He also had ambitions to work in film, like Elvis Presley and Eddie Cochran, and registered for acting classes with Lee Strasburg's Actors ' Studio, where the likes of Marlon Brando and James Dean had trained.

Coppola chose Brando over Ernest Borgnine on the basis of Brando's screen test, which also won over the Paramount leadership.

Brando was also nominated for the Oscar for playing Emiliano Zapata in Viva Zapata!

Brando was also an activist, supporting many issues, notably the African-American Civil Rights Movement and various American Indian Movements.

In 1953, Brando also starred in The Wild One riding his own Triumph Thunderbird 6T motorcycle, which caused consternation to Triumph's importers, as the subject matter was rowdy motorcycle gangs taking over a small town.

Brando also filmed scenes for the movie's sequel, Superman II, but after producers refused to pay him the same percentage he received for the first movie, he denied them permission to use the footage.

Brando also adopted Teriipia's daughters, Maimiti Brando ( born 1977 ) and Raiatua Brando ( born 1982 ).

His numerous grandchildren also include Michael Brando ( born 1988 ), son of Christian Brando, Prudence Brando and Shane Brando, children of Miko C. Brando, the three children of Teihotu Brando and the children of Michael Gilman, among others.

Brando also participated in the singer's two-day solo career 30th-anniversary celebration concerts in 2001, and starred in his 13-minute-long music video, " You Rock My World ," in the same year.

Brando also, along with Paul Newman, participated in the freedom rides.

" Brando was also a major donor to the Irgun, a Zionist political-paramilitary group.

Brando was also considered a sex symbol, one of the earliest in the film industry to achieve widespread attention due to his enigmatic and sexy persona and the reports of his dalliances and relationships with various major Hollywood celebrities.

He also wrote a screenplay from the novel The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones, a draft that evolved into the 1961 Marlon Brando film One-Eyed Jacks.

( 1952 ) which also starred Marlon Brando playing the role of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata.

He played a drunken sailor in Kazan's " Truckline Cafe ," which also included a young Marlon Brando.

However, his first major stage success was his role as an awkward suitor of Jessica Tandy in " A Streetcar Named Desire ," which also helped make Brando a star on stage.

Marlon Brando was also offered the part, and Anthony Perkins and Montgomery Clift were briefly considered, before O ' Toole was cast.

He had four more children by unidentified women: Stephen Blackehart ( born 1967 ), Michael Gilman ( born 1967 ), who was adopted by Brando's longtime friend Sam Gilman, Dylan Brando ( born 1968 ), and Angelique Brando.

Brando adopted a nondescript Southern accent for Gruver, despite the objections of director Logan, who did not think a Southern accent was appropriate for a general's son who was educated at West Point.

Brando asked John Gielgud for advice in declaiming Shakespeare, and adopted all of Gielgud's recommendations.

Marlon Brando was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to Marlon Brando, Sr., a pesticide and chemical feed manufacturer, and his wife, Dorothy Julia ( née Pennebaker ).

** Miko Brando ( born 1961 )

** Rebecca Brando ( born 1966 )

** Simon Teihotu Brando ( born 1963 )

** Ninna Priscilla Brando ( born 1989 )

** Myles Jonathan Brando ( born 1992 )

** Timothy Gahan Brando ( born 1994 )

** Maimiti Brando ( born 1977 )

** Raiatua Brando ( born 1982 )

They had two children together: Miko Castaneda Brando ( born 1961 ) and Rebecca Brando ( born 1966 ).

Teriipia became the mother of two of his children: Simon Teihotu Brando ( born 1963 ) and Tarita Cheyenne Brando.

Brando had a long-term relationship with his housekeeper Maria Christina Ruiz, by whom he had three children: Ninna Priscilla Brando ( born May 13, 1989 ), Myles Jonathan Brando ( born January 16, 1992 ), and Timothy Gahan Brando ( born January 6, 1994 ).

The 1960s proved to be a fallow decade for Brando, and after 10 years in which he did not appear in a commercially successful movie, he won his second Academy Award for playing Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather ( 1972 ), a role critics consider among his greatest.

Brando as Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather ( 1972 )

Brando and Teriipia divorced in July 1972.

In 1972, a film adaptation of the novel was released, starring Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone, Al Pacino as Michael Corleone, and directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

Bertolucci became infamous in 1972, with the controversial film Last Tango in Paris, with Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider, Jean-Pierre Léaud and Massimo Girotti, when a scene featuring the anal rape of character Jeane by character Paul using butter as a lubricant, among other depictions of the young Schneider that were thought to be exploitative, caused serious concern due to its representation of women.

Pickens appeared in dozens of films, including Old Oklahoma Plains ( 1952 ), Down Laredo Way ( 1953 ), One-Eyed Jacks ( 1961 ) with Marlon Brando, Dr. Strangelove ( 1964 ), Major Dundee ( 1965 ) with Charlton Heston, the remake of Stagecoach ( 1966 ; Pickens played the driver, portrayed in the 1939 film by Andy Devine ), Never a Dull Moment ( 1968 ), The Cowboys ( 1972 ) with John Wayne, Ginger in the Morning ( 1974 ) with Fred Ward, Blazing Saddles ( 1974 ), Poor Pretty Eddy ( 1975 ), Rancho Deluxe ( 1975 ), The Getaway with Steve McQueen, Tom Horn ( 1980 ), also with McQueen, An Eye for an Eye ( 1966 ) and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid ( 1973 ) in a small but memorable role.

* Last Tango in Paris ( 1972 ), directed by Bernardo Bertolucci and starring Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider

She represented Brando and his boycott of the Best Actor Oscar for The Godfather ( 1972 ), as a way to protest the ongoing siege at Wounded Knee and Hollywood's and television's misrepresentation of American Indians.

* Last Tango in Paris ( 1972 ), starring Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci.

** The Godfather, the Academy Award – winning 1972 film with Marlon Brando as the Godfather

The turning point came in 1972, as he first directed Marlon Brando in The Nightcomers, a prequel to The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, then made his earliest efforts with box office star Charles Bronson in Chato's Land, recounting a mixed race American Indian fighting with Whites, and The Mechanic, a thriller in which professional assassins are depicted.

The apartment in which Marlon Brando trysts with Maria Schneider in Bernardo Bertolucci's 1972 film Last Tango in Paris was located in Passy.

Later in life, Conte acted one of his most memorable performances in The Godfather ( 1972 ) as Don Barzini ( he was at one time also considered for the title role, a role that Marlon Brando eventually filled.

* Kansas City Film Critics Circle: KCFCC Award Best Actor Stacy Keach, ( tied with Marlon Brando for The Godfather ); 1972.