobiography, there was not a day that went by when he did not think of Wally. So close did he feel to Cox, he even kept the pajamas he died in.



Studied modern dance with Katherine Dunham in New York in the early 1940s and briefly considered becoming a dancer.



Considered Montgomery Clift a friend and a "very good actor". They were not rivals, as the public perceived them to be during the 1950s. After Clift died of a heart attack in 1966, Brando took over his role in Spiegelbild im goldenen Auge (1967).



Just after the end of World War II, he met then-unknown James Baldwin and Norman Mailer at a cafeteria in New York. He became friends with Baldwin, a friendship that lasted until Baldwin's death.



Shortly before his death in 2004, he gave EA Games permission to use his voice for its video game Der Pate (2006).



Even before he let himself get obese and balloon up to over 350 lb., his eating habits were legendary. Die Männer (1950) co-star Richard Erdman claimed Brando's diet circa 1950 consisted "mainly of junk food, usually take-out Chinese or peanut butter, which he consumed by the jarful". By the mid-1950s, he was renowned for eating boxes of Mallomars and cinnamon buns, washing them down with a quart of milk. Close friend Carlo Fiore wrote that in the 1950s and early 1960s, Brando went on crash diets before his films commenced shooting, but when he lost his willpower he would eat huge breakfasts consisting of corn flakes, sausages, eggs, bananas and cream, and a huge stack of pancakes drenched in syrup. Fiore was detailed by producers to drag him out of coffee shops. Karl Malden claimed that, during the shooting of Der Besessene (1961), Brando would have "two steaks, potatoes, two apple pies a la mode and a quart of milk" for dinner, necessitating constant altering of his costumes. During a birthday party for Brando--the film's director as well as star--the crew gave him a belt with a card reading, "Hope it fits." A sign was placed below the birthday cake saying, "Don't feed the director." He reportedly ate at least four pieces of cake that day. His second wife Movita , who had a lock put on their refrigerator to stop pilfering by what she thought was the household staff, awoke one morning to find the lock broken and teeth marks on a round of cheese. The maid told her that Brando nightly raided the fridge. Movita also related how he often drove down to hot dog stands late at night (one of his favorite spots was the legendary Pink's Hot Dogs in Hollywood; it was open 24 hours a day, and Brando would go there at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning and polish off a half-dozen hot dogs at a time). Meuterei auf der Bounty (1962) costumer James Taylor claimed that Brando split the seat on 52 pairs of pants during the shooting of the film, necessitating that stretch fabric be sewn into his replacement duds. He split those, too. Ice cream was the culprit: Brando would purloin a five-gallon tub of the fattening dessert, row himself out into the lagoon and indulge. On the set of Südwest nach Sonora (1966), Brando's double often had to be used for shooting after lunch, and filming could only proceed in long shots, as Brando could no longer fit into his costumes. Dick Loving, who was married to Brando's sister Frannie, said that Brando used to eat "two chickens at a sitting, and [go] through bags of Pepperidge Farm cookies." It was reported during the filming of Duell am Missouri (1976) that the environmentally sensitive Brando fished a frog out of a pond, took a huge bite out of the hapless amphibian, and threw it back into the drink. Living on his island of Tetioroa, Brando created what he called "real-life Mounds Bars" by cracking open a coconut, melting some chocolate in the sun, then stirring it into the coconut for a tasty treat. By the 1980s, there were reports that one of his girlfriends had left him because he failed to keep his promise of losing weight. He seemed to be dieting, but to her astonishment, he never lost weight. She found out that his buddies had been throwing bags of Burger King Whoppers over the gates of his Mulholland Dr. estate late at night to relieve the hunger pangs of their famished friend. In the late 1980s, Brando was spotted regularly buying ice cream from a Beverly Hills ice cream shop--five gallons at a time. He supposedly confessed that he was eating it all himself. Finally, a reported Brando snack was a pound of cooked bacon shoved into an entire loaf of bread. When Brando became sick, he seriously cut back and lost 70 pounds on a bland diet, but never lost his love of food and especially ice cream.



In his September 1972 Playboy magazine interview, director Sam Peckinpah said that a problem with Der Besessene (1961) is that Brando would not play a villain. Peckinpah had worked on rewriting the script, which was based on the novel "The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones", a retelling of the Billy the Kid legend. According to Peckinpah, Billy the Kid was a genuine villain, whereas Brando's character "Rio" was not, thus lessening the dramatic impact of the story. He praised Brando for his acting comeback as Don Corleone in Der Pate (1972), both as the return of a great actor and as an example of Brando's newfound willingness to shuck off his old predilection and actually play a villain.

At the 77th Academy Awards ceremony, he was the last person featured in the film honoring film industry personalities who had passed away the previous year.





At the 27th Academy Awards, held March 30, 1955, at the RKO Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, Brando chewed gum throughout the ceremony, according to columnist Sidney Skolsky . When Bette Davis came out to present the Best Actor Oscar, Brando stopped chewing. When she announced him as the winner, Brando took the gum out of his mouth and shook hands with fellow nominee Bing Crosby , who had been reckoned the favorite that night, before going on stage to accept the statuette.



Bette Davis , who had presented Brando with his first Best Actor Oscar at the 27th Academy Awards in 1955, told the press that she was thrilled he had won. She elaborated, "He and I had much in common. He, too, had made many enemies. He, too, is a perfectionist.".

When participating in the March on Washington, brandished a cattle prod to show the world the brutality blacks faced in the South.



Attended the memorial service for slain Black Panthers member Bobby Hutton.



Tithed a tenth of his income to various black civil-rights organizations such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.





He and director Tony Kaye paid 350,000 pounds sterling for footage of what allegedly is the "Angel of Mons", according to The Sunday Times (March 11, 2001). The Angel of Mons was an apparition that legend holds appeared in the skies during the British Expeditionary Force's first encounter with the Imperial German army during World War I, which enabled a successful retreat by the BEF. The film allegedly was found in August 1999 in a junk-shop, which had a trunk belonging to a man called William Doidge, a World War I veteran. Doidge had been at Mons in August 1914 and knew about or possibly saw the apparition in the sky as the British army retreated before the overwhelming German advance. After the war he became obsessed by these apparitions. An American war veteran told him in 1952 that angels had appeared before some American troops were drowned during an exercise in 1944 at Woodchester Park in the Cotswolds. Doidge went there with a movie camera and supposedly captured images of them. Kaye planned to make a film of the incident, starring Brando as the American veteran, but the plans fell through when the two fell out over an acting video.



The news agency Reuters, in an article about about Vanity Fair magazine's upcoming Hollywood issue, reported after his death that Brando repeatedly voiced objections to appearing in Der Pate (1972). According to Brando's friend Budd Schulberg , who won an Oscar writing the screenplay for Die Faust im Nacken (1954), Brando repeatedly told his assistant Alice Marchak that he would not be in a film that glorified the Mafia. Schulberg said that Marchak pestered him to read the bestseller, and at one point he threw the book at her, saying, "For the last time, I won't glorify the Mafia!" However, Marchak noticed that Brando subsequently began toying with the idea of a mustache to play Don Corleone, at first drawing one on with an eyebrow pencil and asking her, "How do I look?" "Like George Raft ," she replied. Marchak told Schulberg this went on for awhile, with Brando trying different mustaches, until he finally won the role after agreeing to a screen test. Among the actors he beat out for the role were Laurence Olivier , who was too sick to work on the film, and Burt Lancaster , who had offered to do a screen test for the role and was looked on favorably by Paramount brass.

