NAME: Marlon Brando

AGE: American

NATIONALITY: The count stopped at 80 Claim to fame: Greatest method actor

TO employ a hackneyed expression, he was one of the most influential actors of the 20th century.

Marlon Brando, the mumbler as some used to fondly call him, was a performer who literally changed the complexion of silver screen acting the moment he appeared as the brutish, shooting-from-the-hip Stanley Kowalski in the adapted film version of Tennessee Williams’ play, A Street Car Named Desire.

Like all geniuses, he, in the early ‘50s, mercilessly broke the tradition of somewhat muffled screen acting or the hand-flailing histrionics of the theatre. His performance was so eerily real that it stunned many a cine-goer and movie critic. Endorsing the observation, the two-time Oscar winner Dustin Hoffman once said, “His acting was so private that it scared the hell out of us.”

To stamp his authority as the leading actor of his time, Brando gave an even astounding performance in On the Waterfront (1954). He played the part of an ex-boxer, Terry Malloy, unknowingly entangled in union politics. The film earned him his first Oscar for Best Actor.

Brando went through a lean patch in the ‘60s, primarily because of his unpredictable moodiness that led him to choose some films that didn’t befit his calibre. However, in the early ‘70s film aficionados saw two of the all time great acting pieces in the history of cinema — both, courtesy the mumbler. First came The Godfather. (To divulge information or shower praise on Brando’s flawless portrayal of Don Corleone, the leader of mafia folk would be stretching readers’ intelligence a bit too far. Those who have tiniest interest in films know Don Corleone like the back of their hands.) And then The Last Tango in Paris hit the cinema houses all over the globe. Brando did the role of a dour, glum middle-aged American, shaken by his wife’s death, and looking for an apartment in Paris to a T.

He employed his innate narcissism in the movie and displayed a performance that’s unmatched to date. Many people think that no one else in the world could do a death scene concentrating on removing the chewing gum from his mouth, but Brando.

Being someone with an extremely inflated ego, and stomach, Brando refused to accept his second Oscar win for The Godfather. Back then, as a lot of experts say, he was fighting for the rights of indigenous American Indians. But there was more to it than just that.

Brando’s personal life was a non-stop tumultuous journey too. The jail-term awarded to his son, his hot and cold relationships with three wives, the suicide of his daughter, apart from his off and on mesmerizing performances like the one in Missouri Breaks, had kept camera-clickers and pen-pushers constantly interested in him throughout the course of his life. And he kept his distance from them, for he was an extremely private man. That’s why the cause of his death on July 2 is still not known.