Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film

Acting
MARLON BRANDO
b. Omaha, Nebraska, 3 April 1924, d. 1 July 2004
Marlon Brando is often considered by many to be
America’s greatest actor. He made his stage debut in 1944
and won acclaim for his 1947 performance in A Streetcar
Named Desire, directed by Elia Kazan. Following his film
debut in 1950 Brando quickly became the preeminent
actor in postwar America. He received Academy Award Ò
nominations for his performances in A Streetcar Named
Desire (1951), Viva Zapata! (1952), and Julius Caesar
(1953), and an Oscar Ò for his performance in On the
Waterfront (1954).
Publicity surrounding these films helped to establish
the idea that Brando’s acclaimed performances represented
the arrival of Method acting in Hollywood. To understand
Brando’s work as a Method actor, however, it is important
to recognize that the principles of acting and actor training
associated with the Method were developed by three
different individuals: Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, and
Sanford Meisner. Each focused on different methods of
preparation and character development: Strasberg focused
on affective memory, Adler emphasized imagination, and
Meisner stressed the importance of actors’ connection.
Brando took classes at the Actors Studio when it opened in
New York in 1947, but he did not study with Strasberg,
who joined the Actors Studio in 1948 and became its artistic
director in 1951. Instead, beginning in 1942, Brando
studied with Adler at the New School in New York. The
New School’s Dramatic Workshop, established by Erwin
Piscator, who established the principles of epic theater that
Bertolt Brecht would make famous, gave Brando the chance
to perform in Shakespearean and symbolist productions.
Studying with Adler, Brando was trained not to use memory
and personal history as the basis for developing
characterizations, but to enter into a character’s fictional
world by studying the script and historical accounts that
would shed light on the character’s given circumstances.
Working with Adler also instilled in Brando the belief
that actors were not isolated artists, but instead citizens
Russian actor-director-theorist Konstantin Sergeyevich
Stanislavsky (1863–1938) is not surprising. In 1906 the
Moscow Art Theatre’s first European tour prompted theater
critics to discuss the marvelous details of the actors’
stage business. Their reviews called attention to the actors’
who should have a point of view about society. Brando’s
decision to protest Hollywood’s representations of Native
Americans by declining the Academy Award Ò for his
performance in The Godfather (1972) is seen by many
critics as a flamboyant gesture of a short-lived political
stance. Yet, careful review of the roles Brando selected
throughout his career reveal an engaged and long-standing
interest in decrying the unchecked exercise of power.
Brando’s characterizations in Reflections in a Golden Eye
(1967) and Burn! (1969) are especially rich for their
depiction of power’s devastating effects. His portrayals in
The Ugly American (1963), The Godfather, and Apocalypse
Now (1979) are good examples of his ability to craft
performances that suggest the allure and the ruthlessness of
men who operate beyond the boundary of social norms.
While he is often associated with the rebel characters he
portrayed, Brando is best understood as a gifted actor,
skilled enough to create performances that also invariably
exposed the downside of rogue masculinity.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), The Wild One (1954), On
the Waterfront (1954), The Young Lions (1958), Mutiny on
the Bounty (1962), Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967),
Burn! (Queimada!, 1969), The Godfather (1972), Last
Tango in Paris (1973), Apocalypse Now (1979), A Dry
White Season (1989)
FURTHER READING
Brando, Marlon, with Robert Lindsey. Brando: Songs My
Mother Taught Me. New York: Random House, 1994.
Hodge, Alison, ed. Twentieth-Century Actor Training. New
York: Routledge, 2000.
Krasner, David, ed. Method Acting Reconsidered: Theory,
Practice, Future. New York: St. Martin’s, 2000.
McCann, Graham. Rebel Males: Clift, Brando, and Dean.
New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1993.
Shipman, David. Brando. Garden City, NJ: Doubleday, 1974.
Cynthia Baron
ability to create the impression of everyday life. During the
Moscow Art Theatre’s tours in America in 1923 and
1924, which featured productions from the company’s
1906 tour (Tsar Fyodor, The Lower Depths, The Cherry
Orchard, and The Three Sisters), American critics were
22 SCHIRMER ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FILM