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

Brando also adopted Petra Brando-Corval ( born 1972 ), the daughter of his assistant Caroline Barrett and novelist James Clavell.

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.

They struck up a close friendship when Brando filmed Viva Zapata!

In the critically acclaimed The Men ( 1950 ), starring newcomer Marlon Brando as a paraplegic war veteran, Zinnemann filmed many scenes in a California hospital where real patients served as extras.

The 1952 film Viva Zapata was filmed primarily in Roma, Texas, with Anthony Quinn, Marlon Brando, Jean Peters.

Marlon Brando filmed additional footage for the sequel, Superman II, before differences behind the scenes caused his footage to end up on the cutting room floor.

Teahouse of the August Moon, starring Marlon Brando and based on the play, was also filmed on location in Okinawa.

The production of the film was plagued by numerous problems, including typhoons, nervous breakdowns, the firing of Harvey Keitel, Martin Sheen's heart attack, extras from the Philippine military leaving in the middle of scenes to go fight rebels, and an unprepared Brando with a bloated appearance ( which Coppola attempted to hide by shooting him in the shadows ).

He appeared with a hero of his, Marlon Brando in the Bertolucci film Last Tango in Paris, although the two never met, since all of Léaud's scenes were shot on Saturdays and Brando refused to work on Saturdays.

" Dave Kehr of The Chicago Reader wrote: " There is a strong Freudian pull to the situation ( the partner's name is “ Dad ”) that is more ritualized than dramatized: the most memorable scenes have a fierce masochistic intensity, as if Brando were taking the opportunity to punish himself for some unknown crime.

* Vito Corleone — Father ; played by Marlon Brando in The Godfather, and by Robert De Niro in flashback scenes in Part II.

When comparing scenes and themes, however, the film that was clearly most influential on Ashes and Diamonds is The Wild One directed by László Benedek, and featuring a young Marlon Brando.

It won three Academy Awards, including his second for Best Writing ( Adapted Screenplay ) ( with Puzo ), Best Picture and Best Actor ( for Brando ) and a nomination for Best Director and was instrumental in cementing his position as a prominent American film director.

After pleading with the executives, Coppola was allowed to cast Brando only if he appeared in the film for much less salary than his previous films, perform a screen-test, and put up a bond saying that he would not cause a delay in the production ( as he had done on previous film sets ).

Brando later won an Academy Award for his portrayal, which he refused to accept.

Cunard officials, who were responsible for the security at the dock, said they had never seen anything like it, although they had experienced past visits by Marlon Brando and Robert Redford.

Spacey is well known in Hollywood for his impressions as when he appeared on Inside the Actors Studio he imitated, at host James Lipton's request: James Stewart, Johnny Carson, Katharine Hepburn, Clint Eastwood, John Gielgud, Marlon Brando, Christopher Walken, Al Pacino and Jack Lemmon.

An enduring cultural icon, Brando became a box office star during the 1950s, during which time he racked up five Oscar nominations as Best Actor, along with three consecutive wins of the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

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.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Brando was paid a record $ 3. 7 million ($ in today's funds ) plus 11. 75 % of the gross profits for 13 days work playing Jor-El in Superman, further adding to his mystique.

Brando had been held back a year in school and was later expelled from Libertyville High School for riding his motorcycle through the corridors.

Brando used his Stanislavski System skills for his first summer-stock roles in Sayville, New York, on Long Island.

Brando sought out that role, driving out to Provincetown, Massachusetts, where Williams was spending the summer, to audition for the part.

In 1947, Brando was asked to do a screen test for Warner Brothers.

Brando as Emiliano Zapata in a trailer for the 1952 film Viva Zapata!

Brando brought his performance as Stanley Kowalski to the screen in Kazan's adaptation of Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for that role, and again in each of the next three years for his roles in Viva Zapata!

Marlon Brando with Eva Marie Saint in the trailer for On the Waterfront ( 1954 )

Brando won the Oscar for his role as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront.