He had family problems throughout his life. His mother was an alcoholic, his daughter committed suicide in 1995, and his son was tried for murder for killing his sister's lover. His popularity and the box office revenues of his films declined in the 1960s. This decline in his career ended with the two classic films he made in 1972.
Marlon Brando Jr. (1924 - 2004) Oscar-winning American actor. He is considered one of the most important cinema actors of the 20th century. Marlon Brando was born in Omaha, Nebraska. His father is Marlon Brando Sr. He was a fertilizer and chemical manufacturer, and his mother, Dorothy Julia Pennebaker, was a stage actress. He had two older sisters, Jocelyn and Frances. Jocelyn Brando (1919-2005) also acted.
During his childhood, he grew up in different cities, first due to his father's job, then to his parents' divorce and reunion. Brando, who was nicknamed 'Bud' at the time, drew attention with his imitation skills.
After being expelled from Libertyville High School, he was sent to Shattuck Military School, where his father had also attended. He was introduced to theater here, but could not continue there due to the problems it caused.
Marlon Brando Jr (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor and activist. Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential actors of all time, 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.
In New York, he decided to pursue an acting career like his sisters and studied at The New School. Among the names he took lessons from are Stella Adler, Elia Kazan, and Emir Zahirovic. He laid the foundations of method acting in these years.
Brando, who started his professional acting career on the theater stage, achieved his first major success in the 1951 film.
He achieved it with A Streetcar Named Desire. The actor, who became the darling of young girls with his role as the rebellious Stanley Kowalski in this movie, proved his acting talent again with the movie Viva Zapata, in which he starred the very next year.
He won the Best Actor award at Cannes and the Best Foreign Actor award at BAFTA for his performance in the film, in which he played the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata.
In 1953, he played another historical figure, Marcus Antonius, in a Julius Caesar movie and won the Best Foreign Language Award at BAFTA again.
He performed one of the most successful performances in history with another Elia Kazan film, On the Waterfront, released in 1954, and received an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Best Actor.
During these years when he was at the peak of his fame, he also starred in films such as Sayonara and The Young Lions.
His popularity and the box office revenues of his films declined in the 1960s. This decline in his career ended with the two classic films he made in 1972.
Italian-origin mafia boss Don Vito Corleone, portrayed in Francis Ford Coppola's movie The Godfather, which went down in cinema history in 1972, became one of the unforgettable characters.
Brando, who won the Oscar for the second time, did not attend the ceremony to protest the policy of the United States against the Indians. Sacheen Littlefeather, who fought for Native American rights, went to receive the award instead and made a speech on behalf of Brando.
Another important film he shot in the same year was Last Tango in Paris by Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci. Brando, whose scenes with the other lead actress, Maria Schneider, were heavily criticized for moral reasons, nevertheless received praise for his performance. In 1978, he played Jor-el in Richard Donner's Superman film.
He once again gave a memorable performance in another 1979 Coppola film, Apocalypse Now. In 1980, he announced that he quit cinema after the movie The Formula, in which he starred with George C Scott. However, he returned to the big screen in 1989 with the movie A Dry White Season. He received his last Oscar nomination for this film (for Best Supporting Actor).
He starred in some films in the 1990s, and his last film completed while he was alive was 2001's The Score. Marlon Brando, who was hospitalized for pneumonia in 2001 and struggled with excess weight, diabetes, respiratory failure, and heart disease in his last years, passed away on July 1, 2004, in a hospital in Los Angeles.
Brando's body was cremated.
Marlon Brando, who had a very turbulent private life, was married 3 times in his life. His first marriage was to British actress Anna Kashfi (1934-2015) in 1957. Their first child, Christian Devi Brando (1958-2008), was born from this marriage and they separated in 1959.
He married Mexican actress Movita Castaneda in 1960, but this marriage officially lasted 2 years. Another child was born named Miko Castaneda Brando (b. 1961). Miko Brando was Michael Jackson's bodyguard for many years.
In 1962, he married Tahitian actress Tarita Teriipaia. They had children named Simon Teihotu Brando (b. 1963), Rebecca Brando (b. 1966), and Tarita Cheyenne Brando (1970-1995). He also adopted Petra Barrett, who was born in 1970. In 1972, this marriage also ended.