Marlon Brando: A Tragic Gentleman

Marlon Brando was for a long time the prototype of the Hollywood playboy, but also a master of acting, who had trained at the famous Actor’s Studio thanks to the teachings of the famous director Konstantin Stanislavski.

At the same time, he was a deeply tormented man who never managed to live in peace with himself. Numerous biographies have been written on the life of Marlon Brando: some full of fantasy, while others reflect the reality of the facts.

All, however, coincide on the fact that this extraordinary actor lived on inner conflicts that accompanied him until the end of his days.

Marlon Brando revolutionized the world of acting. With his deep commitment to art and his little respect for the canons of commercial cinema, he exerted a decisive influence on other great actors, such as Al Pacino, Robert de Niro, Jack Nicholson, as well as on his great friend. Johnny Depp.

The childhood of Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando was born in Omaha (Nebraska, United States), on April 3, 1924, into a wealthy family. His namesake father was a producer who never gave credit to his son’s talent. The mother was an actress who worked in local theaters and was said to be bipolar.

It is also said that Brando has seen her several times in and out of the house with different men, who on more than one occasion beat her. Apparently both parents were alcoholics.

From childhood, little Marlon was extraordinarily beautiful. It is said that he purposely neglected his appearance to reduce the impact it had on those around him. He was also extraordinarily rebellious: he had been expelled from several schools due to his indomitable temperament.

It is said that from an early age he had a tendency to self-whip, perhaps because he refused his charm or perhaps as a form of extreme manifestation towards the rejection of his father.

The acting career

In 1943 he moved to New York, where he lived with his two beloved sisters. Right there he decided to enroll in the acting course of Stella Alder, a pupil of Stanislavski.

At their first meeting, it was she who asked: “Who is this tramp?” and he replied “Marlon Brando”. It took a couple of weeks for the scruffy looking boy to become his favorite pupil.

Anyone who knew him in those years defines him as an acting enthusiast, always accompanied by a veil of sadness. Marlon Brando deeply loved his mother, to whom he owed his initial interest in art. Moreover, he wanted to see her away from her father, an avid Don Giovanni who did not show the slightest respect for her.

It is said that before arriving in New York, he had to struggle for a long time with his mother’s alcoholism. He spent whole nights looking for her for clubs.

Once she took him home because he had fainted from too much alcohol; she was naked and did not know where her clothes were. Perhaps it was these experiences that gave the roles he played a unique depth.

The glory and the decay

Marlon Brando was born primarily as a successful theater actor. So he landed in Hollywood and made a splash in most of his films which, incidentally, weren’t many.

He thoroughly studied the psychology of his characters to interpret them in all their complexity. He paid attention to all gestures and movements. He once played a sick man who had suffered from a heart attack and many believed he was indeed having a seizure during the scene.

He was already famous when his mother died in his arms. Apparently, realizing that she was dead, he cut off a lock of her hair and took the ring she always wore off, and then walked in the street, as if in a trance, for several hours.

Following this episode, he began to gain weight until he became obese and greatly neglected his appearance, which is why he was ignored by so many directors.

Marlon Brando was successful with women. He himself claimed that all his girlfriends were friends with each other.

He married three times; bought an island in Tahiti and had ups and downs throughout his career. Eventually, he claimed that he would only act for a hefty fee. In various interviews he confessed that he felt incapable of loving.

Furthermore, he was a staunch activist, an advocate for American Indian rights; for this reason he decided to allow himself the luxury of rejecting one of the Oscars won during his career. His life is said to have ended in poverty, with the support of state subsidies. He died on July 1, 2004 in Los Angeles.