http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,124583,00.html Actor Marlon Brando Dead at 80 Friday, July 02, 2004 PHOTOS VIDEO PHOTO ESSAYS Photo Essays: • Marlon Brando 1924- 2004 STORIES • Movie Quotations: Marlon Brando • Quotations: Marlon Brando • Filmography: Marlon Brando LOS ANGELES — Marlon Brando, who turned 80 years old just two months ago, is dead, the actor's sister and a close family friend told FOXNews.com's Roger Friedman Friday morning. Brando, termed the greatest living actor by most of his peers, is most famous for his roles in "The Godfather," "On the Waterfront," and "A Streetcar Named Desire." Brando's sister Jocelyn exclusively confirmed the actor's death, and a family friend in Palm Springs, Calif., told FOXNews.com that Brando died Thursday at 6:20 p.m. in a Los Angeles-area hospital after being taken there Wednesday night. "His family is gathering from all over the world and will be making arrangements following his last will and testament," said Brando's attorney David J. Seeley. The cause of death was being withheld, Seeley said, noting the actor "was a very private man." Details about those plans weren't disclosed. Seeley said arrangements would be private. His longtime friend and "Godfather" co-star James Caan says he was "shocked" by the news of Brando's death. Caan says Brando "influenced more young actors of my generation than any actor." Brando became a movie idol in the early 1950s and popularized the jeans-and-T-shirt look well before James Dean did. But soon, the theatrically-trained actor began shunning his teeny bopper image by accepting serious roles like that of Mark Antony in “Julius Caesar” (1953). He won the Best Actor Oscar for “On the Waterfront” (1954) and took on a wide range of roles after that, garnering popular and critical acclaim as one of the greatest cinema actors of the late 20th century. Born Marlon Brando Jr. in Omaha, Neb., on April 3, 1924, he grew up in Illinois. After he was expelled from the military academy he attended, Brando dug ditches until his father offered to pay for his education. Brando moved to New York and studied with famed acting coach Stella Adler at Lee Strasberg’s Actors’ Studio, where he adopted the "method approach," which emphasizes characters' motivations for actions. He made his Broadway debut in John Van Druten's sentimental “I Remember Mama” (1944). Two years later, New York theater critics voted him Broadway's Most Promising Actor for his performance in “Truckline Café” (1946). And in 1947, Brando played his greatest stage role, Stanley Kowalski — the brute who rapes his sister-in-law, the fragile Blanche du Bois — in Tennessee Williams' “A Streetcar Named Desire.” The Tennessee Williams play thrust Brando into the spotlight, and his first signs of discomfort emerged. The press made much of his weird behavior, his motorcycle, leather jackets and T-shirts, his bongo drum playing. He hated the clamor of fans and suffered through interviews. The image of Stanley Kowalski seemed to have fallen on Brando, and he once protested to an interviewer: "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." When Hollywood called, Brando answered, making his film debut in “The Men” (1950) and a year later playing Stanley Kowalski once again, this time in the 1951 film version of “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Other Brando movies include “Viva Zapata!” (1952), “The Wild One” (1954), “Désirée” (1954) and “Guys and Dolls” (1955). In fact, he was voted by movie exhibitors to be one of the top 10 box-office draws in the country from 1955 to 1958. His impact on screen acting was demonstrated by Academy nominations as best actor in four successive years: as Kowalski in "A Streetcar Named Desire"; as the Mexican revolutionary in "Viva Zapata!"; as Marc Anthony in "Julius Caesar"; and as Terry Malloy in "On the Waterfront." The latter brought his first Oscar. Although he remained in Hollywood, he refused to be part of it. "Hollywood is ruled by fear and love of money," he told a reporter. "But it can't rule me because I'm not afraid of anything and I don't love money." In the 1960s, his career took a nose dive – with the lowest point being the disastrous MGM 1962 remake of “Mutiny on the Bounty,” which wasn’t able to earn back even half of its monstrous budget. It was during the filming of “Mutiny,” in which Brando plays Fletcher Christian (Clark Gable’s role in the 1935 original), that he began engaging in self-indulgent, self-destructive behavior on and off the set. At work, he threw on-set tantrums and tried to change the script. When he wasn’t filming, Brando was eating excessively, having a string of affairs and keeping away from his fellow cast members. Brando's career was reborn in 1972 with his depiction of Mafia chieftain Don Corleone in “The Godfather.” He refused his Academy Award for Best Actor as a protest of Hollywood's treatment of Native Americans. Brando proceeded the following year to the highly controversial yet highly acclaimed “Last Tango in Paris,” which was rated X. After that, he received huge salaries for playing small parts in such movies as “Superman” (1978) and “Apocalypse Now” (1979). Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for “A Dry White Season” in 1989, Brando also appeared in “The Freshman” with Matthew Broderick. In 1995, he costarred in “Don Juan DeMarco” with Johnny Depp. In early 1996 Brando costarred in the film, “The Island of Dr. Moreau.” Entertainment Weekly reported that the actor was using an earpiece to remember his lines. Brando's years of self-indulgence became apparent later in his life. He weighed well over 300 pounds in the mid-1990s. Brando’s personal life has been marred by unhappiness. As the son of alcoholic, distant, sexually promiscuous parents, Brando had a troubled childhood. He was married three times to three ex-actresses and had nine children. One of his children, Christian, was sentenced to 10 years in California state prison for voluntary manslaughter in the death of his sister Cheyenne's fiance, Dag Drollet. Christian claimed Drollet was physically abusing his pregnant sister and said he accidentally shot Drollet in the face during a struggle. Brando, in the house at the time, gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to Drollet and called 911. Brando's daughter Cheyenne, in and out of drug rehabilitation centers and mental institutions, later was declared too depressed to raise her child, custody of whom was given to her mother. Cheyenne hanged herself on Easter Sunday in 1995. "I tried to be a good father," People magazine reported Brando as saying on the witness stand during his son Christian's trial. "I did the best I could." The glaring spotlight never changed his ways. "I am myself," he once declared, "and if I have to hit my head against a brick wall to remain true to myself, I will do it." The Associated Press contributed to this report.
