thumb|U.N. rates of physical violence resulting in death, per 100,000 inhabitants by country in 2002. Violence is the use of physical force to apply a state to others contrary to their wishes. (Physical) violence, while often a stand-alone issue, is often the culmination of other kinds of conflict, e.g. a father may beat his child up when his patience is exhausted, or two countries may war with each other when diplomatic (political) efforts are exhausted, or a victim of emotional violence may "snap" and attempt to kill their tormentor. Such killings may be tried as a lesser crime than first degree murder, taking the circumstances into account and recognising that tolerances can be exceeded driving one form of violence to spawn another in self-defense.

Worldwide, violence is used as a tool of manipulation and also is an area of concern for law and culture which make attempts to suppress and stop it. The word ''violence'' covers a broad spectrum. It can vary from a physical altercation between two beings to war and genocide where millions may die as a result. The Global Peace Index, updated in June 2010, ranks 149 countries according to the "absence of violence".

Psychology

The causes of violent behavior in humans are often a topic of research in psychology. Neurobiologist Jan Volavka emphasizes that for those purposes, “violent behavior is defined as intentional physically aggressive behavior against another person."

Scientists do agree violence is inherent in humans. Among prehistoric humans, there is archaeological evidence for both contentions of violence and peacefulness as primary characteristics.

Since violence is a matter of perception as well as a measurable phenomenon, psychologists have found variability in whether people perceive certain physical acts as 'violent'. For example, in a state where execution is a legalized punishment we do not typically perceive the executioner as 'violent', though we may talk, in a more metaphorical way, of the state acting violently. Likewise understandings of violence are linked to a perceived aggressor-victim relationship: hence psychologists have shown that people may not recognise defensive use of force as violent, even in cases where the amount of force used is significantly greater than in the original aggression.

The “violent male ape” image is often brought up in discussions of human violence. Dale Peterson and Richard Wrangham in “Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence” write that violence is inherent in humans, though not inevitable. However, William L. Ury, editor of a book called "Must We Fight? From the Battlefield to the Schoolyard—A New Perspective on Violent Conflict and Its Prevention” criticizes the "killer ape" myth in his book which brings together discussions from two Harvard Law School symposiums. The conclusion is that “we also have lots of natural mechanisms for cooperation, to keep conflict in check, to channel aggression, and to overcome conflict. These are just as natural to us as the aggressive tendencies."

James Gilligan writes violence is often pursued as an antidote to shame or humiliation. The use of violence often is a source of pride and a defence of honor, especially among males who often believe violence defines manhood.

Steven Pinker in a New Republic article “The History of Violence” offers evidence that on the average the amount and cruelty of violence to humans and animals has decreased over the last few centuries.

Evolutionary psychology offers several explanations for human violence in various contexts. Goetz (2010) argues that humans are similar to most mammal species and use violence in specific situations. He writes that "Buss and Shackelford (1997a) proposed seven adaptive problems our ancestors recurrently faced that might have been solved by aggression: co-opting the resources of others, defending against attack, inflicting costs on same-sex rivals, negotiating status and hierarchies, deterring rivals from future aggression, deterring mate from infidelity, and reducing resources expended on genetically unrelated children."

Goetz writes that most homocides seem to start from relatively trivial disputes between unrelated men who then escalate to violence and death. He argues that such conflicts occur when there is a status dispute between men of relatively similar status. If there is a great initial status difference, then the lower status individual usually offers no challenge and if challenged the higher status individual usually ignores the lower status individual. At the same an environment of great inequalities between people may cause those at the bottom to use more violence in attempts to gain status.

Gender and violence

"Criminological studies have traditionally ignored half the population: Women are largely invisible in both theoretical considerations and empirical studies. Since the 1970s, important feminist works have noted the way in which criminal transgressions by women occur in different contexts from those by men and how women experiences with the criminal justice system are influenced by gendered assumptions about appropriate male and female roles. Feminists have also highlighted the prevalence of violence against women, both at home and in public."

Of all crimes reported in 2006, 76.2 percent of arrestees were men and also there was a huge imbalance in the ratio of men to women in prison. In 2004, women only made up 7.1 percent of the prison population.

Men are also overwhelmingly the victims of violent crimes. Men are 4 times more likely to be murdered than women.

Youth and violence

About 34 percent of all offenders arrested for criminal offenses in 2006 were under the age of twenty-one (Federal Bureau of Investigations 2007b).

Some scholars have suggested that media may contribute to youth violence. However most research has not supported this contention. For instance a recent long-term outcome study of youth found no long-term relationship between playing violent video game and youth violence or bullying

According to the book, ''The Effects of Race and Family Attachment on Self Esteem, Self Control, and Delinquency'', children who are raised by both parents and receive proper affection are more than likely to grow into a non-violent individual. It is believed that a child needs to bond with their parents during the early ages of childhood. As a result, the child has a higher chance of not growing into a violent person. Many children who do not receive the affection they need from their parents often turn to other sources to fill that void with a common source being a gang.

Targeted violence

Several rare but painful episodes of assassination, attempted assassination and shootings in schools and universities in the United States led to a considerable body of research on ascertainable behaviors of persons who have planned or carried out such attacks. These studies (1995-2002) investigated what the authors called "targeted violence," described the "path to violence" of those who planned or carried out attacks, and laid out suggestions for law enforcement and educators. A major point from these research studies is that targeted violence does not just "come out of the blue."

Domestic violence

Domestic violence is as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, friends or cohabitation.

Drugs

Some legal drugs such as benzodiazepines may have adverse side effects that include violence.