He was voted the 15th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Premiere magazine.



Was named #4 Actor on the 50 Greatest Screen Legends list by the American Film Institute.





Mentioned in the song "Risen Within" by MC Homicide featuring Paz



He constantly referred to his good friend Johnny Depp as "the most talented actor of his generation".

His mother gave him an odd pet: a raccoon he named Russell.





He liked to box. While performing as Stanley Kowalski in the stage version of "A Streetcar Named Desire", he would often persuade a member of the stage crew to spar with him in a room underneath the stage between his acts. During one of these impromptu boxing matches, a crew member surprised him with a hard punch to the nose. Brando's nose was broken so badly that it literally was split across its bridge. He managed to go on stage and finish the play despite the fact that backstage efforts to stanch the bleeding had failed, but he was taken to the hospital immediately after. His famous broken-beak nose was the result of his having taken off his bandages in order to cover his nose with Mercurochrome to make it look particularly bad when he was visited by the play's producer, Irene Mayer Selznick . The subterfuge worked, as Selznick gave him two weeks off from the grind of the play (he was on stage with "Streetcar" for two years), but by taking the bandages off, his nose did not properly set.

Believed that he could control stress in his life and physical pain through meditation. So sure he was of this, that he wanted to prove it. When he decided in the early 1990s to be circumcised, he wanted the doctor to do the operation with no anesthesia so that he could show off this skill. The doctor refused because of medical ethics, but Brando underwent the operation anyway after receiving a painkilling shot in his back. However, he wanted to show the doctors what he could do, and he asked them to take his blood pressure. Through meditation, he brought his blood pressure down more than 20 points.





Elton John 's song "Goodbye Marlon Brando" was inspired by the actor's retirement in 1980.



A collection of personal effects from Brando's estate fetched $2,378,300 at a June 30, 2005 auction at Christie's New York. His annotated script from Der Pate (1972) was bought for a world record $312,800. "Godfather" memorabilia were the most sought-after items at the 6.5-hour auction, which attracted over 500 spectators and bidders and multiple telephone bids. Brando's annotated film script originally was figured to sell at between $10,000 and $15,000, but brought more than 20 times the high end of the pre-auction estimate. The previous record for a film script bought at auction was $244,500 for Clark Gable 's Vom Winde verweht (1939) script, which was auctioned at Christie's New York in 1996. A letter from "Godfather" writer Mario Puzo to Brando asking him to consider playing the role of Don Corleone in the movie version of his novel was bought for $132,000. A photograph of Brando and former lover Rita Moreno in Am Abend des folgenden Tages (1969), the only piece of film memorabilia he kept in his Mulholland Drive home, was bought for $48,000. A transcript of a telegram from Brando to Marilyn Monroe after her 1961 nervous breakdown was bought for $36,000. His extensive library of over 3,600 books was sold in lots, some of which fetched over $45,000; many of the books were annotated in Brando's own hand.

Shortly before his death, his doctors had told him that the only way to prolong his life would be to insert tubes carrying oxygen into his lungs. He refused permission, preferring to die naturally.



Was a licensed amateur (ham) radio operator with the call signs KE6PZH (his American license) and FO5GJ (is license for his home in French Polynesia). For both licenses, he used the name "Martin Brandeaux".





His decision to play the title role in D.N.A. - Experiment des Wahnsinns (1996) turned out to be an offer that he definitely should have refused. He received the Worst Supporting Actor Razzie Award, beating Burt Reynolds , who was nominated for Striptease (1996), by a single vote. The vote was cast by Razzie Award founder John Wilson, who always chooses to vote last.

At the time of his death at age 80, Brando had been suffering from congestive heart failure, advanced diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis (damage to the tissue inside the lungs resulting from a bout of pneumonia in 2001). Doctors had recently discovered a tumor inside his liver, but he died before they could operate to remove it.





In a 1966 review of Brando's film Ein Mann wird gejagt (1966), film critic Rex Reed commented that "most of the time, he sounds like he has a mouth full of wet toilet paper".



Rode his own Triumph 6T Thunderbird, registration #63632, in Der Wilde (1953).

Contrary to popular belief, Brando was not an atheist. At his son's trial, where he supposedly revealed his atheism and refused to swear upon a Bible, his actual words were, "While I do believe in God, I do not believe in the same way as others, so I would prefer not to swear on the Bible.".





When cast as Colonel Kurtz in Francis Ford Coppola 's Apocalypse Now (1979), Brando had promised to lose weight for the role, as well as read Joseph Conrad 's novel "Heart of Darkness", on which Coppola's script was based. Coppola had envisioned Kurtz as a lean and hungry warrior; the character of Kurtz in the Conrad novellas was a wraith and weighed barely more than a child despite his great stature, due to his suffering from malaria. When the 52-year-old Brando--who had already been paid part of his huge salary--appeared on the set in the Philippines, he had lost none of the weight, so Coppola and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro were forced to put Brando's character in the shadows in most shots. In the penultimate appearance of Kurtz in the film, when he appears in silhouette in the doorway of his temple compound as the sacrificial bull is lead out, a very tall double (about 6' 5") was used to try to give the character a greater physical stature, rather than just Buddha-like belly-fat that girded the 5' 10" Brando. He did not get around to reading the novella until many years later.



He did not like to sign autographs for collectors. Because of this, his own autograph became so valuable that many checks he wrote went uncashed--his signature on them was worth more than the value of the check itself. Ironically, his secretary Alice Marchak remembered a time when a fan asked for his autograph. Brando promptly signed the fan's autograph book twice. Brando then told the fan that he had heard that one John Wayne autograph was equal to two Marlon Brando's on the collector's market.

In his 1976 biography "The Only Contender" by Gary Carey, Brando was quoted as saying, "Like a large number of men, I, too, have had homosexual experiences, and I am not ashamed.".





It was his idea for Jor-El to wear the "S" insignia as the family crest in Superman (1978).



Is mentioned in Robbie Williams ' song "Advertising Space".



His performance as Terry Malloy in Die Faust im Nacken (1954) is ranked #2 on Premiere magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).



His performance as Paul in Der letzte Tango in Paris (1972) is ranked #27 on Premiere magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).



According to Lawrence Grobel's "Conversations with Brando" (NY: Hyperion, 1991), Brando ultimately made $14 million from Superman (1978). The Salkinds, producers of the movie, tried to buy out his share of the profits for $6 million, but Brando refused and had to file a lawsuit to recover what was owed him.



Was paid $3 million for 10 days work on Die Formel (1980) (approximately $8.5 million in 2005 terms). Brando told Lawrence Grobel ("Conversations with Brando") that the movie, which he only made for the money as he was broke, was ruined in the editing room, with the humor of his scenes cut out. In his autobiography, Brando--in a caption for a picture from the film--recounts that George C. Scott asked him during the shooting of the film whether he, Brando, would ever give the same line - reading twice. Brando replied, "I know you know a cue when you hear one." The two both played chess together during waits during the shooting. Scott said that Brando was not that good a player.



Brando had to sue Francis Ford Coppola to get all the money owed to him from his percentage of the profits of Apocalypse Now (1979). Brando characterized the people in the movie industry as "liars" to Lawrence Grobel (who conducted his 1979 Playboy interview): "Even Francis Coppola owed me one-and-a-half million and I have to sue him. They all do that, as they make interest on the money... so they delay paying... It's all so ugly, I hate the idea of having to act, but there's no other way to do it.".



