Marlon Brando Jr. was an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the

Marlon Brando Jr. was an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, 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 was also an activist for many causes, notably the civil rights movement and various Native American movements. Having studied with Stella Adler in the 1940s, he is credited with being one of the first actors to bring the Stanislavski system of acting, and method acting, to mainstream audiences.

He initially gained acclaim and his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role for reprising the role of Stanley Kowalski in the 1951 film adaptation of Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire, a role that he originated successfully on Broadway. He received further praise, and a first Academy Award and Golden Globe Award, for his performance as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront, and his portrayal of the rebellious motorcycle gang leader Johnny Strabler in The Wild One proved to be a lasting image in popular culture. Brando received Academy Award nominations for playing Emiliano Zapata in Viva Zapata! (1952); Mark Antony in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's 1953 film adaptation of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar; and Air Force Major Lloyd Gruver in Sayonara (1957), an adaptation of James A. Michener's 1954 novel.

The 1960s saw Brando's career take a commercial and critical downturn. He directed and starred in the cult western One-Eyed Jacks, a critical and commercial flop, after which he delivered a series of notable box-office failures, beginning with Mutiny on the Bounty (1962). After ten years of underachieving, he agreed to do a screen test as Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972). He got the part and subsequently won his second Academy Award and Golden Globe Award in a performance critics consider among his greatest. He declined the Academy Award due to "the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry ... and also with recent happenings at Wounded Knee", sending Sacheen Littlefeather to the televised ceremony to refuse the award and make a statement on his behalf. The Godfather became the highest-grossing film ever made, and alongside his Oscar-nominated performance in Last Tango in Paris (1972), Brando reestablished himself in the ranks of top box-office stars.

After a hiatus in the early 1970s, Brando was generally content with being a highly paid character actor in supporting roles, such as Jor-El in Superman (1978), as Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now (1979), and Adam Steiffel in The Formula (1980), before taking a nine-year break from film. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Brando was paid a record $3.7 million ($17 million in inflation-adjusted dollars) and 11.75% of the gross profits for 13 days' work on Superman. Brando was ranked by the American Film Institute as the fourth-greatest movie star among male movie stars whose screen debuts occurred in or before 1950. He was one of only six actors named in 1999 by Time magazine in its list of the 100 Most Important People of the Century. In this list, Time also designated Brando as the "Actor of the Century".

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION
Brando was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on April 3, 1924, to Marlon Brando Sr. (1895 to 1965), a pesticide and chemical feed manufacturer, and Dorothy Julia Pennebaker (1897 to 1954). Brando had two elder sisters, named Jocelyn (1919 to 2005) and Frances (1922 to 1994). His ancestry was mostly German, Dutch, English, and Irish. His patrilineal immigrant ancestor, Johann Wilhelm Brandau, arrived in New York City in the early 1700s from the Palatinate in Germany. He is also...

LINK TO ARTICLE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlon_Brando

TAGS: Marlon Brando, American people of English descent, American people of Dutch descent, American people of German descent, Brando family, Stella Adler Studio of Acting alumni, People from Sayville New York, People from Libertyville Illinois, Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners, Native Americans' rights activists, Method actors, Male actors from Omaha Nebraska, Male actors from Evanston Illinois, LGBT people from Nebraska, LGBT people from Illinois, Bisexual male actors, Former Christian Scientists, Film directors from Illinois, Donaldson Award winners, People with diabetes, Deaths from congestive heart failure, Deaths from respiratory failure, Deaths from pulmonary fibrosis, David di Donatello winners, Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor winners, Best Foreign Actor BAFTA Award winners

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