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Marlon Brando, Jr. emerged as one of the most iconic and transformative actors in the latter half of the 1900s. Initially trained in Method acting by Stella Adler, he rose to prominence with his portrayal of Stanley Kowalski in the 1947 Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire. Over the years, countless anecdotes have surfaced about Brando's notorious clashes with fellow actors, writers, and directors. Below are 16 remarkable tales highlighting his equally legendary behavior.
1. HE WAS KICKED OUT OF TWO EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.
Brando was dismissed from high school, reportedly for riding a motorcycle through the corridors, prompting his father to enroll him at Shattuck Military Academy in Faribault, Minnesota. While there, Brando recounted sneaking into the bell tower one night, removing the 150-pound clapper, and burying it 200 yards away. In a clever move, he even formed a committee to investigate the incident. Although he avoided detection, he was eventually expelled for other misdeeds. Following this, in the spring of 1943, he relocated to New York to join his sister in Greenwich Village.
2. HE ONCE WORKED AS AN ELEVATOR OPERATOR.
During his time in New York, Brando took on the role of an elevator operator at Best & Co., a well-known department store. In his memoir, Brando: Songs My Mother Taught Me, he mentioned that after this job, he briefly worked as a waiter, a short-order cook, and even a sandwich maker. Additionally, Brando took on the role of a factory night watchman during this period.
3. HE OBSESSIVELY OBSERVED AN AGENT NEGOTIATING DEALS.
Agent Irving Paul "Swifty" Lazar secured Brando a $10 raise, increasing his weekly earnings from $65 to $75, for his Broadway debut in I Remember Mama. Lazar reminisced about how, in 1945, Brando and his girlfriend at the time, Blossom Plumb, would spend hours quietly listening to Lazar negotiate deals over the phone.
4. HE REPAIRED TENNESSEE WILLIAMS' HOME BEFORE AUDITIONING FOR
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
.
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While residing in Provincetown, Massachusetts, playwright Tennessee Williams faced a plumbing disaster and a blown fuse. Days after his scheduled audition, Brando arrived at Williams' home, inquired about the power outage, and promptly repaired the fuses and cleared the blocked toilet. Following this, he delivered his audition. Williams later described it as "the most magnificent reading" he had ever seen.
5. HE SUFFERED A BROKEN NOSE DURING A STREETCAR PERFORMANCE AFTER A BACKSTAGE BOXING MATCH.
To combat the monotony of portraying Kowalski on stage for more than a year, Brando began sparring with a stagehand, who happened to be an amateur boxer. Initially, the stagehand went easy on Brando, but the actor demanded a real fight. The stagehand then struck Brando, breaking his nose and blackening his eyes. Despite the injury and bleeding nose, Brando returned to the stage. His co-star, Jessica Tandy, masked her shock by improvising the line "You bloody fool", making it seem as though Stanley had just been in a brawl.
Following the performance, Brando went to the nearest hospital for treatment. Irene Selznick, the show's producer, advised him to reset his nose but later admitted she was glad he ignored her. "I truly believe that broken nose was a turning point," she remarked. "It added to his allure. He was almost too handsome before."
6. HE AUDITIONED FOR REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE.
This occurred in 1947
, when the film was still in its early stages as an adaptation of Rebel Without a Cause: The Hypnoanalysis of a Criminal Psychopath, a 1944 book by Robert M. Lindner. The story revolved around an inmate who, under hypnosis, confessed to witnessing his parents' intimacy as a child, leading to a lifetime of rebellion. Brando declined Warner Bros.' offer of $3000 per week, opting to stay in theater. When the film was eventually released in 1955, The New York Times critic Bosley Crowther noted that James Dean seemed to be "channeling Marlon Brando in various ways."
7. BRANDO INITIALLY REJECTED ON THE WATERFRONT AND WASN'T SATISFIED WITH HIS PERFORMANCE.
After Brando sent back the unread script—twice—Frank Sinatra was chosen to play Terry Malloy. While costumes were being tailored for Sinatra, Brando reconsidered after producer Sam Spiegel persuaded him to set aside his political stance and collaborate again with Elia Kazan, his director from A Streetcar Named Desire. Kazan had testified before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1952.
Upon watching the film, Brando felt "so disheartened" by his performance that he exited the screening room in silence. Despite his feelings, he won his first Best Actor Oscar for the role, one of two he would receive in his career.
