Marlon Brando
Acting • Born 1924-04-03 – Died 2004-07-01
Biography
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".
Filmography
127 credits
Apocalypse Now
Movie • 1979
Colonel Walter Kurtz
Superman Returns
Movie • 2006
Jor-El
On the Waterfront
Movie • 1954
Terry Malloy
The Freshman
Movie • 1990
Carmine Sabatini, aka Jimmy The Toucan
A Streetcar Named Desire
Movie • 1951
Stanley Kowalski
Movie Tough Guys
Movie • 1991
Self (archive footage)
Last Tango in Paris
Movie • 1972
Paul
Behind the scenes: Last Tango in Paris
Movie • 2004
Self (archive footage)
John Huston: The Man, the Movies, the Maverick
Movie • 1988
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Viva Zapata!
Movie • 1952
Emiliano Zapata
The Men
Movie • 1950
Ken
Don Juan DeMarco
Movie • 1994
Dr. Jack Mickler
Superman
Movie • 1978
Jor-El
Reflections in a Golden Eye
Movie • 1967
Maj. Weldon Penderton
The Movie Orgy
Movie • 1968
Self (archive footage)
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse
Movie • 1991
Self
A Countess from Hong Kong
Movie • 1967
Ogden Mears
Guys and Dolls
Movie • 1955
Sky Masterson
Mutiny on the Bounty
Movie • 1962
First Lieutnant Fletcher Christian
The Score
Movie • 2001
Max
Free Money
Movie • 1998
Warden Sven 'The Swede' Sorenson
The Chase
Movie • 1966
Sheriff Calder
The Formula
Movie • 1980
Adam Steiffel
A Dry White Season
Movie • 1989
Ian McKenzie
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Movie • 1996
Dr. Moreau
The Appaloosa
Movie • 1966
Matt
The Brave
Movie • 1997
McCarthy
The Godfather: The Complete Epic 1901–1959
Movie • 2016
Don Vito Corleone
Sophia Loren, a special destiny
Movie • 2019
Self (archive footage)
The Young Lions
Movie • 1958
Lt. Christian Diestl
Sayonara
Movie • 1957
Major Lloyd Gruver
The Wild One
Movie • 1953
Johnny Strabler
Bedtime Story
Movie • 1964
Freddy Benson
Brando: An Icon Is Born
Movie • 2007
Himself (archive footage)
Christopher Columbus: The Discovery
Movie • 1992
Tomas de Torquemada
The Missouri Breaks
Movie • 1976
Robert E. Lee Clayton
The Nightcomers
Movie • 1972
Peter Quint
Burn!
Movie • 1969
Sir William Walker
Morituri
Movie • 1965
Robert Crain
The Teahouse of the August Moon
Movie • 1957
Sakini
Désirée
Movie • 1954
Napoleon Bonaparte
The Night of the Following Day
Movie • 1969
Chauffeur
Candy
Movie • 1968
Grindl
The Fugitive Kind
Movie • 1960
Valentine 'Snakeskin' Xavier
Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It
Movie • 2021
Self (archive footage)
Tab Hunter Confidential
Movie • 2015
Self (archive footage)
Julius Caesar
Movie • 1953
Mark Antony
One-Eyed Jacks
Movie • 1961
Rio
The Ugly American
Movie • 1963
Ambassador Harrison Carter MacWhite
Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen
Movie • 2012
(archive footage)
The Godfather
Movie • 1972
Don Vito Corleone
Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There
Movie • 2003
Self (archive footage)
Hollywood Screen Tests: Take 1
Movie • 1999
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Happy Birthday, Bob: 50 Stars Salute Your 50 Years with NBC
Movie • 1988
Self (archive footage)
Montgomery Clift: The Hidden Star
Movie • 1987
Self (archive footage)
Daniel Day-Lewis: The Hollywood Genius
Movie • 2021
Himself (archive footage)
Making Montgomery Clift
Movie • 2018
Self (archive footage)
Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration
Movie • 2001
Self
Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood
Movie • 2019
(archive footage)
Hello Actors Studio
Movie • 1988
Self (archive footage)
Sacheen: Breaking the Silence
Movie • 2019
Self (archive footage)
Meet Marlon Brando
Movie • 1966
Self
Martin Scorsese, the Italian-American Master
Movie • 2024
Self
Anthony Quinn: An Original
Movie • 1990
Self (archive footage)
The Godfather: Behind the Scenes