The producers of the film adaptation of Sir Peter Shaffer 's play Equus - Blinde Pferde (1977) were interested in casting either Brando or Jack Nicholson in the lead role of Dr. Martin Dysart. The role went instead to Richard Burton , who had to "screen-test" for the role by agreeing to appear in the play on Broadway. Burton did, got rave reviews and a special Tony Award, and won his seventh and last Oscar nomination for the role. In his diary, Burton wrote that in the late 1950s, he was always one of the first actors producers turned to when Brando turned down a role.



Became quite friendly with Elizabeth Taylor while shooting Spiegelbild im goldenen Auge (1967). He agreed to pick up her Best Actress Award for Wer hat Angst vor Virginia Woolf? (1966) from the New York Film Critics Circle. When Brando made his appearance at the NYFCC Award ceremony at Sardi's on January 29, 1967, he badgered the critics, querying them as to why they had not recognized Liz before. He then flew to Dahomey, Africa, where Taylor was shooting Die Stunde der Komödianten (1967) with husband Richard Burton to personally deliver the award. Brando later socialized with the Burtons, visiting them on their famous yacht the Kalizma, while they plied the Mediterreanean. Brando's ex-wife Anna Kashfi , in her book "Brando for Breakfast" (1979), claimed that Brando and Burton got into a fistfight aboard the yacht, probably over Liz, but nothing of the incident appears in Burton's voluminous diaries, in which Burton says he found Brando to be quite intelligent but believed he suffered, like Liz did, from becoming too famous too early in his life. He recognized Brando as a great actor, but felt he would have been more suited to silent films due to the deficiency in his voice (the famous "mumble"). As a silent film star, Burton believed Brando would have been the greatest motion picture actor ever.



His performance as Stanley Kowalski in Endstation Sehnsucht (1951) is ranked #85 on Premiere magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.



His performance as Terry Malloy in Die Faust im Nacken (1954) is ranked #69 on Premiere magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.



His monumental portrayal of Vito Corleone in the masterpiece Der Pate (1972) is the #1 Greatest Movie Character of All Time in Premiere magazine.



Was unable to raise the $10-million bail initially required of his son Christian Brando ( Christian Brando ) in the May 16, 1990, slaying of his sister Cheyenne's boyfriend Dag Drollet. After a two-day preliminary hearing in early August 1990, the presiding judge ruled that enough evidence had been presented to try Christian on first-degree murder charges. At that time, the judge refused to lower the $10-million bail due to what he termed evidence of the Brando family's failure to cooperate with he court, specifically citing Cheyenne's flight from the United States to avoid helping the police investigation. However, two weeks later the same judge reduced Christian's bail to $2 million, which Marlon was able to post by putting up his Mulholland Drive house as collateral. He soon accepted a cameo role in the film Christopher Columbus - Der Entdecker (1992) for $5 million, according to Variety magazine, the bible of the Hollywood trade papers.



Brando's friend, actor William Redfield , mentioned him prominently in the memoir he wrote about the 1964 stage production of "Hamlet" (later transferred to film as Hamlet (1964)) directed by John Gielgud and starring Richard Burton . In "Letters from an Actor" (1967, Viking Press), Redfield--who played Guildenstern--said that Brando had been considered the Great White Hope by his generation of American actors. That is, they believed that Brando's more naturalistic style, combined with his greatness as an actor, would prove a challenge to the more stylized and technical English acting paradigm epitomized by Laurence Olivier , and that Brando would supplant Olivier as the world's greatest actor. Redfield would tell Burton stories of Brando, whom the Welsh actor had not yet met. Redfield sadly confessed that Brando, by not taking on roles such as Hamlet (and furthermore, by betraying his craft by abandoning the stage, thus allowing his instrument to be dulled by film work), had failed not only as an actor, but had failed to help American actors create an acting tradition that would rival the English in terms of expertise.



The very last film role that was ever offered to him was Rayburn in Mann unter Feuer (2004), less than a year before he passed away. The role instead went to Christopher Walken



Turned down the role of Earl Partridge in Magnolia (1999), which went to Jason Robards



Turned down the role of the Headless Horseman in Sleepy Hollow (1999), which went to Christopher Walken



Was considered by director Tim Burton for the role of the Penguin in Batmans Rückkehr (1992). Batman creator Bob Kane was relieved that he was not cast, as he considered Brando the "wrongest possible choice for the role".



Keith Richards 's son, Marlon Richards is named after him.



Was offered the role of Viktor Komarovsky in Doktor Schiwago (1965) by double-Oscar winning director David Lean . However, a month went by and Brando failed to respond to Lean's written inquiry into whether he wanted to play Komarovsky, so the director offered the role to James Mason , who was a generation older than Brando. Lean decided on Mason, who initially accepted the role, as he did not want an actor who would overpower the character of Yuri Zhivago (specifically, to show Zhivago up as a lover of Lara, who would be played by the young Julie Christie , which the charismatic Brando might have done, shifting the sympathy of the audience). Mason eventually dropped out and Rod Steiger , who had just won the Silver Bear as Best Actor for his role as the eponymous Der Pfandleiher (1964), accepted the role.



Made the Top 10 Poll of Money-Making Stars, as ranked by Quigley Publications' annual survey of movie exhibitors, five times from 1954 to 1973. He debuted at #10 in 1954, and climbed to #6 in 1955 before falling off the list in 1956. He again made the list, as #4, in 1958. He did not appear on the list again until 1972, when he was ranked the #6 Box Office star after the extraordinary success of Der Pate (1972). He made one last appearance in 1973, going out as he had come onto the list, at #10.



Supported John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election.



He was close friends with the reclusive singer Michael Jackson for many years, even appearing in his music video "You Rock My World" in 2001. The last time Brando left his bungalow in Hollywood was to stay at Jackson's Neverland Ranch in the summer of 2003.



His character Ken Wilcheck in his cinema debut Die Männer (1950) has the nickname "Bud", which was his own nickname as he was a "junior". (Brando's father, Marlon Brando Sr. , later worked for his company Pennebaker Productions, which was named after his mother, the former Dorothy Pennebaker.) The only other film in which Brando goes by the name which his family and intimate friends called him is Am Abend des folgenden Tages (1969).



After he received his first Academy Award nomination (Best Actor for Endstation Sehnsucht (1951)), Brando impishly told the Hollywood press corps that he would not attend the ceremony but would send a cab driver in his place to pick up the Oscar, should he win the award. Indeed, Brando did not attend, and some columnists claimed that a cabby actually was in attendance in Brando's seat at Los Angeles' RKO Pantages Theatre the night of ceremony of March 20, 1952. Alas, Brando was the sole "Steetcar" acting nominee not to win that night as Humphrey Bogart took home the gold, so the question can never be satisfactorily resolved.



Sean Penn told writer Charles Bukowski that Brando put scripts from producers into his freezer, in order to use them as targets in skeet shooting. Brando would take the frozen scripts and have them tossed in the air into the canyon below his home at night, and then proceed to blast them into smithereens with a shotgun while they were on the fly. By freezing the scripts, the pages were stiff and made for better "clay pigeon" substitutes. The practice is mentioned in one of Bukowski's poems. Bukowski also wrote about Brando in his short story "You Kissed Lilly", in which Lilly masturbates while watching Brando in a movie on television. The story is part of the collection "Hot Water Music" (1983).



