Marlon Brando
Born
April 3, 1924
Died
July 1, 2004 (80 years old)
Known For
Acting
Place of Birth
Omaha, Nebraska, USA
Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) 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, 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, derived from the Stanislavski system, 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 alleged mistreatment and misportrayal of Native Americans by Hollywood. The Godfather was one of the most commercially successful films of all time, 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 ($16 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".
Marlon Brando's Tahitian Mirage
Self (archive) - subject
2025
Marlon Brando in Paradise
Self - Actor (archive footage)
2024
Martin Scorsese, l'Italo-Américain
Self
2023
Sly
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
2023
Star 67
Prank Call Voice
2023
Johnny Depp: The Love of the Bizarre
Self (archive footage)
2023
The Brando Interregnum: The Decade of Marlon's Dirty Dozen 1962-1972
Himself
2022
Becoming Al Pacino
Self (archive footage)
2022
Mr. Saturday Night
2021
Daniel Day-Lewis: The Hollywood Genius
Himself (archive footage)
2021
Val
Self (archive footage)
2021
Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It
Self (archive footage)
2021
kid 90
Self (archive footage)
2021
Quentin Tarantino: From a Movie Buff to a Hollywood Legend
Self (archive footage)
2021
Jay Sebring… Cutting to the Truth
Self (archive footage)
2020
Sophia Loren, a special destiny
Self (archive footage)
2019
Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood
(archive footage)
2019
Sacheen: Breaking the Silence
Self (archive footage)
2019
Making Montgomery Clift
Self (archive footage)
2018
The Madding Crowd
Self (archive footage)
2017
Listen to Me Marlon
Self (voice) (archive footage)
2015
Tab Hunter Confidential
Self (archive footage)
2015
Marlon Brando: An Actor Named Desire
Self - Actor / Various Roles (archive footage)
2014
Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau
Self (archive footage)
2014
The Sixties
Self - Civil Rights Activist (archive footage) · (1 episode)
2014
And the Oscar Goes To...
Self (archive footage)
2014
Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen
(archive footage)
2012
Hollywood Invasion
Self (archive footage)
2011
Smash His Camera
Self (archive footage)
2010
Ballybrando
Self (archive footage)
2009
The Last Days of Marlon Brando
Self (archive footage)
2008
Brando: An Icon Is Born
Himself (archive footage)
2007
Brando
Self (archive footage)
2007
Brando: The Documentary
Self · (2 episodes)
2007
You Will Believe: The Cinematic Saga of Superman
Self (archive footage)
2006
Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut
Jor-El
2006
Albert Maysles: The Poetic Eye
Self (archival)
2006
Superman Returns
Jor-El
2006
Look, Up in the Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman
Self (archive footage)
2006
An Actor Named Brando
Self (archive footage)
2006
The Godfather and the Mob
Self (archive footage)
2006
Lost in "The Thinking"
Jor-El (archive footage)
2005
1955, Seven Days of Fall
(archive footage)
2005
Behind the scenes: Last Tango in Paris
Self (archive footage)
2004
Jack Nicholson: The Joker Is Wild
Self(archive footage) (uncredited)
2004
Celebrities Uncensored
Self · (1 episode)
2003
Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There
Self (archive footage)
2003
Naqoyqatsi
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
2002
Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration
Self
2001
Goldwyn: The Man and His Movies
Self (archive footage)
2001
The Score
Max
2001
A Huey P. Newton Story
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
2001
Taking Flight: The Development of 'Superman'
Self
2001
Making 'Superman': Filming the Legend
Self
2001
Hollywood Screen Tests: Take 1
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
1999
Free Money
Warden Sven 'The Swede' Sorenson
1998
Lee Marvin: A Personal Portrait by John Boorman
Self (archive footage)
1998
The Brave
McCarthy
1997
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Dr. Moreau
1996
E! True Hollywood Story
(1 episode)
1996
All Power to the People!