Law

One of the main functions of law is to regulate violence.

Sociologist Max Weber stated that the state claims, for better or worse, a monopoly on violence practiced within the confines of a specific territory. Law enforcement is the main means of regulating nonmilitary violence in society. Governments regulate the use of violence through legal systems governing individuals and political authorities, including the police and military. Civil societies authorize some amount of violence, exercised through the police power, to maintain the status quo and enforce laws.

However, German political theorist Hannah Arendt noted: "Violence can be justifiable, but it never will be legitimate ... Its justification loses in plausibility the farther its intended end recedes into the future. No one questions the use of violence in self-defence, because the danger is not only clear but also present, and the end justifying the means is immediate". Arendt made a clear distinction between violence and power. Most political theorists regarded violence as an extreme manifestation of power whereas Arendt regarded the two concepts as opposites. In the 20th century in acts of democide governments may have killed more than 260 million of their own people through police brutality, execution, massacre, slave labor camps, and sometimes through intentional famine.

Violent acts that are not carried out by the military or police and that are not in self-defence are usually classified as crimes, although not all crimes are violent crimes. Damage to property is classified as violent crime in some jurisdictions but not in all.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation classifies violence resulting in homicide into criminal homicide and justifiable homicide (e.g. self defense).

War

War is a state of prolonged violent large-scale conflict involving two or more groups of people, usually under the auspices of government. War is fought as a means of resolving territorial and other conflicts, as war of aggression to conquer territory or loot resources, in national self-defense, or to suppress attempts of part of the nation to secede from it.

Since the Industrial Revolution, the lethality of modern warfare has steadily grown. World War I casualties were over 40 million and World War II casualties were over 70 million.

Nevertheless, some hold the actual deaths from war have decreased compared to past centuries. In ''War Before Civilization'', Lawrence H. Keeley, a professor at the University of Illinois, calculates that 87% of tribal societies were at war more than once per year, and some 65% of them were fighting continuously. The attrition rate of numerous close-quarter clashes, which characterize endemic warfare, produces casualty rates of up to 60%, compared to 1% of the combatants as is typical in modern warfare. Stephen Pinker agrees, writing that “in tribal violence, the clashes are more frequent, the percentage of men in the population who fight is greater, and the rates of death per battle are higher.”

Jared Diamond in his award-winning books, Guns, Germs and Steel and The Third Chimpanzee provides sociological and anthropological evidence for the rise of large scale warfare as a result of advances in technology and city-states. The rise of agriculture provided a significant increase in the number of individuals that a region could sustain over hunter-gatherer societies, allowing for development of specialized classes such as soldiers, or weapons manufacturers. On the other hand, tribal conflicts in hunter-gatherer societies tend to result in wholesale slaughter of the opposition (other than perhaps females of child-bearing years) instead of territorial conquest or slavery, presumably as hunter-gatherer numbers could not sustain empire-building.

Religious and political ideology

Religious and political ideologies have been the cause of interpersonal violence throughout history. Ideologues often falsely accuse others of violence, such as the ancient blood libel against Jews, the medieval accusations of casting witchcraft spells against women, caricatures of black men as “violent brutes” that helped excuse the late 19th century Jim Crow laws in the United States, and modern accusations of satanic ritual abuse against day care center owners and others.

Both supporters and opponents of the 21st century War on Terrorism regard it largely as an ideological and religious war.

Vittorio Bufacchi describes two different modern concepts of violence, one the “minimalist conception” of violence as an intentional act of excessive or destructive force, the other the “comprehensive conception” which includes violations of rights, including a long list of human needs.

Anti-capitalists assert that capitalism is violent. They believe private property, trade, interest and profit survive only because police violence defends them and that capitalist economies need war to expand. They may use the term "structural violence" to describe the systematic ways in which a given social structure or institution kills people slowly by preventing them from meeting their basic needs, for example the deaths caused by diseases because of lack of medicine. Free market supporters argue that it is violently enforced state laws intervening in markets - state capitalism - which cause many of the problems anti-capitalists attribute to structural violence.

Frantz Fanon critiqued the violence of colonialism and wrote about the counter violence of the "colonized victims."

Throughout history, most religions and individuals like Mahatma Gandhi have preached that humans are capable of eliminating individual violence and organizing societies through purely nonviolent means. Gandhi himself once wrote: “A society organized and run on the basis of complete non-violence would be the purest anarchy.” Modern political ideologies which espouse similar views include pacifist varieties of voluntarism, mutualism, anarchism and libertarianism.

Health and prevention

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines violence as "Injury inflicted by deliberate means", which includes assault, as well as "legal intervention, and self-harm". The World Health Organization ( “WHO”) in its first ''World Report on Violence and Health'' defined violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation."

WHO estimates that each year around 1.6 million lives are lost worldwide due to violence. It is among the leading causes of death for people ages 15–44, especially of males.

Recent estimates for murders per year in various countries include: 55,000 murders in Brazil, 25,000 murders in Colombia, 20,000 murders in South Africa, 15,000 murders in Mexico, 14,000 murders in the United States, 11,000 murders in Venezuela, 8,000 murders in Russia, 6,000 murders in El Salvador, 1,600 murders in Jamaica, 1000 murders in France, 500 murders in Canada, and 200 murders in Chile.

Violence in the media

Research into the media and violence examines whether links between consuming media violence and subsequent aggressive and violent behavior exists. Although some scholars had claimed media violence may increase aggression , this view is coming increasingly in doubt both in the scholarly community and was recently rejected by the US Supreme Court in the Brown v EMA case, as well as in a review of video game violence by the Australian Government (2010) which concluded evidence for harmful effects were inconclusive at best and the rhetoric of some scholars was not matched by good data.

