Marlon Brando Birthday Top 10 Performances

Today is the birthday of Marlon Brando. He was controversial, highly respected for his memorable performances, considered difficult to deal with at times, and is one of the greatest actors of the 20th century. He didn’t believe in memorizing lines, believing that using cue cards brought a sense of realism to the dialogue. In celebration of his birthday and great career, we list his ten best performances. I am just going to list them by the year the film was released.
1. A Streetcar Named Desire 1951

Brando had played the role of Stanley Kowalski on the stage  before bringing Tennessee William’s character to the big screen. The role is widely considered one of his finest and earned him his first nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actor. The film was nominated for a total of 12 Academy Awards and won four. It instantly made him a Hollywood superstar and sex symbol.

2. Viva Zapata! 1952

 

He was nominated for his second Academy Award for Best Actor, portraying the life of the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata. Brando spent time in the Mexican village Zapata had lived in  leading up to the start of the film, learning the people’s mannerisms and the way that they spoke.

3. Julius Caesar 1953

 

 Brando plays Mark Antony and was the only American in an essentially all British cast that had performing the Shakespeare material theatrically for years. Many were concerned that Brando would destroy the movie with his penchant for his style of mumbling his dialogue, but he surprised everyone delivering all of his lines clearly and definitively. It would mark another Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, the third one in three consecutive years. The film was nominated for a total of five Academy Awards. He won a BAFTA for Best Foreign Actor, his second of three in a row that included Viva Zapata! And On the Waterfront.

 



4. The Wild One 1953

 Brando plays the leader of a motorcycle gang that terrorizes a small town and gets into a battle with another rival gang. The movie is all about Brando and his character, as he truly stands out. This teenage rebellion movie didn’t garner any awards, but it made him a role model for teenage rebellion much like James Dean and Elvis Presley would end up doing.

5. On the Waterfront 1954

 Brando plays a former boxer turned dockworker. who witnesses the murder of another dockworker that the mob connected union boss wants silenced. His character then deals with the torment and guilt and the decision of whether to stay quiet or testify. His famous “I could have been a contender speech” was improvised at the request of Brando, believing that the original scripting wouldn’t have been believable. The end result was an absolutely superb performance that won his first Academy Award for Best Actor. The film was nominated for a total of 12 Academy Awards, wining eight.

6. Sayonara 1957

 Brando plays an Air Force officer who strongly opposes interracial marriages between American and Japanese, but his viewpoint is challenged when he falls in love with a Japanese woman. The film was controversial when it was released, but did well commercially and was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, with Brando winning Best Actor.

7. The Godfather 1972

 The 1960’s weren’t very kind to Brando, as his films didn’t perform as well financially and he was criticized for taking roles that were below his acting ability for financial gain. This all changed when he took on the character of Don Vito Corleone, the leader of a mafia family in The Godfather. His portrayal of the mafia head was the polar opposite of the versions that had been displayed on the screen before, a powerful man who is quiet and gentle. He would win an Academy Award for Best Actor and the film would be nominated for a total of eleven.

8.Last Tango in Paris 1972

Released the same year as The Godfather, Brando would star in this highly controversial directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. He played an American that has an affair with a young Parisian woman solely based upon sex. Despite the controversial sex scenes, Brando was still nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1974.

9. Apocalypse Now 1979

 Despite all of the major issues with the film’s production and the director’s difficulty dealing with Brando, he still delivers an excellent and memorable performance. Brando showed up to the film extremely overweight and Coppola couldn’t get him to remember his lines, leading the director to film mostly his face and having Brando improvise most of what he said.

10. A Dry White Season 1989

 Brando returned to the screen after a nine year retirement to play a supporting role as a lawyer in South Africa in 1976 during the apartheid. The role led to a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.