Turned down the role of Vulcan in Die Abenteuer des Baron Münchhausen (1988). Director Terry Gilliam was summoned to Brando's Mulholland Dr. home in Los Angeles to discuss the role, but this became apparent that Brando really was not interested in taking the role. Nonetheless, Gilliam treasured the time he got to spend with Brando. The role later was played by Oliver Reed , who spent his time drinking and trying to seduce Uma Thurman , who was a virgin at the time.



Was Oliver Stone 's first choice for the role of Richard Boyle in Salvador (1986). However, Brando had become notoriously reclusive by the time the project got underway and turned down the role.

He was an avid user of the Internet in his final years, often going into chat rooms to start arguments.





Subject of the song "I'm Stuck in a Condo with Mr. Marlon Brando" by The Dickies



Originally considered too young at 23 to play Stanley Kowalski in the Broadway version of "A Streetcar Named Desire", and the producers of the show tried to get 34-year-old Burt Lancaster , newly a huge star in movies thanks to Die Killer (1946). When Lancaster was unable to get permission from the film studio, Brando was given the part and became an overnight sensation.



He was originally cast in John Wayne 's role as Genghis Khan in Der Eroberer (1956), but backed out at the last minute.



A large part of his estate was bought by entrepreneur Keya Morgan



Brando was sought for the role of Bull McCabe in Das Feld (1990), but Richard Harris was cast instead.



Is related to four presidents of the United States: James Madison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, Jimmy Carter ; and to General George S. Patton



He was sought for the role of O'Brien the interrogator in 1984 (1984), along with Sean Connery and Paul Scofield . Scofield accepted the role, but had to drop out of shooting after breaking his arm and was replaced by Richard Burton

The American Film Institute named him the fourth Greatest Male Star of All Time (1999).





His Mulholland Drive home once shared a driveway with his Duell am Missouri (1976) co-star Jack Nicholson . Nicholson later bought Brando's home from his estate.



Encouraged Johnny Depp to get himself a private island just like his one in Tahiti.



In the summer of 1995, he started shooting a movie called "Divine Rapture" in the tiny Irish village of Ballycotton, County Cork. His co-stars were Johnny Depp Debra Winger and John Hurt . Marlon was playing a priest in the film and he had dyed his hair red for the role. Shooting began, but was never completed due to lack of financing.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 43-46. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007.





In a 1989 TV interview with Connie Chung , Brando told her that he contributed his entire salary for Weiße Zeit der Dürre (1989) to an anti-apartheid group in South Africa with the understanding that MGM would make a similar contribution. The movie was the first Brando had made in nine years. Brando quoted his salary at $3.3 million plus 11.3% of gross. He claimed that MGM reneged on its own matching contribution to the group and that he was uncertain how much the group received from MGM because of his percentage. Brando's anger with MGM over reneging on its charitable contribution and for cutting his scenes (which he felt were a more forceful indictment of apartheid and had been done to prevent South Africa's then-apartheid government from banning the studio's films) was felt to be one of the reasons that Brando gave his first interview in many years.



While making Meuterei auf der Bounty (1962) in Tahiti, Brando fell in love with the place. So in 1966, he purchased Tetiaroa, a small atoll located approximately 30 miles north of Tahiti. Tetiaroa is to be the site of a lavish new ecological hotel called The Brando. Consisting of 30 deluxe fares (villas), it will be the only hotel on Tetiaroa.



In the last three years of his life, Marlon filmed a series of classes of him giving acting lessons to Sean Penn Jon Voight and Nick Nolte . Marlon intended to call the series "Lying for a Living" and to sell DVDs of it on shopping channel QVC to raise money. The DVDs were never released publicly following his death.

His ashes were scattered in Tahiti and Death Valley.



He died in 2004 at age 80, from obesity, pulmonary fibrosis, diabetes, cardiac failure, and an enlarged liver suggesting cancer.





Finished first in MSN's "The Big 50: Cinema's Greatest Legends" poll in March 2009 ( Robert De Niro finished runner-up with Al Pacino in third place).



His Sacheen Littlefeather controversy at the Oscars resulted in the Academy setting stricter rules that nominees cannot send someone else to accept the award onstage or address the audience, and only the presenter is allowed to accept on the winner's behalf. Exceptions are made in the case that the honoree genuinely could not attend due to illness or death.



One of four multiple acting Oscar winners whose wins were all in Best Picture Oscar winners (the others being Dustin Hoffman Gene Hackman and Mahershala Ali ), with his and Hoffman's being both for in the lead category. Two of Jack Nicholson 's three acting Oscars were in Best Picture winners.

Was a huge fan of professional wrestling.





Producer Robert Evans said that Brando was signed for the role of Don Corleone in Der Pate (1972) for $50,000 plus a percentage of the gross on a sliding scale: after the film hit a $10 million threshold, Brando would receive 1% of the gross for the next $10 million and an additional 1% for every $10 million up to 5% when the film grossed over $60 million. (Thus, Brando would receive $100,000 for the second $10 million; $200,000 for the third $10 million; $300,000 for the fourth $10 million; $400,000 for the fifth $10 million; and 5% of everything above that. In desperate need of cash, Brando's attorney called Evans and requested a $100,000 advance. Charlie Bluhdorn , who owned Paramount, demanded that he surrender his points for the cash, and Brando did. Upon its release, "The Godfather" became the top-grossing film of all time. Evans estimated that Brando lost $11 million by selling back his points. Brando was so angry, he refused to appear in Der Pate 2 (1974) unless he was compensated for his bad deal. Paramount refused. When the studio considered him for the lead in Der große Gatsby (1974), he pushed aside his agent and demanded an unprecedented $4 million fee, seeking to make up for his lost money. Paramount cast Robert Redford instead.



Brando was a great fan of French actress Arletty , who had played Blanche Dubois on the Paris stage and was in a film he greatly admired, Kinder des Olymp (1945). When he went to Paris, he made it a point to meet her but was disappointed, calling her a "real tough bird".

Acquired the nickname of 'Bud' to distinguish himself from his father whom he disliked.





His mother co-starred with a young Henry Fonda in Eugene O'Neill 's "Beyond the Horizon" at the Omaha Community Playhouse.

When asked to contribute to his biography for the theater program of "I Remember Mama", Brando claimed he was born in Calcutta and had a Great Dane whom he feeds "dehydrated cubes of dog food".



While he was at the Actors Studio, Brando directed Julie Harris in a modern version of "Hedda Gabler" set in Nebraska.





When shooting Die Männer (1950), Brando stayed in the one bedroom apartment of actor Richard Erdman . Brando slept on the couch and was a voracious eater. Brando, who was being paid $40,000 for his role, never offered to help with expenses or restock the refrigerator for Erdman, who was being paid only $5000.



Brando agreed to appear in Candy (1968) as a favour to friend Christian Marquand, who helped with Brando's negotiations with the French government in purchasing the Tahitian island of Tetiaroa.



Brando donated his $25,000 salary for his one day of work on Roots - Die nächsten Generationen (1979) to the American Indian Movement.

Brando enjoyed talking to strangers on other islands or passing boats on his ham radio anonymously. He did not used his real name, and often called himself "Mike" or "Matin Bumby" and spoke in very believable French, German and Japanese accents.



Between 1981 and 1983, Brando received multimillion offers to play Al Capone, Pablo Picasso and Karl Marx but turned them down.





Playing the role of Stanley Kowalski, Brando had to describe the Napoleonic Code. Later in his career, he would play the role of Napoleon in Desirée (1954).