Classification & nomenclature

See also

References

Sources

Walter Benjamin's ''Critique of Violence''

Arno Gruen psychoanalyst who has written extensively on the origins of violence

Flannery, D.J., Vazsonyi, A.T. & Waldman, I.D. (Eds.) (2007). ''The Cambridge handbook of violent behavior and aggression''. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-60785-X.

Nazaretyan, A.P. (2007). Violence and Non-Violence at Different Stages of World History: A view from the hypothesis of techno-humanitarian balance. In: ''History & Mathematics''. Moscow: KomKniga/URSS. P.127-148. ISBN 9785484010011.

Siniša Malešević. ''The Sociology of War and Violence''. Cambridge University Press; 2010 [cited October 17, 2011]. ISBN 978-0-521-73169-0.

Gad Barzilai (2003). Communities and Law: Politics and Cultures of Legal Identities. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0472113151.

External links

International Handbook of violence research

Information on James W. Prescott's work

1986 Seville Statement on Violence

Introduction and Updated Information on the Seville Statement on Violence

The Meanings of Violence and the Violence of Meanings Intercultural discussions on violence

Text of Dom Helder Camara's classic 1971 "Spiral of Violence"

Institute for interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence

Historical Violence Database

American Psychological Association's Violence Prevention Office

How Violence has Change Ciudad Juarez

THE ORIGINS OF PEACE AND VIOLENCE.Deprivation of Physical Affection as a Main Cause of Depression, Aggression and Drug Abuse

Category:Crime

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name	Marlon Brando
birth name	Marlon Brando, Jr.
birth date	April 03, 1924
birth place	Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.
death date	July 01, 2004
death place	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
death cause	Respiratory failure
nationality	American
education	The New School
spouse	Anna Kashfi (1957–59)Movita Castaneda (1960–62)Tarita Teriipia (1962–72)
children	13, including:Christian Brando (deceased)Cheyenne Brando (deceased)Stephen Blackehart
parents	Marlon Brando, Sr.Dodie Brando
website	http://www.marlonbrando.com/ }}

Marlon Brando, Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor who performed for over half a century.

An enduring cultural icon, Brando was perhaps best known for his role as Stanley Kowalski in ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' (1951), his Academy Award-nominated performance as Emiliano Zapata in ''Viva Zapata!'' (1952), his role as Mark Antony in the MGM film adaptation of the Shakespeare play ''Julius Caesar'' (1953), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award, and his Academy Award-winning performance as Terry Malloy in ''On the Waterfront'' (1954). During the 1970s, he was most famous for his Academy Award-winning performance as Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's ''The Godfather'' (1972), also playing Colonel Walter Kurtz in another Coppola film, ''Apocalypse Now'' (1979). Brando delivered an Academy Award-nominated performance as Paul in ''Last Tango in Paris'' (1972), in addition to directing and starring in the western film ''One-Eyed Jacks'' (1961).

Brando had a significant impact on film acting, and was the foremost example of the "method" acting style. While he became notorious for his "mumbling" diction and exuding a raw animal magnetism, his mercurial performances were nonetheless highly regarded, and he is widely considered as one of the greatest and most influential actors of the 20th century. Director Martin Scorsese said of him, "He is the marker. There's 'before Brando' and 'after Brando'.'" Actor Jack Nicholson once said, "When Marlon dies, everybody moves up one."

Brando was also an activist, supporting many issues, notably the African-American Civil Rights Movement and various American Indian Movements.

Early life

Marlon Brando was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to Marlon Brando, Sr., a pesticide and chemical feed manufacturer, and his wife, Dorothy Julia (née Pennebaker). His parents moved to Evanston, Illinois, but separated when he was eleven years old. His mother took her three children: Jocelyn (1919–2005), Frances (1922–1994) and Marlon, to live with her mother in Santa Ana, California. In 1937, Brando's parents reconciled and moved together to Libertyville, Illinois, north of Chicago.

Brando's family was of mostly Irish ancestry. He also had distant French ancestry. Brando was raised a Christian Scientist. His grandmother Marie Holloway abandoned her family when Marlon Brando, Sr., was five years old. She used the money Eugene sent her to support her gambling and alcoholism.''

Marlon Brando, Sr., was a talented amateur photographer. His wife, known as Dodie, was unconventional but talented, having been an actress. She smoked, wore trousers, and drove cars, unusual for women at the time. However, she was an alcoholic and often had to be brought home from Chicago bars by her husband; she finally joined Alcoholics Anonymous. Dodie Brando acted and was a theater administrator. She helped Henry Fonda to begin his acting career, and fueled her son Marlon's interest in stage acting. However, Brando was closer to his maternal grandmother, Bessie Gahan Pennebaker Meyers, than to his mother. Widowed while young, Meyers worked as a secretary and later as a Christian Science practitioner. Her father, Myles Gahan, was a doctor from Ireland; her mother, Julia Watts, was from England.

Brando was a mimic from early childhood and developed an ability to absorb the mannerisms of people he played and display them dramatically while staying in character. His sister Jocelyn Brando was the first to pursue an acting career, going to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Art. She appeared on Broadway, then movies and television. Brando's sister Frances left college in California to study art in New York. Brando soon followed her.

Brando had been held back a year in school and was later expelled from Libertyville High School for riding his motorcycle through the corridors. He was sent to Shattuck Military Academy, where his father had studied before him. Brando excelled at theatre and did well in the school. In his final year (1943), however, he was put on probation for talking back to a student officer during maneuvers. He was confined to the campus, but tried going into town, and was caught. The faculty voted to expel him, though he was supported by the students, who thought expulsion was too harsh. He was invited back for the following year, but decided instead to drop out of high school.

