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Marlon Brando – Moody, Mercurial, Magnificent
“Bud” Brando was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on April 3. But before he turned six, he’d lived in three different states; he learned early on that roots were not permanent things.
In 1943, he enrolled in Erwin Piscator’s Dramatic Workshop at the New School for Social Research. His teacher: Stella Adler.
Casting agent Maynard Morris discovered Brando and helped him get cast in the Broadway production of “I Remember Mama”. Brando’s next big role was the stage version of “A Streetcar Named Desire”. In no time, Hollywood came calling.
Brando’s distinctive style has influenced American film actors ever since. Brando’s performance as the rough-hewn, sexually charged, animalistic Stanley Kowalski in the film “A Streetcar Named Desire” earned him an Oscar nomination. “The Wild One” and “On The Waterfront” established him as a Hollywood legend. But Brando wanted more, fought against being typecast.
Brando took on a musical role in “Guys And Dolls”, and played Fletcher Christian in “Mutiny On The Bounty.” In 1961 Brando took roles both in front of the camera and behind it — directing and acting in the psychological Western, “One-Eyed Jacks”.
It’s hard to imagine what acting would be today without Brando’s influence. Or what our society in general would’ve been like without him. Could the 1960’s have happened without this exchange from “The Wild One”?
“What are you rebelling against?”
Brando pauses, looks the woman dead in the eye
“Whaddaya got?”
Moody. Mercurial. Magnificent. Brando truly was “The Wild One”.