INFAMOUS SCANDALS (True Crime) by Anne Williams, Vivian Head Read Free Book Online Page B

as to prepare himself to play the character of an embittered paraplegic. There was no doubt that he was profoundly committed to his craft and, although his way of achieving his ends was often idiosyncratic to the point of bizarre, most people agreed that he got results – although there were critics who felt that his acting was sometimes rather heavy-handed.
     
    S IMMERING SEXUALITY 
     
    Brando’s first big success in Hollywood was in the film of A Streetcar Named Desire , which he had played to great acclaim as a play on Broadway. The intensity and directness of his acting, together with his portrayal of the rough and ready Stanley Kowalski, completely revolutionised the film industry. He went on to make Viva Zapata!, Julius Caesar, On the Waterfront and Arms and the Man , and was soon hailed as the greatest actor of his time. When he played a motorcycle rebel in The Wild One he also became an icon for a rising generation – rock’n’roll heroes such as Elvis Presley modelled their style on Brando’s in the film and, because of him, for the first time the working-class garb of T-shirt, jeans and boots became hip. Brando’s simmering sexuality also earned him many female fans and there were tales of afternoon matinees that sold out because so many women with young children went to see the film. Apparently, not only was he a hit with the mothers but he also appealed to the children, who apparently made motorbike noises while running up and down the aisles. Brando also proved to be a great influence on other actors and film directors. For example, Nick Ray’s Rebel without a Cause , starring James Dean, borrowed a great deal from The Wild On . In fact, many felt that Dean himself had copied a lot of Brando’s style, although others pointed out that Dean’s approach to acting was a lot more mercurial and had a lighter touch.
    Despite all the accolades, however, by the end of the 1950s, Brando seemed to be running out of steam as an actor, and although he continued to be a major draw at the box office, the 1960s saw a slow decline in his career. This was partly because he was very difficult to work with and many studios avoided hiring him, but also because he chose to make films that were considered uncommercial, and consistently overspent when he was making a film.
    However, in 1972 his career was revived by his unforgettable role as Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, in which he mumbled his way through the part but nevertheless managed to convey a powerful but tormented Mafia head. He followed this up with another extraordinary performance in Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris , in which he played another troubled, ageing man who engages in an affair with a much young woman after the death of his wife. Because of the sexual nature of the film, many missed the fact that Brando had given the performance of a lifetime, but even so, he reinvented his career. After Last Tango , his reputation was such that he could command enormous fees for cameo performances in films, and reputedly charged a million dollars a week for his appearance in Coppola’s Apocalypse Now .
     
    S CANDAL STRIKES
     
    Throughout his film career, Brando’s personal life had been extremely turbulent. He had many lovers, both men and women, and married several times. It was reputed that he had had sexual relationships with Rock Hudson and other famous Hollywood stars, but all he would say on the matter was that he was not ashamed of his homosexual encounters. Naturally, many women were drawn to Brando, and he developed a particular liking for exotic looking women. His first wife, Anna Kashfi, convinced him that she was Indian, although in fact she came from Wales and was from an Irish Catholic background. Not surprisingly, their relationship did not last long, and he went on to marry again, first to movie actress Movita Castaneda and then to a Tahitian girl many years his junior, Tarita Teriipia.
    Brando had many