Brando worked as a ditch-digger as a summer job arranged by his father. It was also during this time that Brando attempted to join the Army. However at his army induction physical it was discovered that a football injury that he had sustained at Shattuck had left him with a trick knee. Brando was therefore classified as a 4-F, and not inducted into the Army. He then decided to follow his sisters to New York. His father supported him for six months, then offered to help him find a job as a salesman. However, Brando left to study at the American Theatre Wing Professional School, part of the Dramatic Workshop of The New School with the influential German director Erwin Piscator and at the Actors Studio. He also studied with Stella Adler and learned the techniques of the Stanislavski System. There is a story in which Adler spoke about teaching Brando, saying that she had instructed the class to act like chickens, then adding that a nuclear bomb was about to fall on them. Most of the class clucked and ran around wildly, but Brando sat calmly and pretended to lay an egg. Asked by Adler why he had chosen to react this way, he said, "I'm a chicken, what do I know about nuclear bombs?"

Career

Early work

Brando used his Stanislavski System skills for his first summer-stock roles in Sayville, New York on Long Island. His behavior got him kicked out of the cast of the New School's production in Sayville, but he was discovered in a locally produced play there and then made it to Broadway in the bittersweet drama ''I Remember Mama'' in 1944. Critics voted him "Broadway's Most Promising Actor" for his role as an anguished veteran in ''Truckline Café'', although the play was a commercial failure. In 1946 he appeared on Broadway as the young hero in the political drama ''A Flag is Born'', refusing to accept wages above the Actor's Equity rate because of his commitment to the cause of Israeli independence. In that same year, Brando played the role of Marchbanks with Katharine Cornell in her production's revival of Candida, one of her signature roles. Cornell also cast him as The Messenger in a her production of Jean Anouilh's Antigone that same year. Brando achieved stardom, however, as Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams's 1947 play ''A Streetcar Named Desire,'' directed by Elia Kazan. Brando sought out that role, driving out to Provincetown, Massachusetts, where Williams was spending the summer, to audition for the part. Williams recalled that he opened the screen door and knew, instantly, that he had his Stanley Kowalski. Brando's performance revolutionized acting technique and set the model for the American form of method acting.

Afterward, Brando was asked to do a screen test for Warner Brothers studio for the film ''Rebel Without A Cause'', which James Dean was later cast in. The screen test appears as an extra in the 2006 DVD release of ''A Streetcar Named Desire''.

Brando's first screen role was as the bitter paraplegic veteran in ''The Men'' in 1950. True to his method, Brando spent a month in bed at the Birmingham Army Hospital in Van Nuys to prepare for the role. By Brando's own account it may have been because of this film that his draft status was changed from 4-F to 1-A. He had had an operation on the knee he had injured at Shattuck, and it was no longer physically debilitating enough to incur exclusion from the draft. When Brando reported to the induction center he answered a questionnaire provided to him by saying his race was "human", his color was "Seasonal-oyster white to beige", and he told an Army doctor that he was psycho neurotic. When the draft board referred him to a psychiatrist Brando explained how he had been expelled from Military School, and that he had severe problems with authority. Coincidentally enough the psychiatrist knew a doctor friend of Brando, and Brando was able to avoid military service during the Korean War.

Rise to fame

Brando brought his performance as Stanley Kowalski to the screen in Kazan's adaptation of Tennessee Williams's ''A Streetcar Named Desire'', and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for that role, and again in each of the next three years for his roles in ''Viva Zapata!'' in 1952, ''Julius Caesar'' in 1953 as Mark Antony, and ''On the Waterfront'' in 1954. These first five films of his career established Brando, as evidenced in his winning the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in three consecutive years, 1951 to 1953.

In 1953, Brando also starred in ''The Wild One'' riding his own Triumph Thunderbird 6T motorcycle which caused consternation to Triumph's importers, as the subject matter was rowdy motorcycle gangs taking over a small town. But the images of Brando posing with his Triumph motorcycle became iconic, even forming the basis of his wax dummy at Madame Tussauds.

Later that same year, Brando starred in Lee Falk's production of George Bernard Shaw's ''Arms and the Man'' in Boston. Falk was proud to tell people that Marlon Brando turned down an offer of $10,000 per week on Broadway, in favor of working on Falk's play in Boston. His Boston contract was less than $500 per week. It would be the last time he ever acted in a stage play.

Brando won the Oscar for his role as Terry Malloy in ''On the Waterfront''. For the famous ''I coulda' been a contender'' scene, Brando convinced Kazan that the scripted scene was unrealistic, and with Rod Steiger, improvised the final product.

Brando then took a variety of roles in the 1950s: as Sky Masterson in the musical ''Guys and Dolls''; as Sakini, a Japanese interpreter for the U.S. Army in postwar Japan in ''The Teahouse of the August Moon''; as a United States Air Force officer in ''Sayonara'', and a Nazi officer in ''The Young Lions''.

In the 1960s, Brando starred in films such as ''Mutiny on the Bounty'' (1962); ''One-Eyed Jacks'' (1961), a western that would be the only film Brando would ever direct; ''The Chase'' (1966), and ''Reflections in a Golden Eye'' (1967), portraying a repressed gay army officer. It was the type of performance that later led critic Stanley Crouch to write, "Brando's main achievement was to portray the taciturn but stoic gloom of those pulverized by circumstances." He also played a guru in the sex farce ''Candy'' (1968). ''Burn!'' (1969), which Brando would later claim as his personal favorite, was a commercial failure. His career slowed down by the end of the decade as he gained a reputation for being difficult to work with.