He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1765 Vine Street in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.





He won his first Oscar for Die Faust im Nacken (1954) on March 20, 1955, four days before he turned age 31, making him the youngest Best Actor winner. He held the record for 23 years.



In late 1959, this was suggested that he might play William the Conqueror in an epic film which would be the first Cinerama movie to tell a dramatic story instead of being simply a travelogue. Reports suggested that Maria Schell might be his leading lady, that Christopher Fry might write the script and that Laurence Olivier might direct. However, the film was never made, and it seems likely that none of these celebrities was actually made any firm offer. This was several years more before the first narrative films in Cinerama.



Was one of the many Hollywood celebrities who like to make weekend visit's to Ralph Helfer 's "Africa U.S.A" Exotic Animal Ranch in Soledad Canyon, California to pitch in with the chores and to play with the animals.



In the early 1960s, he contributed thousands of dollars to both the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCIC) and to a scholarship fund established for the children of martyred Mississippi NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers



Had to lose weight in order to play Don Vito Corleone in Der Pate (1972).



Got his role as Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now (1979) after Al Pacino turned down.

Wore lifts in some of his films.



About a year into the run of A Streetcar Named Desire on the New York stage he was fooling around with some of the guys backstage and ended up with a broken nose.



Soon after his birth the family moved to Libertyville, Illinois where he was raised.



He is one of many personalities mentioned in the song "Jesus Numa Moto" by Sá e Guarabyra.





In his youth, he praised Fredric March as his favorite actor.

During his emotional performance in "The Men", he brought co-star Teresa Wright to tears.



As he rarely signed autographs; his checks became sought after collector's items.



During the 1950s, he and Clara Bow, the silent film actress best known as The IT Girl of the Roaring 20s, were pen pals. They kept in contact and exchanged correspondence on a regular basis until Bow's death from a heart attack on September 27, 1965.



On August 3, 2019, he was honored with a day of his film work during the Turner Classic Movies Summer Under the Stars.



Brando was openly critical of the actors and film stars who were long established in Hollywood when he arrived on the acting scene. He dismissed the likes of Humphrey Bogart and Clark Gable, claiming they were always the same in each movie. However, Brando did acknowledge and respect Paul Muni and James Cagney for their naturalistic approach to acting.



Only made one appearance on live TV, after Brando felt that a technical hitch hampered his performance during the broadcast.



Credited Stella Adler with being the one who taught Brando everything he would know about acting. By contrast, the actor didn't like Lee Strasberg and claimed to have received no guidance at all.



Brando admitted that the reason he chose not to perform in the theatre again, was because he had concerns he would be psychologically exhausting himself in acting the same character day after day. As an actor, he felt that cinema was the only medium for him to display any kind of range.



Before joining his older sister in New York during the 1940s, Brando confessed to having no idea what else to do with his life.



Rated Karl Malden as one of the finest actors he had ever worked with.



Suffered a broken nose during a performance of "A Streetcar Named Desire." Brando was awaiting his cue at the time and was showing off his alleged boxing skills to someone behind the scenes.



Brando's success as an actor did little to heal any wounds between he and his father. Even though he kept Brando senior on the payroll, he still had as little contact with him as possible.



When Brando arrived in Hollywood, he refused to abide by anyone's terms except his own.



Developed a reputation as a prankster whilst beginning his acting career in New York. Brando would relate bogus information to those involved in advertising by saying he had been born and raised in Calcutta.



For years, it has been documented that Marlon Brando stood at 5 ft 9 inches. However, the actor wore lifts on his shoes for most of his films. His actual height is 5 ft 7 inches.



He used to imitate the sounds made by various animals from nearby fields, during his childhood.



As his interest in acting declined, Brando began to focus his attention of civil rights causes.



Claimed to have memorized hundreds of songs from various genres, usually after hearing a song just once.



Various biographers believe that Brando's indifferent attitude to acting, began with the passing of his mother. Close associates reckon the actor wasn't quite the same person again after this tragedy.



Among his early theatre plays were ' A Flag is Born' playing David, and The Protaganist in 'An Eagle Has Two Heads'.



For his appearance in "The Formula," Brando insisted upon designing his character's look.



Had an intense dislike for being involved in any publicity for his films.



Was known for rigidly protecting his privacy.





Alumnus of Stella Adler Studio of Acting.

Personal Quotes (128)

The more sensitive you are, the more likely you are to be brutalised, develop scabs and never evolve. Never allow yourself to feel anything because you always feel too much.



The only thing an actor owes his public is not to bore them.



An actor is at most a poet and at least an entertainer.



Would people applaud me if I were a good plumber?



I don't know what people expect when they meet me. They seem to be afraid that I'm going to piss in the potted palm and slap them on the ass.



I put on an act sometimes, and people think I'm insensitive. Really, it's like a kind of armour because I'm too sensitive. If there are two hundred people in a room and one of them doesn't like me, I've got to get out.



If you're successful, acting is about as soft a job as anybody could ever wish for. But if you're unsuccessful, it's worse than having a skin disease.





[on one of his most famous characters, Stanley Kowalski from Endstation Sehnsucht (1951)] Kowalski was always right, and never afraid. He never wondered, he never doubted. His ego was very secure. And he had the kind of brutal aggressiveness that I hate. I'm afraid of it. I detest the character.

I don't want to spread the peanut butter of my personality on the mouldy bread of the commercial press.



The most repulsive thing you could ever imagine is the inside of a camel's mouth. That and watching a girl eat octopus or squid.



With women, I've got a long bamboo pole with a leather loop on the end. I slip the loop around their necks so they can't get away or come too close. Like catching snakes.



If there's anything unsettling to the stomach, it's watching actors on television talk about their personal lives.





[on Frank Sinatra ] He's the kind of guy that when he dies, he's going up to heaven and give God a bad time for making him bald.



[on his unforgettable role as Don Vito Corleone in Der Pate (1972)] I went home and did some rehearsing to satisfy my curiosity about whether I could play an Italian. I put on some makeup, stuffed Kleenex in my cheeks and worked out the characterization first in front of a mirror, then on a television monitor. After working on it, I decided I could create a characterization that would support the story. The people at Paramount saw the footage and liked it, and that's how I became the Godfather.

[when asked how he spent his time away from the camera] People ask that a lot. They say, "What did you do while you took time out?", as if the rest of my life is taking time out. But the fact is, making movies is time out for me because the rest, the nearly complete whole, is what's real for me. I'm not an actor and haven't been for years. I'm a human being - hopefully a concerned and somewhat intelligent one - who occasionally acts.



Regret is useless in life. It's in the past. All we have is now.



Acting is the expression of a neurotic impulse. It's a bum's life. Quitting acting is a sign of maturity.





[on the impact of Der Pate (1972)] I'd gotten to know quite a few mafiosi, and all of them told me they loved the picture because I had played the Godfather with dignity. Even today I can't pay a check in Little Italy.

Acting is an empty and useless profession.





[on his characterization of Terry Malloy in Die Faust im Nacken (1954)] [The role] was actor-proof, a scene that demonstrated how audiences often do much of the acting themselves in an effectively told story.



[on directing] I did it once. It was an ass-breaker. You work yourself to death. You're the first one up in the morning... I mean, we shot that thing [ Der Besessene (1961)] on the run, you know. You make up the dialog the scene before, improvising, and your brain is going crazy.