8. HIS ON THE WATERFRONT OSCAR WAS STOLEN.
Brando admitted he had no idea what became of his Oscar. He only realized it was missing in 1994 when his lawyer informed him that a London auction house intended to sell it.
9. BRANDO AND SINATRA CLASHED DURING GUYS AND DOLLS.
Still bitter about losing the role of Terry Malloy, Sinatra harbored resentment and often mocked Brando by calling him "Mumbles." Sinatra also voiced his disdain for Brando and "that Method acting nonsense."
The two eventually co-starred in Guys and Dolls (1955), with Sinatra as Nathan Detroit and Brando as Sky Masterson. To retaliate against Sinatra's refusal to rehearse, Brando intentionally botched scene endings to force retakes. In one instance, Brando reportedly ruined nine consecutive takes, forcing Sinatra to eat cheesecake each time. After the ninth take, Sinatra slammed his plate, stabbed his fork into the table, and yelled at the director, "These damn New York actors! How much cheesecake do you expect me to eat?"
10. HE PURCHASED HIS OWN ISLAND.
While filming Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), Brando discovered Tetiaroa, a 2.3-square-mile atoll roughly 30 miles north of Tahiti's main island. Six years later, he acquired it. Today, it functions as a luxury resort: The Brando.
11. HE DISLIKED BURT REYNOLDS.
Upon hearing that Burt Reynolds was in contention for the role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather (1972), Brando threatened to withdraw from playing Vito if Reynolds was chosen. Brando described Reynolds as "the embodiment of everything I find repulsive."
12. HE FACED CHALLENGES DURING THE FILMING OF
LAST TANGO IN PARIS
.
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During the filming of Bernardo Bertolucci's provocative, X-rated film, Brando felt embarrassed on an extremely cold day when, as he put it, his anatomy shrunk to the "size of a peanut." This was particularly unfortunate as it coincided with a day scheduled for multiple nude scenes.
13. BRANDO BELIEVED HIS SUPERMAN ROLE WOULD BE MORE EFFECTIVE AS A GREEN BAGEL.
After being cast as Jor-El, Superman's father in Richard Donner's 1978 superhero film, Brando proposed that he merely provide the character's voice. "He insisted—quite strongly—that Jor-El could be represented as a suitcase or a green bagel with Brando's voice," producer Ilya Salkind remembered. "I was young and panicking. I thought, 'This is it, the movie is doomed ... He's going to ruin everything. This can't happen. Jor-El can't be a bagel.'" Thankfully, Donner intervened: "Marlon, people want to see you as Jor-El, not a green bagel."
14. BRANDO READ HIS
SUPERMAN
LINES FROM SUPERMAN'S DIAPER.
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TIMEoriginally reported
that Brando earned $2.25 million for 12 days of work on Superman, though his compensation later increased to $3.7 million for just 10 minutes of screen time. In a scene where Brando, as Jor-El, Superman's father, placed his infant son into an escape pod, Brando read his lines directly off the baby's diaper. (He had similarly requested to read his lines off co-star Maria Schneider's backside in Last Tango in Paris, but that request was denied.)
15. HE SPENT A SINGLE DAY WORKING ON SCARY MOVIE 2.
Brando was set to earn $2 million for a cameo as a priest in Scary Movie 2, but he had to withdraw after being hospitalized for pneumonia. "He was eager to do it," co-writer and star Shawn Wayans recalled. "But he had an oxygen mask on, and we realized, 'We have to let him go. He's not in good health.'" During his one day on set, Brando had an assistant in another room feed him his lines through an earpiece.
16. HE HAD A RUN-IN WITH YODA.
Brando appeared in The Score (2001), directed by Frank Oz, a renowned puppeteer known for voicing Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Cookie Monster, Grover, and Yoda. Conflict arose when Brando portrayed his homosexual character "excessively flamboyant" on the first day, as Oz later admitted—though he also acknowledged being "too harsh" when he asked Brando to dial it back.
In retaliation, Brando started calling Oz "Miss Piggy." Co-star Robert DeNiro stepped in as a mediator, relaying Oz's instructions to Brando. For a particular scene, filmed over two days, Brando was so displeased that he refused to act unless Oz left the room, forcing the director to watch the footage on a monitor outside.