''The Godfather''

Brando's performance as Vito Corleone or 'the Don' in 1972's ''The Godfather'' was a mid-career turning point. Director Francis Ford Coppola convinced Brando to submit to a "make-up" test, in which Brando did his own makeup (he used cotton balls to simulate the puffed-cheek look). Coppola was electrified by Brando's characterization as the head of a crime family, but had to fight the studio in order to cast the temperamental Brando. Mario Puzo always imagined Brando as Corleone. However, Paramount studio heads wanted to give the role to Danny Thomas in the hope that Thomas would have his own production company throw in its lot with Paramount. Thomas declined the role and actually urged the studio to cast Brando at the behest of Coppola and others who had witnessed the screen test.

Eventually, Charles Bluhdorn, the president of Paramount parent Gulf + Western, was won over to letting Brando have the role; when he saw the screen test, he asked in amazement, "What are we watching? Who is this old guinea?"

Brando won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, but turned down the Oscar, becoming the second actor to refuse a Best Actor award (the first being George C. Scott for ''Patton''). Brando boycotted the award ceremony, sending instead American Indian Rights activist Sacheen Littlefeather, who appeared in full Apache dress, to state Brando's reasons, which were based on his objection to the depiction of American Indians by Hollywood and television.

The actor followed with Bernardo Bertolucci's 1973 film, ''Last Tango in Paris'', but the performance was overshadowed by an uproar over the erotic nature of the film. Despite the controversy which attended both the film and the man, the Academy once again nominated Brando for the Best Actor.

Brando, along with James Caan, was later scheduled in 1974 to appear in the final scene of ''The Godfather Part II''. However, rewrites were made to the script when Brando refused to show up to the studio on the single day of shooting due to disputes with the studio.

Later career

Brando portrayed Superman's father Jor-El in the 1978 film ''Superman''. He agreed to the role only on assurance that he would be paid a large sum for what amounted to a small part, that he would not have to read the script beforehand and his lines would be displayed somewhere off-camera. It was revealed in a documentary contained in the 2001 DVD release of ''Superman'', that he was paid $3.7 million for just two weeks of work.

Brando also filmed scenes for the movie's sequel, ''Superman II'', but after producers refused to pay him the same percentage he received for the first movie, he denied them permission to use the footage. However, after Brando's death the footage was reincorporated into the 2006 re-cut of the film, ''Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut''.

Two years after Brando's death, he "reprised" the role of Jor-El in the 2006 "loose sequel" ''Superman Returns'', in which both used and unused archive footage of Brando as Jor-El from the first two Superman films was remastered for a scene in the Fortress of Solitude, and Brando's voice-overs were used throughout the film.

Brando starred as Colonel Walter E. Kurtz in Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam epic ''Apocalypse Now''. Brando plays a highly decorated American Army Special Forces officer who goes renegade. He runs his own operations out of Cambodia and is feared by the US military as much as the Vietnamese. Brando was paid $1 million a week for his work.

Despite announcing his retirement from acting in 1980, he subsequently gave interesting supporting performances in movies such as ''A Dry White Season'' (for which he was again nominated for an Oscar in 1989), ''The Freshman'' in 1990 and ''Don Juan DeMarco'' in 1995. In his last film, ''The Score'' (2001), he starred with fellow method actor Robert De Niro. Some later performances, such as ''The Island of Dr Moreau'' (1996), earned Brando some of the most uncomplimentary reviews of his career.

Brando conceived the idea of a novel called ''Fan-Tan'' with director Donald Cammell in 1979, which was not released until 2005.

In 2004, Brando signed with Tunisian film director Ridha Behion and began pre-production on a project to be titled ''Brando and Brando''. Up to a week before his death, Brando was working on the script in anticipation of a July/August 2004 start date. Production was suspended in July 2004 following Brando's death, at which time Behi stated that he would continue the film as an homage to Brando, with a new title of ''Citizen Brando''.

Personal life

Relationships and family

In ''Songs My Mother Taught Me'', Brando claimed he met Marilyn Monroe at a party as she played piano, unnoticed by anybody else there, and they had an affair and maintained an intermittent relationship for many years, receiving a telephone call from her several days before she died. He also claimed numerous other romances, although he did not discuss his marriages, his wives, or his children in his autobiography.

Brando married actress Anna Kashfi in 1957. Kashfi was born in Calcutta and moved to Wales from India in 1947. She is said to have been the daughter of a Welsh steel worker of Irish descent, William O'Callaghan, who had been superintendent on the Indian State railways. However, in her book, ''Brando for Breakfast'', she claimed that she really is half Indian and that the press incorrectly thought that her stepfather, O'Callaghan, was her real father. She said her real father was Indian and that she was the result of an "unregistered alliance" between her parents. In 1959, Brando and Kashfi divorced after the birth of their son, Christian Brando, on May 11, 1958.

In 1960, Brando married Movita Castaneda, a Mexican-American actress seven years his senior; they were divorced in 1962. Castaneda had appeared in the first ''Mutiny on the Bounty'' film in 1935, some 27 years before the 1962 remake with Brando as Fletcher Christian. Brando's behavior during the filming of ''Bounty'' seemed to bolster his reputation as a difficult star. He was blamed for a change in director and a runaway budget, though he disclaimed responsibility for either.

