Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando, Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor who performed for over half a century. He was perhaps best known for his roles as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), his Academy Award-nominated performance as Emiliano Zapata in Viva Zapata! (1952), and his Academy Award-winning performance as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront (1954), all three directed by Elia Kazan, and 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. During the 1970s, he was most famous for his Academy Award-winning performance as Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972), and he also played Colonel Walter Kurtz in Apocalypse Now (1979), also directed by Coppola. He delivered an Academy Award-nominated performance as Paul in Last Tango in Paris (1972). Also, he directed and starred in the western film One-Eyed Jacks (1961). Brando had a significant impact on film acting. He was the foremost example of the "method" acting style, and became notorious for his "mumbling" diction, but his mercurial performances were highly regarded and he is now considered 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'.'