[on the Academy Awards, to Connie Chung after his Best Supporting Actor nomination for Weiße Zeit der Dürre (1989)] That's a part of the sickness in America, that you have to think in terms of who wins, who loses, who's good, who's bad, who's best, who's worst... I don't like to think that way. Everybody has their own value in different ways, and I don't like to think who's the best at this. I mean, what's the point of it?



[on the Academy Awards, Connie Chung TV interview, 1990] What do I care? I've made all the money I need to make. I won a couple of Academy Awards if I ever cared about that. I've been nominated I don't know how many times and I'm in a position of respect and standing in my craft as an actor in this country. So what the hell, I don't need to gild the lily.



[after accepting the Best Actor Oscar for Die Faust im Nacken (1954) at the 27th Academy Awards ceremony] I can't remember what I was going to say for the life of me. I don't think ever in my life that so many people were so directly responsible for my being so very, very happy.



If the vacuum formed by Dr. [ Martin Luther King 's] death isn't filled with concern and understanding and a measure of love, then I think we all are really going to be lost here in this country.



[on Malcolm X ] He was a dynamic person, a very special human being who might have caused a revolution. He had to be done away with. The American government couldn't let him live. If 23 million blacks found a charismatic leader like he was, they would have followed him. The powers that be couldn't accept that.

It is a simple fact that all of us use the techniques of acting to achieve whatever ends we seek... Acting serves as the quintessential social lubricant and a device for protecting our interests and gaining advantage in every aspect of life.





It seems to me hilarious that our government put the face of Elvis Presley on a postage stamp after he died from an overdose of drugs. His fans don't mention that because they don't want to give up their myths. They ignore the fact that he was a drug addict and claim he invented rock 'n' roll when in fact he took it from black culture; they had been singing that way for years before he came along, copied them and became a star.

I'm one of those people who believes that if I'm very good in this life I'll go to France when I die.



Even today, I meet people who think of me automatically as a tough, insensitive, coarse guy named Stanley Kowalski. They can't help it, but it is troubling.





A movie that I was in, called Die Faust im Nacken (1954): there was a scene in a taxicab, where I turn to my brother, who's come to turn me over to the gangsters, and I lament to him that he never looked after me, he never gave me a chance, that I could have been a contender, I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum... "You should of looked out after me, Charley." It was very moving. And people often spoke about that, "Oh, my God, what a wonderful scene, Marlon, blah blah blah blah blah." It wasn't wonderful at all. The situation was wonderful. Everybody feels like he could have been a contender, he could have been somebody, everybody feels as though he's partly bum, some part of him. He is not fulfilled and he could have done better, he could have been better. Everybody feels a sense of loss about something. So that was what touched people. It wasn't the scene itself. There are other scenes where you'll find actors being expert, but since the audience can't clearly identify with them, they just pass unnoticed. Wonderful scenes never get mentioned, only those scenes that affect people.



Most people want those fantasies of those who are worthy of our hate - we get rid of a lot of anger that way; and of those who are worthy of our idolatry. Whether it's Farrah Fawcett or somebody else, it doesn't make a difference. They're easily replaceable units, pick 'em out like a card file. Johnnie Ray enjoyed that kind of hysterical popularity, celebration, and then suddenly he wasn't there anymore. The Beatles are now nobody in particular. Once they set screaming crowds running after them, they ran in fear of their lives, they had special tunnels for them. They can walk almost anyplace now. Because the fantasy is gone. Elvis Presley - bloated, over the hill, adolescent entertainer, suddenly drawing people into Las Vegas - had nothing to do with excellence, just myth. It's convenient for people to believe that something is wonderful, therefore they're wonderful.



If Wally [ Wally Cox ] had been a woman, I would have married him and we would have lived happily ever after.

America has been good to me, but that wasn't a gift.



I have eyes like those of a dead pig.



The only reason I'm in Hollywood is that I don't have the moral courage to refuse the money.



Privacy is not something that I'm merely entitled to, it's an absolute prerequisite.



I don't mind that I'm fat. You still get the same money.



This is a false world. It's been a struggle to try to preserve my sanity and sense of reality taken away by success. I have to fight hard to preserve that sense of reality so as to bring up my children.





I always enjoyed watching John Wayne , but it never occurred to me until I spoke with Indians how corrosive and damaging and destructive his movies were - most Hollywood movies were.



[on John Wayne 's 1971 interview with Playboy magazine] That doesn't need a reply, it's self-evident. You can't even get mad at it; it's so insane that there's just nothing to say about it. He would be, according to his point of view, someone not disposed to returning any of the colonial possessions in Africa or Asia to their rightful owners. He would be sharing a perspective with B.J. Vorster if he were in South Africa. He would be on the side of Ian Smith . He would have shot down Gandhi [ Mohandas K. Gandhi ], called him a rabble rouser. The only freedom fighters he would recognize would be those who were fighting Communists; if they were fighting to get out from under colonial rule, he'd call them terrorists. The Indians today he'd call agitators, terrorists, who knows? If John Wayne ran for President, he would get a great following... I think he's been enormously instrumental in perpetuating this view of the Indian as a savage, ferocious, destructive force. He's made us believe things about the Indian that were never true and perpetuated the myth about how wonderful the frontiersmen were and how decent and honorable we all were.



Everybody ought not to turn his back on the phenomenon of hatred in whatever form it takes. We have to find out what the anatomy of hatred is before we can understand it. We have to make some attempt to put it into some understandable form. Any kind of group hatred is extremely dangerous and much more volatile than individual hatred. Heinous crimes are committed by groups and it's all done, of course, in the name of right, justice. It's John Wayne . It's the way he thinks. All the crimes committed against Indians are not considered crimes by John Wayne.



I don't see anybody as evil. When you start seeing people as evil, you're in trouble. The thing that's going to save us is understanding. The inspection of the mind of Eichmann [ Adolf Eichmann ] or Himmler [ Heinrich Himmler ]... Just to dispense with them as evil is not enough, because it doesn't bring you understanding. You have to see them for what they are. You have to examine John Wayne . He's not a bad person. Who among us is going to say he's a bad man? He feels justified for what he does. The damage that he does he doesn't consider damage, he thinks it's an honest presentation of the facts.



Three or four times, I've pulled a gun on somebody. I had a problem after Charles Manson , deciding to get a gun. But I didn't want somebody coming in my house and committing mayhem. The Hillside Strangler victims - one of the girls was found in back of my Los Angeles house. My next-door neighbor was murdered, strangled in the bathroom. Mulholland Drive is full of crazy people. We have nuts coming up and down all the time.



[1976] 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.

I know I'm not an easy person to get along with, I'm no walk in the park.





[on Burt Reynolds ] I disagree with the thought process of people like him, who is a totally narcissistic person who epitomizes everything wrong with being a celebrity in Hollywood.



[on Cheyenne (1964)] That was worse than any other film, because it didn't tell the truth. Superduper patriots like John Ford could never say that the American government was at fault. He made the evil cavalry captain a foreigner. John Ford had him speak with a thick accent, you didn't know what he was, but you knew he didn't represent Mom's apple pie.

Never confuse the size of your paycheck with the size of your talent.



Regrets belong to the past.



[on Hollywood] A cultural boneyard.





[on Dustin Hoffman ] I believe that he has talent. He ought to get away from this rather nervous character that he's played since Asphalt-Cowboy (1969). Then we'd really be able to see that he's a complete actor.

The good directors that I've worked with will say I'm a good guy. The other fellows will say I'm a bad guy.