The ''Bounty'' experience affected Brando's life in a profound way. He fell in love with Tahiti and its people. He bought a twelve-island atoll, Tetiaroa, which he intended to make partly an environmental laboratory and partly a resort. Tahitian beauty Tarita Teriipia, who played Fletcher Christian's love interest, became Brando's third wife on August 10, 1962. She was 20 years old, 18 years younger than Brando. A 1961 article on Teriipia in the fan magazine ''Motion Picture'' described Brando's delight at how naïve and unsophisticated she was. Because Teriipia was a native French speaker, Brando became fluent in the language and gave numerous interviews in French. Teriipia became the mother of two of his children. They divorced in July 1972. Brando eventually had a hotel built on Tetiaroa. It went through many redesigns as a result of changes demanded by Brando over the years. It is now closed. A new hotel, consisting of thirty deluxe villas, was planned.

Brando was an active ham radio operator, with the call signs KE6PZH and FO5GJ (the latter from his island). He was listed in the FCC records as Martin Brandeaux to preserve his privacy.

;Children

by Anna Kashfi:

* Christian Devi Brando (aka Gary Brown; May 11, 1958 – January 26, 2008, died of pneumonia)

by Movita Castaneda

* Miko Castaneda Brando (b. 1960)

* Rebecca Brando (b. 1966)

by Tarita Teriipia:

* Simon Teihotu Brando (b. 1963) – the only inhabitant of Tetiaroa

* Tarita Cheyenne Brando (1970–1995), committed suicide by hanging

adopted:

* Petra Brando-Corval (b. 1972), daughter of Brando's assistant Caroline Barrett and novelist James Clavell (aka Charles Edmund DuMaresq de Clavell)

by unidentified mothers:

Stefano Brando aka Stephen Blackehart (b. 1967)

* Maimiti Brando (b. 1977) She's the daughter of Tarita, but the father left them, so Brando adopted her.

* Raiatua Brando (b. 1982) She's the adoptive daughter of Tarita and Brando adopted her.

* Dylan Brando (1968–1988)

* Angelique Brando (unknown)

by his housekeeper, Maria Christina Ruiz:

* Ninna Priscilla Brando (b. May 13, 1989)

* Myles Jonathan Brando (b. January 16, 1992)

* Timothy Gahan Brando (b. January 6, 1994)

;Grandchildren

Michael Brando (b.1988)

Tuki Brando (b. 1990)

In May 1990, Dag Drollet, the Tahitian lover of Brando's daughter Cheyenne, died of a gunshot wound after a confrontation with Cheyenne's half-brother Christian at the family's hilltop home above Beverly Hills. Christian, then 31 years old, claimed he was drunk and the shooting was accidental.

After heavily publicized pre-trial proceedings, Christian pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and use of a gun. He was sentenced to ten years in prison. Before the sentence, Brando delivered an hour of testimony, in which he said he and his former wife had failed Christian. He commented softly to members of the Drollet family: "I'm sorry... If I could trade places with Dag, I would. I'm prepared for the consequences." Afterward, Drollet's father said he thought Brando was acting and his son was "getting away with murder." The tragedy was compounded in 1995, when Cheyenne, suffering from lingering effects of a serious car accident and said to still be depressed over Drollet's death, committed suicide by hanging herself in Tahiti. Christian Brando died of pneumonia at age 49, on January 26, 2008.

Lifestyle

Brando became well known for his crusades for civil rights, Native American rights, and other political causes. He also earned a "bad boy" reputation for his public outbursts and antics. On June 12, 1973, Brando broke paparazzo Ron Galella's jaw. Galella had followed Brando, who was accompanied by talk show host Dick Cavett, after a taping of ''The Dick Cavett Show'' in New York City. He reportedly paid a $40,000 out-of-court settlement and suffered an infected hand as a result. Galella wore a football helmet the next time he photographed Brando at a gala benefiting the American Indians Development Association.

In an interview with Gary Carey, for his 1976 biography ''The Only Contender'', Brando said, "Homosexuality is so much in fashion it no longer makes news. Like a large number of men, I, too, have had homosexual experiences and I am not ashamed. I have never paid much attention to what people think about me. But if there is someone who is convinced that Jack Nicholson and I are lovers, may they continue to do so. I find it amusing."

In 1992, he donated money to Michael Jackson to help start his Heal the World Foundation.

Final years and death

Brando's notoriety, his troubled family life, and his obesity attracted more attention than his late acting career. He gained a great deal of weight in the 1980s and by the mid 1990s he weighed over 300 lbs. (136 kg) and suffered from diabetes. Like Orson Welles or Elvis Presley, he had a history of weight fluctuations through his career, attributed to his years of stress-related overeating followed by compensatory dieting. He also earned a reputation for being difficult on the set, often unwilling or unable to memorize his lines and less interested in taking direction than in confronting the film director with odd demands. Brando also dabbled with some innovation in his last years. Brando had several patents issued in his name from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, all of which involve a method of tensioning drum heads, in June 2002 – November 2004. For example, see and its equivalents.

The actor was a longtime close friend of entertainer Michael Jackson and paid regular visits to his Neverland Ranch, resting there for weeks at a time. Brando also participated in the singer's two-day solo career thirtieth-anniversary celebration concerts in 2001, and starred in his 13-minute-long music video, "You Rock My World," in the same year. The actor's son, Miko, was Jackson's bodyguard and assistant for several years, and was a friend of the singer. He stated "The last time my father left his house to go anywhere, to spend any kind of time... was with Michael Jackson. He loved it... He had a 24-hour chef, 24-hour security, 24-hour help, 24-hour kitchen, 24-hour maid service." On Jackson's 30th anniversary concert, Brando gave a speech to the audience on humanitarian work which received a poor reaction from the audience and was unaired.

