Posted on 07/02/2004 4:43:00 AM PDT by The G Man
Edited on 07/02/2004 8:30:32 AM PDT by Lead Moderator. [history]
[Note: While it took a while to find confirmation, Fox News says Brando's lawyer has confirmed. LM]
(CBS 5 News)--The man called the greatest actor of all time has died.
CBS 5 News has learned Marlon Brando passed away Thursday in Los Angeles.
Brando may be best known for his roles in "The Godfather" and "On the Waterfront". He won oscars for his work in those 2 films.
The cause of death is still unknown.
You are correct -- when all is said and done, Marlon Brando was only an actor -- an excellent one, yes, but still just an actor. He served no useful function in society.
Any society that holds playactors and athletes as their greatest heroes is seriously decadent.
There were some exceptions who tried to set a good example. But for the most part they were selfish, mindless hedonists.
Even in the 1910s, '20s and early '30s, many films were racy and glorified gangsters, bootleggers and prostitutes. The fear of boycotts and legal action (anti-obscenity laws were still enforced) drove Hollywood to clean up its act and pressure its performers to outwardly behave themselves. The much-maligned Hayes Code kicked into operation in 1934 and lasted until 1966, when the ratings system replaced it.
Definitely. He had a larger-than-life quality about him and frequently played larger-than-life heroes such as Moses, Ben-Hur and El Cid. He also was a very rare movie star untouched by scandal and remained married to the same woman. Mr. Heston was also recently President of the NRA.
Pat Buttram, who played Mr. Haney, and Alvy Moore, who played Mr. Kimball, both died in the 1990s. Tom Lester played Eb and is still alive. Green Acres is one of my favorite TV shows.
Nowadays, anyone over 25 or so usually only goes to movies when accompanying a child.
There recently was an article about the movie industry in The Wall St. Journal which, among other things, pointed out that studio executives claim that the "average" (whatever that is) movie only makes 30% of its take at the boxoffice. DVDs account for 40%, 15% pay TV and the other 15% from such things as broadcast TV.
I heard he had to audition for the Godfather. The audition was held in his home, and he was told they just wanted to see if kleenex in the jowls would work for the look they were after.
...but he'll show up for the shooting of his next starring role just the same--provided that the director can accomodate his changed circumstances.
I guess he took its name literally.
<]B^)
Whom do you esteem the greater scientist for your everyday world: The guy that puts a radio controlled vehicle on Mars to photgraph goatberries, or the guy that slaves in the lab to brew a better beer?
I rest my case.
Well, if the guy brewing a better beer is James Joule... :-)
In the end it took more than Kleenex in the jowls; the Don Corleone "look" was primarily the work of make-up man Dick Smith, the true Godfather of Movie Make-Up.
In short, Brando was good in some movies and in the most talented hands of most capable directors such as Kazan and Coppola especially Kazan who directed him in Streetcar and was a seminal part of the Actor's Studio, the drama school that Brando came out of.
But to go overboard on Brando as a "genius" based on a body of work that is very uneven betrays the fatal attraction that Hooywood types have for self destructive anti social and and so called anti establishment types.
I had the TV on while Penn was on Rose, but in the interest of good mental health (my own), the volume was off. I noticed the self-conscious suffering on his face, though, and the bad boy cigarette between his fingers. He's a tiresome bore. The whole anti-hero thing that Brando (and Dean) ushered in, while it may have once had its uses, has gone stale. And Penn is the proof.
Oh I'm glad you watched it... it was hilarious! Absolutely friggin pathetic. At one point Penn lit up a cigarette (yes!) and did a Bogart imitation...but could barely hold it or puff it. Rose almost fainted in his desperate attempt to please Mr. Bad boy...what a laugh!
Rose's style can be pathetically sycophantic, as you noted, but a certain percentage of the time he has interesting guests on the show. I decided not to watch him when he has leftist ideologues, their apologists in the media, or entertainers on the show, so I figure I see about one out of five shows.
With Rose it's useful to remember that Bill Moyers was his rabbi, the man who first hired him and mentored him in the business in his formative years. Rose is not quite the lefty Moyers' is, but his roots as a liberal run deep.
DNA tests would be really interesting........
"I made him an offer he couldn't refuse" - God
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