[on Marilyn Monroe ] Marilyn was a sensitive, misunderstood person, much more perceptive than was generally assumed. She had been beaten down, but had a strong emotional intelligence -- a keen intuition for the feelings of others, the most refined type of intelligence. We had an affair and saw each other intermittently until she died in 1962. It's been speculated that she had a secret rendezvous with [ Robert F. Kennedy ] that week and was distraught because he wanted to end an affair between them. But she didn't seem depressed to me, and I don't think that if she was sleeping with him at the time she would have invited me over for dinner. I'm sure she didn't commit suicide. I have always believed that she was murdered.



At Paramount, I sat at lunch with John Wayne . I couldn't even talk.



Do you remember when Marilyn Monroe died? Everybody stopped work, and you could see all that day the same expressions on their faces, the same thought: "How can a girl with success, fame, youth, money, beauty... how could she kill herself?" Nobody could understand it because those are the things that everybody wants, and they can't believe that life wasn't important to Marilyn Monroe, or that her life was elsewhere.

Most New York and Beverly Hills psychoanalysts are a little crazy themselves, as well as highly motivated to separate patients from their money while making their emotional problems worse.





[on Lee Strasberg ] An ambitious, selfish man who exploited the people who attended the Actors Studio, and he tried to project himself as an acting oracle and guru. Some people worshipped him, but I never knew why.



I bumped into Marilyn Monroe at a party. While other people drank and danced, she sat by herself in a corner almost unnoticed, playing the piano.

I come from a long line of Irish drunks.





If given the choice between Kenneth Branagh 's production of Heinrich V. (1989) or Arnold Schwarzenegger 's Terminator (1984), there's hardly a question of where most television dials would be turned. If the expenditure of money for entertainment in America is any indication of taste, clearly the majority of us are addicted to trash.



When I saw Der Pate (1972) the first time, it made me sick; all I could see were my mistakes and I hated it. But years later, when I saw it on television from a different perspective, I decided it was a pretty good film.



[on Al Pacino ] I didn't say much to Pacino when we were making Der Pate (1972), but I not only consider him one of the best actors in America, but in the world. I never meant anything more in my life.

I had a great deal of respect for Don Corleone; I saw him as a man of substance, tradition, dignity, refinement, a man of unerring instinct who just happened to live in a violent world and who had to protect himself and his family in this environment. I saw him as a decent person regardless of what he had to do, as a man who believed in family values and was shaped by events just like the rest of us.





On Der Pate (1972), I had signs and cue cards everywhere -- on my shirt sleeves, on a watermelon and glued to the scenery. Not memorizing lines increased the illusion of reality and spontaneity.

News is business. And, uh, people sell news, and unfortunately people in my position are in the public eye, are sellable commodities, but they're not any different than Kleenex or Dial Soap or anything else. And uh, so if we find something out that's about your sex life, or something you do with your fingernails after you cut them off, if you smoke the grime from your navel, then... then... that's big news. That's important... But anyway, it doesn't matter. Because, finally, you know... I've found that people really don't believe all the nonsense they read. And they look at you when they meet you, and wonder if it's true, but they finally make a decision based on what their experience with you personally is.





A lot of the old movie stars couldn't act their way out of a box of wet tissue paper, but they were successful because they had distinctive personalities. They were predictable brands of breakfast cereal: on Wednesdays we had Quaker Oats and Gary Cooper ; on Fridays we had Wheaties and Clark Gable . They were off-the-shelf products you expected always to be the same, actors and actresses with likable personalities who played themselves more or less the same role the same way every time out.

Everyone on a movie deserves an award - not just one person.





I know it can be hard for a troubled kid like James Dean to have to live up to sudden fame and the ballyhoo Hollywood created around him. I saw it happen to Marilyn Monroe and I also knew it from my own experience. In trying to copy me, I think Jimmy was only attempting to deal with these insecurities, but I told him it was a mistake.

Acting is an illusion, a form of histrionic slight of hand, and in order to carry it off, an actor must have intense concentration. Before I go into a scene, I study it, almost psychoanalyze it. Then I discuss it with the director and then rehearse it. When actual shooting commences, I put in earplugs to screen out the extraneous noises that inevitably prick at one's concentration.



With so much prejudice, racial discrimination, injustice, hatred, poverty, starvation and suffering in the world, making movies seemed increasingly silly and irrelevant.



Food has always been my friend. When I wanted to feel better or had a crisis in my life, I opened the icebox.



I hated authority and did everything I could to defeat it by resisting it, subverting it, tricking it and outmaneuvering it. I would do anything to avoid being treated like a cipher.



If I hadn't been an actor, I've often thought I'd have become a con man and wound up in jail.



An actor's a guy who, if you ain't talking about him, ain't listening.



I'm just another son-of-a-bitch sitting in a motor home on a film set and they come looking for Zeus.





[on working with David Niven on Zwei erfolgreiche Verführer (1964)] Working with David was the only time I ever looked forward to filming. I just couldn't wait to wake up each morning and go to work so he could make me laugh.

I'm often amused when I read American history and I read what great things America was going to be, what great things we were going to produce, the magnificent life we were going to have. We were determined to be an impressive and strong nation that needed a lot of people and a lot of land. And all those people who came: "Give us your great unwashed." Well, we got all the great unwashed there were. From every prison we certainly got a lot of scum and dummies. We didn't get the cream of the crop. We got people from the lowest echelons of society who couldn't make it or weren't happy where they were. Or who were taken from Africa, brought to America in chains and turned into animals.





I think Robert F. Kennedy really, finally, cared; he realized that all of the rhetoric had to be put down into some form of action. That's perhaps the reason they killed him. They don't care what you say, you can say as much as you want to, provided you don't do anything. If you start to do something and your shuffling raises too much dust, they will disestablish you. That's what happened to Martin Luther King



If you have enough money, you can do anything. You can even get a President shot. All you have to do is hire Sam Giancana Sirhan Sirhan . You can get anybody killed for a can of beer. Hire some dumbo hit man, pay him $50,000. You can hire a 17-year-old kid, he'll be out in the streets in two or three years.



Der Pate (1972) said that a man with a briefcase can steal more money than a man with a pistol.

Mothers feel about their children the way husbands feel about women. It's 'my' kid. Women who are in the women's movement, some of them say they are not their husband's possession, but then they'll unconsciously refer to their child as a possession. They use the same kind of language about their children as they would hate for their husbands to use about them.





I don't know Woody Allen , but I like him very much. I saw Der Stadtneurotiker (1977) -- enjoyed it enormously, He's an important man. Woody Allen can't make any sense out of this world and he really tells wonderful jokes about it. Don't you think it was remarkable that his time came to get his door prize at the Academy Awards and he stayed home and played his clarinet? That was as witty and funny a thing as you could do.



Bob Hope will go to the opening of a phone booth in a gas station in Anaheim, provided they have a camera and three people there. He'll go to the opening of a market and receive an award. Get an award from Thom McAn for wearing their shoes. It's pathetic. It's a bottomless pit. A barrel that has no floor. He must be a man who has an ever-crumbling estimation of himself. He's constantly filling himself up. He's like a junkie -- an applause junkie, like Sammy Davis Jr. . Sammy desperately longs to be loved, approved of. He's very talented.



[on Lily Tomlin ] Good God, is she angry. Whew! She gives me the impression of somebody incandescent with rage that comes out in this crinkle-eyed smiling face. Acid. She's funny, but all of her humor comes from anguish, rage and pain. Don Rickles , too. Most humor does.