On July 1, 2004, Brando died, aged 80. He left behind eleven children as well as over thirty grandchildren. The cause of death was intentionally withheld, his lawyer citing privacy concerns. It was later revealed that he had died at UCLA Medical Center of respiratory failure brought on by pulmonary fibrosis. He also suffered from congestive heart failure, failing eyesight caused by diabetes, and liver cancer. Before his death and despite his ill-health, he recorded his voice to appear in ''The Godfather: The Game'', once again as Don Vito Corleone.

Karl Malden, Brando's fellow actor in ''A Streetcar Named Desire'', ''On The Waterfront'', and ''One-Eyed Jacks'' (the only film directed by Brando), talks in a documentary accompanying the DVD of ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' about a phone call he received from Brando shortly before Brando's death. A distressed Brando told Malden he kept falling over. Malden wanted to come over, but Brando put him off telling him there was no point. Three weeks later, Brando was dead. Shortly before his death, Brando had apparently refused permission for tubes carrying oxygen to be inserted into his lungs, which, he was told, was the only way to prolong his life.

Brando was cremated, and his ashes were put in with those of his childhood friend Wally Cox and another friend. They were then scattered partly in Tahiti and partly in Death Valley.

In 2007, a 165-minute biopic of Brando, ''Brando: The Documentary'', produced by Mike Medavoy (the executor of Brando's will) for Turner Classic Movies, was released.

Politics

Civil rights

In 1946, Brando showed his dedication to the Jewish desire for a homeland by performing in Ben Hecht's Zionist play "A Flag is Born." Brando's involvement had an impact on three of the most contentious issues of the early postwar period: the fight to establish a Jewish state, the smuggling of Holocaust survivors to Israel, and the battle against racial segregation in the United States.

Brando attended some fundraisers for John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election.

In August 1963, Brando participated in the March on Washington along with fellow celebrities Harry Belafonte, James Garner, Charlton Heston, Burt Lancaster, and Sidney Poitier. Brando also, along with Paul Newman, participated in the freedom rides.

In the aftermath of the 1968 slaying of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Brando made one of the strongest commitments to furthering Dr. King's work. Shortly after Dr. King's death, Brando announced that he was bowing out of the lead role of a major film (''The Arrangement'') which was about to begin production, in order to devote himself to the civil rights movement. "I felt I’d better go find out where it is; what it is to be black in this country; what this rage is all about," Brando said on the late night ABC-TV ''Joey Bishop Show''.

The actor's participation in the African-American civil rights movement actually began well before King's death. In the early 1960s Brando contributed thousands of dollars to both the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (S.C.L.C.) and to a scholarship fund established for the children of slain Mississippi N.A.A.C.P. leader Medgar Evers. By this time, Brando was already involved in films that carried messages about human rights: "Sayonara," which addressed interracial romance, and "The Ugly American," depicting the conduct of US officials abroad and its deleterious effect on the citizens of foreign countries. For a time Brando was also donating money to the Black Panther Party and considered himself a friend of founder Bobby Seale. However, Brando ended his financial support for the group over his perception of its increasing radicalization, specifically a passage in a Panther pamphlet put out by Eldridge Cleaver advocating indiscriminate violence, "for the Revolution."

At the 1973 Academy Awards ceremony, Brando refused to accept the Oscar for his performance in The Godfather. Sacheen Littlefeather represented Mr. Brando at the ceremony. She appeared in full Apache clothing. She stated that owing to the "poor treatment of Native Americans in the film industry" Mr. Brando would not accept the award. At this time the 1973 standoff at Wounded Knee occurred, causing rising tensions between the government and Native American activists. The event grabbed the attention of the US and the world media. This was considered a major event and victory for the movement by its supporters and participants.

Outside of his film work, Brando not only appeared before the California Assembly in support of a fair housing law, but personally joined picket lines in demonstrations protesting discrimination in housing developments.

Comments on Jews, Hollywood, and Israel

In an interview in ''Playboy'' magazine in January 1979, Brando said: "You've seen every single race besmirched, but you never saw an image of the kike because the Jews were ever so watchful for that—and rightly so. They never allowed it to be shown on screen. The Jews have done so much for the world that, I suppose, you get extra disappointed because they didn't pay attention to that."

Brando made a similar comment on ''Larry King Live'' in April 1996, saying "Hollywood is run by Jews; it is owned by Jews, and they should have a greater sensitivity about the issue of—of people who are suffering. Because they've exploited—we have seen the—we have seen the Nigger and Greaseball, we've seen the Chink, we've seen the slit-eyed dangerous Jap, we have seen the wily Filipino, we've seen everything but we never saw the Kike. Because they knew perfectly well, that that is where you draw the wagons around." King, who is Jewish, replied, "When you say—when you say something like that you are playing right in, though, to anti-Semitic people who say the Jews are—" at which point Brando interrupted. "No, no, because I will be the first one who will appraise the Jews honestly and say 'Thank God for the Jews.'"

Jay Kanter, Brando's agent, producer and friend defended him in ''Daily Variety'': "Marlon has spoken to me for hours about his fondness for the Jewish people, and he is a well-known supporter of Israel." Similarly, Louie Kemp, in his article for ''Jewish Journal'', wrote: "You might remember him as Don Vito Corleone, Stanley Kowalski or the eerie Col. Walter E. Kurtz in "Apocalypse Now," but I remember Marlon Brando as a mensch and a personal friend of the Jewish people when they needed it most." Brando was also a major donor to the Irgun, a Zionist political-paramilitary group.

