From -
http://www.themediadrome.com/cgi-bin...88792967,8848,
Marlon Brando Dies At 80
Friday, July 2, 2004
Marlon Brando, four time Oscar nominee and one of the greatest actors in motion picture history, has died at the age of 80.
Brando introduced the Stanislavsky Method to filmgoers of the 1950s and the power and intensity of his preformances influenced a generation of actors, including Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and Jack Nicholson.
Born Marlon Brando, Jr. in Omaha, Nebraska, Brando was a chubby kid, always in trouble with authority. The greatest influence on his early life was undoubtedly his mother, a creative woman who found little outlet for her energy. It was through her involvement in the local community theatre that the Young Brando was first exposed to theatre.
His father had other ideas for the boy, however, and packed him off to military school. Brando was soon expelled and at 19 moved to New York where one of his older sisters, Jocelyn, was studying art. Jocelyn signed up for an acting class with Stella Adler and Brando joined her. He immediately impressed the exacting teacher who predicted that the newcomer would best them all within a year.
Brando followed his training with Adler with a number of theatrical roles, culminating in 1947's A Streetcar Named Desire. The role of the brutish Stanley Kowalski made him a star and also brought him his first taste of the "star treatment". The young actor disliked the trappings of success and after his contractual two-year run was complete, never appeared in another play.
His desire to avoid the adulation traditionally rained on actors and movie stars informed his post-Streetcar choice of movie roles and he eventually decided on the independent Stanley Kramer film, The Men, in which he played a paraplegic war veteran. Stardom was out to get him, though, and the following year he reprised his role as Stanley Kowalski in Elia Kazan's big screen version of Streetcar. The role brought him the first of four consecutive Oscar nominations, the others were for Viva Zapata! (1952), Julius Caesar (1953) and On the Waterfront (1954). His part in Waterfron, again under Kazan's direction, finally won him the award.
Following that film he gradually segued into more commercial but less successful films, although his performance in them was always riveting. He brought not only an intensity, but a full emotional life to his roles. Still, by the end of the sixties it seemed as if his glory days were over. Then Francis Ford Coppola called with a role in a gangster epic he was planning.
The Godfather (1972) was not only a massive commercial success, it was also lauded by critics who recognized a seminal cinematic achievement. The film swept the Academy Awards and brought Brando his second Oscar. This time he did not accept, however. Instead he sent a Native American woman to decline the honour with a speech about U.S. oppression of her people. The speech was greeted with booes and cemented Brando's reputation as a "misguided weirdo". The actor's dedication to the cause of minorities and the downtrodden was not new, however, and he tried to practice what he preached. At one point buying a Tahitian island with a view to creating a protective envronmental resort.
Later years brought the actor personal tragedy as his son Christian was accused of murdering his sister Cheyenne's boyfriend. A jury found him guilty of voluntary manslaughter and he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. A few years later, in 1995, Cheyenne committed suicide. She was 25 and reportedly still depressed about the murder.
Brando continued to work, and although the roles became less memorable, there was still the occasional flash of his former brilliance, such as the comedy The Freshman (1990).
It is difficult to overstate the importance of Marlon Brando in world cinema. Although he was not the earliest proponant of the Method on film, he almost single-handedly raised awareness of it as an approach that allowed actors to bring truth and immediacy into darkened halls around the world. For Brando, though, his job was "not to bore" his audience. And he never did.
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www.iwon.com .. sad news.