I liked Mel Brooks Höhenkoller (1977). Mel Brooks makes me laugh. They had a Laurel and Hardy festival on television; boy, I laughed at that. It went on all night long; I was up half the night laughing.



[on Charles Chaplin ] A remarkable talent but a monster of a man.



If an actor can't improvise, then perhaps the producer's wife cast him in that part. You wouldn't be in the film with such a person. Some actors don't like it. Laurence Olivier doesn't like to improvise; everything is structured and his roles are all according to an almost architectural plan.



[on Der letzte Tango in Paris (1972)] I don't know what that film's about. So much of it was improvised. [ Bernardo Bertolucci ] wanted to do this, to do that. I'd seen his other movie, Der große Irrtum (1970), and I thought he was a man of special talent. And he thought of all kinds of improvisations. He let me do anything. He told me the general area of what he wanted and I tried to produce the words or the action.



[on the taxi cab scene in Die Faust im Nacken (1954)] People often spoke about that, "Oh, my God, what a wonderful scene, Marlon, blah blah blah blah blah." It wasn't wonderful at all. The situation was wonderful. Everybody feels like he could have been a contender, he could have been somebody, everybody feels as though he's partly bum, some part of him. He is not fulfilled and he could have done better, he could have been better. Everybody feels a sense of loss about something. So that was what touched people. It wasn't the scene itself.

[on acting] I don't put it down. But I resent people putting it up.





[on claims he defamed Italian-Americans with his portrayal of Der Pate (1972)] I played an Irishman who was a freak psychopath (in Das Loch in der Tür (1971)) and I didn't get any letters from any Irish-American organizations. It would have been difficult to make Der Pate (1972) with an eighth Chinese, a quarter Russian, a quarter Irish and an eighth Hispanic. Very difficult to take those people to Sicily and call them O'Houlihan.



We've somehow substituted craft for art and cleverness for craft. It's revolting! It's disgusting that people talk about art and they haven't got the right to use the word. It doesn't belong on anybody's tongue in this century. There are no artists. We are businessmen. We're merchants. There is no art. Pablo Picasso was the last one I would call an artist.

Mao Tse-tung was the last giant.



I don't think any movie is a work of art.



A prostitute can give you all kinds of wonderful excitement and inspiration and make you think that nirvana has arrived on the two-o'clock plane, and it ain't necessarily so.



Acting is just hustling.





George Bernard Shaw said that thinking was the greatest of all human endeavors, but I would say that feeling was. Allowing yourself to feel things, to feel love or wrath, hatred, rage.



People will like you who never met you, they think you're absolutely wonderful; and then people also will hate you, for reasons that have nothing to do with any real experience with you. People don't want to lose their enemies. We have favorite enemies, people we love to hate and we hate to love. If they do something good, we don't like it. I found myself doing that with Ronald Reagan . He is anathema to me. If he does something that's reasonable, I find my mind trying to find some way to interpret it so that it's not reasonable, so that somewhere it's jingoist extremism.

If you've made a hit movie, then you get the full 32-teeth display in some places; and if you've sort of faded, they say, "Are you still making movies? I remember that picture, blah blah blah." And so it goes. The point of all this is, people are interested in people who are successful.



What people are willing to do in front of a public is puzzling. I don't understand why they do it. I guess it makes them feel a little less lonely. I always found it distasteful and not something I cared to do.



I just don't believe in washing my dirty underwear for all to see, and I'm not interested in the confessions of movie stars.





[on his refusal to talk about Marilyn Monroe 's death] It's disemboweling a ghost.

Ask most kids about details about Auschwitz or about how the American Indians were assassinated as a people and they don't know anything about it. They don't want to know anything. Most people just want their beer or their soap opera or their lullaby.



I'm not going to lay myself at the feet of the American public and invite them into my soul. My soul is a private place. And I have some resentment of the fact that I live in a system where you have to do that.



You can say something in a certain spirit, with a smile, but when it appears in print, there's no smile.



[on American Indians] When they laid down their arms, we murdered them. We lied to them. We cheated them out of their lands. We starved them into signing fraudulent agreements that we called treaties which we never kept. We turned them into beggars on a continent that gave life for as long as life can remember. And by any interpretation of history, however twisted, we did not do right. We were not lawful nor were we just in what we did. For them, we do not have to restore these people, we do not have to live up to some agreements, because it is given to us by virtue of our power to attack the rights of others, to take their property, to take their lives when they are trying to defend their land and liberty, and to make their virtues a crime and our own vices virtues.





[on Charles Chaplin ] Chaplin you got to go with. Chaplin is a man whose talents is such that you have to gamble. First off, comedy is his backyard. He's a genius, a cinematic genius. A comedic talent without peer.



[To his cast on the set of Der Besessene (1961)] I don't know how this film is going to end. But I want a scene where someone gets shot in the back. Who wants to be the shooter? Who wants to be the shootee?



[To his cast and crew on the set of Der Besessene (1961)] I've got to have clouds, not a clear sky, before we can go on shooting.

[on Hollywood] A small-minded little town in the middle of nowhere.





[observation, 1952] One more film and I will have my pile. My mother and father are taken care of. I have eight hundred head of cattle on my ranch in Nevada. This [ Viva Zapata (1952)] should soon bring me an income of $80,000 a year. That will be enough. Any acting I do will be on the stage.

I don't think it's the nature of any man to be monogamous. Men are propelled by genetically ordained impulses over which they have no control to distribute their seed.





[on Burt Reynolds ] He's the epitome of everything that's disgusting about the thespian. He worships at the temple of his own narcissism.

If you want something from an audience, you give blood to their fantasies. It's the ultimate hustle.



I'm not a film fanatic. If I never saw another movie in my life, it wouldn't bother me. Acting is what I do to make money, but it's certainly not my life-style. Compared to world affairs, to peace conferences, making a movie is absolutely nothing!



To grasp the full significance of life is the actor's duty, to interpret it is his problem, and to express it his dedication.





[on Leonardo DiCaprio ] He looks like a girl.



[before directing Der Besessene (1961)] I want to make a frontal assault on the temple of clichés.



[after directing Der Besessene (1961)] I don't feel it's what I set out to do. In my film, everybody lied, even the girl. The only one who told the truth was the Karl Malden character. Paramount made him out to be the heavy, a liar. Now the characters in the film are black and white, not gray and human as I planned them.

I am myself, and if I have to hit my head against a brick wall to remain true to myself, I will do it.





[To Bernardo Bertolucci about his role in Der letzte Tango in Paris (1972)] Never again will I make a film like this one. For the first time, I have felt a violation of my innermost self. It should be the last time.

I too have had homosexual experiences, and I am not ashamed. I'd never paid much attention to what people think about me. Deep down, I feel a bit ambiguous.



I decided to buy a chimp, but before I did, my mother gave me Russell, the young raccoon. My mother had a great imagination that went along with her marvelous sense of humor. He was a sleep wrecker, so I didn't let him get in bed with me often. We would chase each other around the apartment and play fight and tickle, which he loved.





Stella Adler was much more than a teacher of acting. Through her work she imparts the most valuable kind of information - how to discover the nature of our own emotional mechanics and therefore those of others. She never lent herself to vulgar exploitations, as some other well-known so-called "methods" of acting have done. As a result, her contributions to the theatrical culture have remained largely unknown, unrecognized, and unappreciated.

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