One hundred years after his birth, Marlon Brando remains the best “godfather” of all time: portrait of a rebel with a cause

Immortalized as Vito Corleone in The Godfatheror as Colonel Walter E. Kurtz in Apocalypse now, Marlon Brando He shaped the history of Hollywood cinema by being considered one of the best actors of all time. TO 100 years after his birth, his greatness and his contradictions resonate.

The world has already experienced twenty years of Brando’s absence, who died in 2004 due to pulmonary fibrosis. But the public continues to evoke its existence through the cinematographic works with which marked a unique interpretative style that would generate a turning point in the sectorand which would be adopted by many of his contemporaries.

Actors like it James Dean, Paul Newman, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro emulated his technique: “There is no one before or after Marlon Brando. His acting gift was enormous and impeccable, like Picasso,” said his friend. Jack Nicholson one day after his death.

He died at 80 years old. He was already nearly blind due to diabetes and used a wheelchair due to his obesity.. He is remembered not only for his power of seduction and beauty: memorable roles attest to this.

The story of an irreverent and brilliant Aries

Rebellious, talented, chameleonic, irreverent. Brando born 3 April 1924 in Omaha, Nebraska, and although he received the same name as his father (the producer of The bare edge, His mother, stage actress Dorothy Julia “Dodie” Brando, was his great muse.although both were also the source of his constant torment.

Brando He chose the path of acting despite his father’s disagreement.. He trained in New York and his career took off doing theatre.

He was a student of Stella Adlerfrom whom he learned the technique of the Russian theater director and pedagogue Konstantin Stanislavsky known as “the method”, which he himself would later popularize in Hollywood, characterized by an intense psychological approach of the interpreters with their characters.

Brando’s talent became evident in 1946 when, without being a famous actor, he shocked film critic Pauline Kael in the comedy Truckline Café. A year later the power of his technique came to fruition A tram called Desideriodirected by Elia Kazan, he would have placed it on Broadway and would have warmed up his engines to conquer the mecca of cinema.

His first role in the big screen was in The Men (1950), where he brought a war veteran to life. In 1951 he repeated his success on Broadway in the film A tram called Desiderio, for which he received his first Oscar nomination.

Two more films were enough for him to reach legendary status: Long live Zapata! (1952), as the iconic Mexican revolutionary, and Julius Caesarr (1953), where he immortalized the Mark Antony imagined by Shakespeare.

The Oscar arrived with his portrayal of the boxer Terry Malloy in Rat’s Nest (On the Waterfront, 1954). After a period of unremarkable roles, she revolutionized the film industry with him Francis Ford Coppola with the premiere of The Godfather (1972).

A troubled, controversial and controversial star

In the 70s he had a personal crisis and became a hermitand since then its trajectory has been very erratic.

The Godfather made him immortal. Legend has it that Coppola went home. The actor had just woken up. She appeared in a silk kimono. The director told her that she had to do a make-up test and took out a camera. Brando played Corleone. Coppola was fascinated, ran back to the studio manager and played him the recording.. Although Paramount didn’t want Marlon, the outstanding performance impressed everyone. “The role is yours,” the senior leaders said without hesitation.

The role of the Sicilian mafia boss in The Godfather (along with Al Pacino) immortalized his career. It also earned him something a second Oscar that he would refuse as a form of protest against the treatment and representation that Hollywood donated to the Native Americans.

After giving life to the gangster, he starred in the controversial Last tango in Paris (1972), from Bernardo Bertolucciin which a rape was depicted so realistically that, years later, the actress Maria Schneider She reported this as true because she had not been warned by either Brando or the director that this scene would exist in the film.

Behind Brando’s charisma and brilliance on screen hid a troubled man who suffered from his mother’s alcoholismthat he had to save from delicate scenarios, and that was victim of an angry and violent father who never recognized his talent.

Although he was an actor very attentive to his private life, Brando earned a reputation as a womanizer. He married three times, he had eleven children and was involved with movie stars as big as Marilyn Monroe, with whom he had an on-and-off relationship for years, according to his autobiography. Songs my mother taught me.

He was not ashamed – in the old days – to admit that he had had homosexual relations on several occasions and the rumors circulating in this regard involve the likes of James Dean or Jack Nicholson.

During the last phase of his life, the actor went through complicated moments such as the murder of his daughter’s boyfriend. Cheyennee, for which the eldest son was blamed, and which led to the daughter’s suicide years later due to overweight and loneliness problems.

Some memorable phrases

• “When I was born, I didn’t cry. I pretended to cry. No one realized that it was just one role: that of a newborn who calms everyone with his crying. There I realized I had a gift that I wanted to give to the world.”.

• “My life is an exercise in freedom. The goal is to be who I am. We are all actors. When we say “Hi, how are things?”We are already taking action“.

• “Somehow we have replaced art with craft and craft with ingenuity. There are no artists. We are businessmen. We are merchants. There is no art. Picasso was the last one I would call an artist.“.

His last film was Final account (The scoreby Frank Oz, 2001), in which worked with Robert De Niro. Three years later he died in Los Angeles. His ashes were scattered between his island of Tahiti, Tetiaroa, and the desert of Death Valley, California, United States.