Trivia of Marlon Brando

Trivia of Marlon Brando

*Brando was openly critical of the actors and film stars who were long established in Hollywood when he arrived on the acting scene. He dismissed the likes of Humphrey Bogart and Clark Gable, claiming they were always the same in each movie. However, Brando did acknowledge and respect Paul Muni and James Cagney for their naturalistic approach to acting.

*Bette Davis, who had presented Brando with his first Best Actor Oscar at the 27th Academy Awards in 1955, told the press that she was thrilled he had won. She elaborated, "He and I had much in common. He, too, had made many enemies. He, too, is a perfectionist.".

*Brando initially turned down On The Waterfront, and didn't care for his performance in it.After Brando returned the unread script—twice—Frank Sinatra was cast as Terry Malloy. While costumes were being fitted for the crooner to star, Brando changed his mind after producer Sam Spiegel convinced the actor to put his politics aside and re-team with his A Streetcar Named Desire director Elia Kazan, who had testified as a witness before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1952.

When Brando first saw the movie, he was "so depressed" by his performance that he left the screening room without saying a word. Brando won his first (of two) Best Actor Oscars for the role.Still upset over having the role of Terry Malloy taken away from him, Sinatra held a grudge, and repeatedly referred to Brando as "Mumbles." Sinatra also declared that he didn't go for Brando and "that Method crap."

*Two years before Brando declined his Oscar for Best Actor in The Godfather (1972), he had applied to the Academy to replace the one he had won for On the Waterfront (1954), which had been stolen. Prior to its theft, Brando had been using the Oscar as a doorstop.

*His best friend was Wally Cox, whom he had known as a child and then met again when both were aspiring actors in New York during the 1940s. According to Brando's autobiography, there was not a day that went by when he did not think of Wally. So close did he feel to Cox, he even kept the pajamas he died in.

*He did not like to sign autographs for collectors. Because of this, his own autograph became so valuable that many checks he wrote went uncashed--his signature on them was worth more than the value of the check itself. Ironically, his secretary Alice Marchak remembered a time when a fan asked for his autograph. Brando promptly signed the fan's autograph book twice. Brando then told the fan that he had heard that one John Wayne autograph was equal to two Marlon Brando's on the collector's market.

*Brando enjoyed talking to strangers on other islands or passing boats on his ham radio anonymously. He did not used his real name, and often called himself "Mike" or "Matin Bumby" and spoke in very believable French, German and Japanese accents.He owned a private island off the Pacific coast, the Polynesian atoll known as Tetiaroa, from 1966 until his death in 2004.