Movie • 1971
Self
Listen to Me Marlon
Movie • 2015
Self (voice) (archive footage)
Black Leather Jacket
Movie • 1989
Johnny Strabler (segment "The Wild One") (archive footage)
Marlon Brando in Paradise
Movie • 2024
Self - Actor (archive footage)
An Actor Named Brando
Movie • 2006
Self (archive footage)
Goldwyn: The Man and His Movies
Movie • 2001
Self (archive footage)
The Brando Interregnum: The Decade of Marlon's Dirty Dozen 1962-1972
Movie • 2022
Himself
Brando
Movie • 2007
Self (archive footage)
Marlon Brando: An Actor Named Desire
Movie • 2014
Self - Actor / Various Roles (archive footage)
The Godfather and the Mob
Movie • 2006
Self (archive footage)
Letter to Jane: An Investigation About a Still
Movie • 1974
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Taking Flight: The Development of 'Superman'
Movie • 2001
Self
The Making of 'Superman: The Movie'
Movie • 1982
Self
Making 'Superman': Filming the Legend
Movie • 2001
Self
Raoni
Movie • 1978
Self - Narrator (voice)
A Huey P. Newton Story
Movie • 2001
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Tennessee Williams: Orpheus of the American Stage
Movie • 1994
Stanley Kowalski / Valentine 'Snakeskin' Xavier (archive footage)
The Godfather Trilogy: 1901-1980
Movie • 1992
Don Vito Corleone
Hollywood Invasion
Movie • 2011
Self (archive footage)
Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut
Movie • 2006
Jor-El
Marlon Brando: The Wild One
Movie • 1994
Self (archive footage)
Ballybrando
Movie • 2009
Self (archive footage)
The Madding Crowd
Movie • 2017
Self (archive footage)
King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis
Movie • 1970
Self (archive footage)
The Last Days of Marlon Brando
Movie • 2008
Self (archive footage)
All Power to the People!
Movie • 1996
Self (archive footage)
kid 90
Movie • 2021
Self (archive footage)
Naqoyqatsi
Movie • 2002
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau
Movie • 2014
Self (archive footage)
Quentin Tarantino: From a Movie Buff to a Hollywood Legend
Movie • 2021
Self (archive footage)
1955, Seven Days of Fall
Movie • 2005
(archive footage)
Operation Teahouse
Movie • 1956
Self
Broadway's Dreamers: The Legacy of the Group Theatre
Movie • 1989
Self (voice)
Lost in "The Thinking"
Movie • 2005
Jor-El (archive footage)
Jack Nicholson: The Joker Is Wild
Movie • 2004
Self(archive footage) (uncredited)
Marlon Brando's Tahitian Mirage
Movie • 2025
Self (archive) - subject
Albert Maysles: The Poetic Eye
Movie • 2006
Self (archival)
Flashing Images of Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando
Movie • 2023
Stanley Kowalski/Self
Tough Guise: Violence, Media & the Crisis in Masculinity
Movie • 1999
Self
Hollywood: No Sex, Please!
Movie • 2018
Hollywood sul Tevere
Movie • 2009
Chaos: The Manson Murders
Movie • 2025
Self - Activist (archive footage)
Always Brando
Movie • 2011
Lynch/Oz
Movie • 2023
Self (archive footage)
Horrifying Hollywood Murders
Movie
Self (archive footage)
E! True Hollywood Story
TV • 1996
The David Susskind Show
TV • 1959
Self
The Ed Sullivan Show
TV • 1948
Self
Celebrities Uncensored
TV • 2003
Self
Roots: The Next Generations
TV • 1979
George Lincoln Rockwell
The Hollywood Greats
TV • 1977
The Oscars
TV • 1953
Self
Mario Puzo's The Godfather: The Complete Novel for Television
TV • 1977
Don Vito Corleone
Midi trente
TV • 1972
Self
Cinépanorama
TV • 1956
Self
The Dick Cavett Show
TV • 1968
Self - Guest
Brando: The Documentary
TV • 2007
Self
The Mike Douglas Show
TV • 1961
Self
The Sixties
TV • 2014
Self - Civil Rights Activist (archive footage)
Vow of Silence: The Assassination of Annie Mae
TV • 2024
Self (archive footage)
The English Programme
TV • 1976
Self - Narrator (voice)
MGM Parade
TV • 1955
Final Days of an Icon
TV • 2007