Charismatic Rebel Transformed Movies

"Mutiny" director Lewis Milestone was one of many directors and studio officials he confounded with his distaste for authority. "Before he would take direction, he would ask why," Milestone said. "Then when the scene was being shot, he put earplugs in so that he couldn't hear my direction."

Brando saw his overall attitude differently. "I am myself," he once said, "and if I have to hit my head against a brick wall to remain myself, I will do it."

Starting in the 1960s, Brando became one of the first actor-activists to march for civil and Native American rights. He memorably refused to accept his Oscar for "The Godfather," protesting what he said was discrimination against Native Americans on film and in government policy.

Instead, he dispatched to the Academy Awards a woman who claimed to be a Native American named Sacheen Littlefeather and read an abridged version of Brando's 15-page indictment of policies toward the Indians. Later, she was revealed to be an actress named Maria Cruz, winner of the 1970 Miss American Vampire competition.

Brando also participated in "Free Huey" protests after Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton was tried in 1968 for allegedly killing an Oakland, Calif., police officer.

In later years, Brando came to be seen more as a tabloid curiosity with his seemingly boundless personal setbacks. Over time, he represented the disintegration of a sex symbol, as his muscular physique crumbled and he ballooned to more than 300 pounds; he often broke his diets by persuading McDonald's employees to pitch french fries and Big Macs over his fence. He was a hulking and teary presence at his son's 1990 trial in the shooting death of his half-sister's lover.

He called Christian's mother "as cruel and unhappy a person as I've ever met" and added about his own abilities as a parent, "I know I could have done better."

The public read about the bitterness of his three marriages; the many paternity suits; his daughter Cheyenne's 1995 suicide; and his odd public behavior, such as kissing television host Larry King on the mouth during an interview before Brando signed off with, "Darling, goodbye."

That 1994 King interview featured Brando doing free-association wordplay, singing off-key, expressing dislike for psychoanalysis and expounding on commercialism, exploitation and his life, about which he said he had no regrets. He teased and prodded King about sweating under the lights.

It all seemed to be a show. As his greatest acting coach, Stella Adler, encouraged him: Be anything but dull.

Marlon Brando Jr., the youngest of three children, was born in Omaha to the former Dorothy Pennebaker, a vivacious beauty and local actress, and Marlon Brando Sr., an insecticide salesman. His father, of French-Alsatian lineage, had changed his surname from Brandeaux.

When the family moved to Illinois -- to Evanston and then Libertyville -- Dorothy Brando accused her often-absent husband of sabotaging her theatrical career. She turned increasingly to drink, including one night when her son found her naked in a bar. Brando later used that memory to great effect in "Last Tango," an example of his penchant for blurring the personal with his art.

The move to Illinois also propelled young Brando's unruliness in the face of authority, such as pouring hydrosulfate into his high school's ventilation system to create a rotten-egg smell. Other friends noted his insatiable curiosity about nature, his self-taught skill on drums and his love of bodybuilding -- all of which helped define his restless physical charisma.

The elder Brando sent his son to Shattuck Military Academy in Minnesota, where he began acting at the behest of a drama coach who was taken with his flair for melodramatics. Brando was expelled shortly before graduation because of pranks and a poor academic record.