In an interview with ''NBC Today'' one day after Brando's death, Larry King also defended Brando's comments saying that they were out of proportion and taken out of context.

Legacy

Brando is widely considered as one of the greatest and most influential actors of the 20th century. Largely credited for popularizing the "method" acting style, he has earned great respect among critics and theatre experts for his memorable performances and charismatic screen presence. In the book ''Movies in American History: An Encyclopedia, ''edited by Philip C. DiMare, James Delmont wrote: "Marlon Brando was arguably the finest screen actor of the twentieth century, winning worldwide acceptance as both a movie star of the first rank and as a performer of uncommon skill." Richard Schickel felt that: "As a movie actor he [Brando] has no peer in this generation. That he consistently underplays, yet still packs more emotion into a scene than anyone else, is a sign of a charisma that may be an act of God." Similarly, film critic Roger Ebert, writing of his iconic performance in ''Last Tango in Paris'', said: "This was the greatest movie actor of his time, the author of performances that do honor to the cinema." Tennessee Williams, among the many who acknowledged his finesse, described Brando as "the greatest living actor ever... greater than [Laurence] Olivier." Laurence Olivier himself said: "Brando acted with an empathy and an instinctual understanding that not even the greatest technical performers could possibly match." In a 2007 ''Best Life'' article, praising his performance in ''On the Waterfront'', Rob Reiner wrote: "Marlon Brando gives the single greatest performance ever. It's just so natural, powerful, real, and honest."

Marlon Brando is a cultural icon whose popularity has endured for over six decades. Brando's rise to national attention in the 1950s had a profound effect on the motion picture industry and influenced the broader scope of American culture. According to film critic Pauline Kael, "[Marlon] Brando represented a reaction against the post-war mania for security. As a protagonist, the Brando of the early fifties had no code, only his instincts. He was a development from the gangster leader and the outlaw. He was antisocial because he knew society was crap; he was a hero to youth because he was strong enough not to take the crap ... Brando represented a contemporary version of the free American ... Brando is still the most exciting American actor on the screen." Sociologist Dr. Suzanne Mcdonald-Walker states: "Marlon Brando, sporting leather jacket, jeans, and moody glare, became a cultural icon summing up 'the road' in all its maverick glory." His portrayal of the gang leader Johnny Strabler in ''The Wild One'' has become an iconic image, used both as a symbol of rebelliousness and a fashion accessory that includes a Perfecto style motorcycle jacket, a tilted cap, jeans and sunglasses. Johnny's haircut inspired a craze for sideburns, followed by James Dean and Elvis Presley, among others. Dean copied Brando's acting style extensively and Presley used him as a model for his role in ''Jailhouse Rock''. The "I coulda been a contenda" scene from ''On the Waterfront'', according to the author of ''Brooklyn Boomer'', Martin H. Levinson, is "one of the most famous scenes in motion picture history and the line itself has become part of America's cultural lexicon."

Brando's estate still earns about $9,000,000 per year, according to ''Forbes''. He was named one of the top-earning dead celebrities in the world by the magazine.

Filmography

Honors, awards and nominations

Brando was named the fourth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute, and part of ''Time'' magazine's Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century. He was also named one of the top 10 "Icons of the Century" by ''Variety'' magazine.

References

Bibliography

Bain, David Haward. ''The Old Iron Road: An Epic of Rails, Roads, and the Urge to Go West''. New York: Penguin Books, 2004. ISBN 0-14303-526-6.

Bosworth, Patricia. ''Marlon Brando''. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2001. ISBN 0-297-84284-6.

Brando, Anna Kashfi and E.P. Stein. ''Brando for Breakfast''. New York: Crown Publishers, 1979. ISBN 0-517-53686-2.

Brando, Marlon and Donald Cammell. ''Fan-Tan''. New York: Knopf, 2005. ISBN 1-40004-471-5.

Brando, Marlon and Robert Lindsey. ''Brando: Songs My Mother Taught Me''. New York: Random House, 1994. ISBN 0-67941-013-9.

Pierpont, Claudia Roth. ''Method Man''. ''New Yorker'', October 27, 2008.

External links

The Oddfather, ''Rolling Stone'', Jod Kaftan, April 25, 2002

Court TV: Christian Brando: A Hollywood Family Tragedy

Vanity Fair: ''The King Who Would Be Man'' by Budd Schulberg

Marlon Brando: Never-Seen Portraits – slideshow by ''Life magazine''

The New Yorker: ''The Duke in His Domain'' – Truman Capote's influential 1957 interview.

Obituaries

Marlon Brando, Oscar-Winning Actor, Is Dead at 80

Obituary from ''The Washington Post''

Obituary at Slate

MSNBC: Marlon Brando dies in Los Angeles hospital

Long article on auction of Brando's possessions at ''The Observer'' (UK)

Category:1924 births Category:2004 deaths Category:20th-century actors Category:21st-century actors Category:Actors from Omaha, Nebraska Category:Actors Studio alumni Category:Amateur radio people Category:American Christian Scientists Category:American film actors Category:American film directors Category:American people of Dutch descent Category:American people of English descent Category:American people of German descent Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American stage actors Category:American television actors Category:Best Actor Academy Award winners Category:Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:Best Foreign Actor BAFTA Award winners Category:Deaths from pulmonary fibrosis Category:Deaths from respiratory failure Category:Deists Category:Disease-related deaths in California Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Illinois Democrats Category:People from Evanston, Illinois Category:People from Libertyville, Illinois Category:People from Omaha, Nebraska

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