The Washington Post - 20.10.2019

E4 PG EE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20 , 2019

heartbroken, including actress

Rita Moreno, who attempted sui-

cide during their tumultuous

relationship.

By the early ’70s Brando was

pretty much washed up in Holly-

wood. But young Francis Coppo-

la thought he’d be perfect as Vito

Corleone in “The Godfather,” and

Brando, who liked the novel,

agreed to humble himself and

audition for the role. His per-

formance changed the mind of

Paramount’s head, and he won

the part.

He got along with Coppola.

According to Mann, it was his

SEE BRANDO ON E5

Dramatic Workshop, who

worked with Brando first on

stage and then on two of his best

early movies, “Streetcar” and

“Waterfront.”

After those early successes,

though, Brando started making

movies more for the money than

the quality. Some became hits,

but by the 1960s most were not.

Mann stresses that Brando

was also a serious and expansive

reader and that he got involved

in the civil rights movement, not

just offering financial support

but also attending rallies around

the country. Mann also details

the numerous lovers he left

never had, while her daughter

Ellen became his first true love.

Mann ably captures Brando’s

blossoming i n New York’s theater

world. When he acted in a play at

the New School, his classmate

Mae Cooper recalled, it “ gave you

the chills.” Was this the apathetic

student she’d barely noticed in

class? “It was like suddenly you

woke up and there’s your idiot

child playing Mozart.” Others,

including actress Jessica Ta ndy,

just thought him a “psychopathic

bastard.”

Another person central to his

development was director Elia

Kazan, also involved with the

parents were alcoholics, Dad

abused Mom, and young Marlon

had to rescue her m ore t han once

from drunken escapades beyond

the family’s property lines. Not

the happiest childhood, and

when he grew up, he forswore

alcohol like it was, well, monoga-

my.

A prep school teacher recog-

nized his a cting t alent, a nd B ran-

do moved soon after to New

York, where he impressed thea-

ter p eople, among them t he great

teacher Stella Adler of the Dra-

matic Workshop. Eventually

Adler’s family took him in, and

she became the mother he’d

BY MICHAEL F. COVINO

E

verybody in my old

Bronx neighborhood

was excited. They were

shooting a scene for

“The Godfather” i n the

local Italian restaurant, and

Marlon Brando would be there.

Then, big letdown: only Sterling

Hayden and some young punk

named Al Pacino.

Brando hadn’t been in a nota-

ble movie in nearly a decade.

He’d appeared in movies that

made money and others that

bombed, but none like those

three early standouts: “A Street-

car Named Desire” ( 1951), “Julius

Caesar” (1953) and “On the Wa-

terfront” ( 1954). Those made him

one of the most acclaimed — and

bankable — actors in Hollywood,

and garnered Oscar nominations

and his first win, for “Water-

front” ( “I coulda been a contend-

er.. .”).

Almost 20 years and numer-

ous flops later, the locals were

still excited.

William J. Mann’s “The Con-

tender: The Story of Marlon

Brando” i s a big, sprawling, me-

ticulously researched and, for

the most part, compelling biog-

raphy that tells us everything we

ever wanted to know about the

man and then some. Brando

lived a messy life, so maybe it’s

appropriate that his biography is

somewhat messy, too, with its

not-quite-chronological arrange-

ment.

Born in 1924, Brando spent his

first years in Omaha, where his

mother was active in the Omaha

Community Playhouse — some-

thing Marlon, oddly, didn’t learn

until early adulthood. Then the

family moved to Illinois. Both

book world

Brando’s

blaze of

glory and

all the rest

Biography sets actor’s

mercurial career in

context of a messy life

REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION OF BRANDO ENTERPRISES LP

Marlon Brando, an active supporter of the civil rights movement, at the 1963 March on Washington with Charlton Heston, Harry Belafonte and James Baldwin.

THE

CONTENDER

The Story of

Marlon Brando

By William J.

Mann

Harper. 73 6 pp.

$35

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