Self (archive footage)
1996
Divine Rapture
1995
Tennessee Williams: Orpheus of the American Stage
Stanley Kowalski / Valentine 'Snakeskin' Xavier (archive footage)
1994
Don Juan DeMarco
Dr. Jack Mickler
1994
Marlon Brando: The Wild One
Self (archive footage)
1994
The Godfather Trilogy: 1901-1980
Don Vito Corleone
1992
Christopher Columbus: The Discovery
Tomas de Torquemada
1992
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse
Self
1991
Movie Tough Guys
Self (archive footage)
1991
Anthony Quinn: An Original
Self (archive footage)
1990
The Freshman
Carmine Sabatini, aka Jimmy The Toucan
1990
The Godfather Family: A Look Inside
Self / Don Vito Corleone (archive footage)
1990
A Dry White Season
Ian McKenzie
1989
Broadway's Dreamers: The Legacy of the Group Theatre
Himself
1989
Black Leather Jacket
Johnny Strabler (segment "The Wild One") (archive footage)
1989
Hello Actors Studio
Self (archive footage)
1988
John Huston: The Man, the Movies, the Maverick
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
1988
Happy Birthday, Bob: 50 Stars Salute Your 50 Years with NBC
Self (archive footage)
1988
Montgomery Clift: The Hidden Star
Self (archive footage)
1987
The Making of 'Superman: The Movie'
Self
1982
The Godfather 1901–1959: The Complete Epic
Don Vito Corleone
1981
The Formula
Adam Steiffel
1980
Apocalypse Now
Colonel Walter Kurtz
1979
Roots: The Next Generations
George Lincoln Rockwell · (7 episodes)
1979
Superman
Jor-El
1978
Raoni
Narrator
1978
Mario Puzo's The Godfather: The Complete Novel for Television
Don Vito Corleone · (4 episodes)
1977
The Hollywood Greats
(1 episode)
1977
The Missouri Breaks
Robert E. Lee Clayton
1976
Letter to Jane: An Investigation About a Still
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
1974
Last Tango in Paris
Paul
1972
The Godfather
Don Vito Corleone
1972
Midi trente
Self · (1 episode)
1972
The Nightcomers
Peter Quint
1972
The Godfather: Behind the Scenes
Self
1971
King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis
Self (archive footage)
1970
Burn!
Sir William Walker
1969
The Night of the Following Day
Chauffeur
1969
Candy
Grindl
1968
The Dick Cavett Show
Self - Guest · (1 episode)
1968
The Movie Orgy
Self (archive footage)
1968
Reflections in a Golden Eye
Maj. Weldon Penderton
1967
A Countess from Hong Kong
Ogden Mears
1967
Meet Marlon Brando
Self
1966
The Appaloosa
Matt
1966
The Chase
Sheriff Calder
1966
Morituri
Robert Crain
1965
Bedtime Story
Freddy Benson
1964
The Ugly American
Ambassador Harrison Carter MacWhite
1963
Mutiny on the Bounty
First Lieutnant Fletcher Christian
1962
The Mike Douglas Show
Self · (1 episode)
1961
One-Eyed Jacks
Rio
1961
The Fugitive Kind
Valentine 'Snakeskin' Xavier
1960
The David Susskind Show
Self · (1 episode)
1959
The Young Lions
Lt. Christian Diestl
1958
Sayonara
Major Lloyd Gruver
1957
The Teahouse of the August Moon
Sakini
1957
Operation Teahouse
Self
1956
Cinépanorama
Self · (1 episode)
1956
Guys and Dolls
Sky Masterson
1955
Désirée
Napoleon Bonaparte
1954
On the Waterfront
Terry Malloy
1954
The Wild One
Johnny Strabler
1953
Julius Caesar
Mark Antony
1953
The Oscars
Self · (3 episodes)
1953
Viva Zapata!
Emiliano Zapata
1952
A Streetcar Named Desire
Stanley Kowalski
1951
The Men
Ken
1950
The Ed Sullivan Show
Self · (2 episodes)
1948