relationship between Paul and Kim ended like this. Once, when they were having sex, she called out“ Marlon,” and Newman became furious. He leapt out of bed, put on his clothes and stormed out after they argued. Kim said.“ Don’ t judge me. I’ m trying to get over Brando. You look like him – you can help me get over him. You don’ t know what it’ s like to get fucked by Marlon Brando.”
Newman replied,“ You’ re wrong about that. I know exactly what it feels like to get fucked by Marlon Brando.”
Actress Shelley Winters blabbed that she once had a three-way with Brando and Newman. She later told her lover John Ireland,“ In the 40s I had a threeway with Gable and Flynn; in the 50s I sampled Newman and Brando together. I can’ t wait to see what the 60s will bring.”
Marlon Brando’ s great looks, talent as an actor and his appeal to both men and women sustained a Hollywood career that lasted decades.
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He was a generous and tireless advocate for social justice, particularly for the rights of African-Americans and Native Americans. He supported statehood for Israel, and in 1946 he performed in Ben Hecht’ s Zionist play, A Flag is Born. When Brando read in a newspaper that actress Veronica Lake had fallen on hard times and was working as a cocktail waitress in Manhattan, he had his accountant mail her a check for $ 1,000; she never cashed it, out of pride, but framed it and hung it on a wall to show to her gay friends.
The roles he lived off-screen were even more provocative than those he created on film. When filming Mutiny on the Bounty in Tahiti in the early 1960s, he fell in love with the place and purchased a private 12-island atoll. He married the Tahitian actress who played his love interest in the film and became fluent in French, her native tongue( he conducted many interviews in French). After Brando’ s death, a portion of his ashes( along with those of Wally Cox) were scattered in Tahiti.
The world knew of his predilection for“ dark-skinned women”, particularly those of Tahitian and American Indian descent. The fact Brando had a skinny, bespectacled male lover called Wally didn’ t fit the image. Yet he once admitted that he had never been happy with a woman, adding:“ If Wally had been a woman, I would have married him, and we would have lived happily ever after.” Wally Cox was the only person Brando allowed to berate him – many was the time that Cox would put Brando in his place.
In his youth Brando was an electrifyingly handsome and talented star. Exuding a sense of brooding power and bottled-up anger, he changed the way stars, both male and female, acted and even the way young men dressed. James Dean based his entire charisma on Brando, whom he worshiped. Marlon’ s blue jeans and tight T-shirts became standard issue while he reigned as the male sex symbol of the 1950s. But he was much more than just a rebel. He later chalked up two Oscar-winning performances in On the Waterfront and The Godfather.
In later years he admitted,“ I searched for, but never found, what I was looking for either on screen or off. Mine was a glamorous, turbulent life – but completely unfulfilling.” At the time of his death at 80 years old in 2004, he weighed well over 300 pounds and was suffering from diabetes, pulmonary fibrosis, congestive heart failure, liver cancer and failing eyesight.
In his two Oscar winning roles: On The Waterfront & The Godfather
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performance on the night of December 3, 1947, made theatrical history. A Streetcar Named Desire opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in NYC, and no one could remember an actor or actress so electrifying an audience. For days people had lined up around the block to buy tickets. Theatre doyenne Jean Dalrymple said,“ From the moment Brando walked out on stage, all eyes were riveted on him. He was like an animal in heat, with those tight jeans and sweaty T-shirt. His Stanley was violent and crude, totally mesmerizing. I don’ t recall having seen such utter rapture in a drama. It was more than a new star being born – we were devastated by the performance, as if a quart of our blood had been drained from us. I knew that I had witnessed Broadway history – in this performance acting, and theatre itself, had changed for all time.”
Marlon Brando, at the tender age of 23, gave a performance that caused people to leap to their feet in a 30-minute ovation after the curtain went down. Jessica Tandy( portraying Blanche) was furious, because she knew the applause was not for her. In the audience were Cary Grant, David Selznick, Montgomery Clift, Edward G. Robinson, Geraldine Page, George Cukor and Paul Muni – all gasping for air. Tandy, whom younger readers might know from her Oscarwinning performance in Driving Miss Daisy, somehow coped with Brando’ s masterful performances, each varying from night to night.
Elia Kazan also directed the 1951 film version. This time Blanche was portrayed by Vivien Leigh, an actress with whom Brando had greater chemistry than Tandy. He was brilliant and received an Oscar nomination for best actor. By the time of his death, the American Film Institute had named Brando the fourth greatest male film star, and Time Magazine included him in its list of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century.