Larry King, who was Jewish, replied: "When you say—when you say something like that, you are playing right in, though, to anti-Semitic people who say the Jews are—" Brando interrupted: "No, no, because I will be the first one who will appraise the Jews honestly and say 'Thank God for the Jews'." [165]

Marlon Brando declines Best Actor Oscar – Mar 27, 1973". HISTORY.com. Archived from the original on August 16, 2017 . Retrieved August 16, 2017. Brando's performance was glowingly reviewed by critics. "I thought it would be interesting to play a gangster, maybe for the first time in the movies, who wasn't like those bad guys Edward G. Robinson played, but who is kind of a hero, a man to be respected," Brando recalled in his autobiography. "Also, because he had so much power and unquestioned authority, I thought it would be an interesting contrast to play him as a gentle man, unlike Al Capone, who beat up people with baseball bats." Duvall later marveled to A&E's Biography, "He minimized the sense of beginning. In other words he, like, deemphasized the word action. He would go in front of that camera just like he was before. Cut! It was all the same. There was really no beginning. I learned a lot from watching that." Brando won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, but he declined it, becoming the second actor to refuse a Best Actor award (after George C. Scott for Patton). Brando did not attend the award ceremony; instead, he sent actress Sacheen Littlefeather (who appeared in Plains Indian-style regalia) to decline the Oscar on his behalf. [61] After refusing to touch the statue at the podium, she announced to the crowd that Brando was rejecting the award in protest of "the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry … and on television and movie reruns and also with recent happenings at Wounded Knee." The Wounded Knee Occupation of 1973 was occurring at the time of the ceremony. [62] [63] Brando had written a longer speech for her to read but, as she explained, this was not permitted due to time constraints. In the written speech Brando added that he hoped his declining the Oscar would be seen as "an earnest effort to focus attention on an issue that might very well determine whether or not this country has the right to say from this point forward we believe in the inalienable rights of all people to remain free and independent on lands that have supported their life beyond living memory." [64] In 2018, Littlefeather developed stage IV breast cancer, [134] a recurrence of the breast cancer from which she was reported to be in remission in 2012. [11] She said in a 2021 interview that the cancer had metastasized to her right lung and that she was terminal. [59] In 1946, Brando performed in Ben Hecht's Zionist play A Flag Is Born. He attended some fundraisers for John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election. In August 1963, he participated in the March on Washington along with fellow celebrities Harry Belafonte, James Garner, Charlton Heston, Burt Lancaster and Sidney Poitier. [151] Along with Paul Newman, Brando also participated in the Freedom Rides. Brando supported Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1964 United States presidential election. [152] Brando with the Finnish First Lady, Sylvi Kekkonen, in 1967 Littlefeather was born Marie Louise Cruz or Maria Louise Cruz [1] on November 14, 1946, in Salinas, California. [8] [9] Her mother, Geroldine Marie Cruz ( née Barnitz), was a leather stamper of French, German, and Dutch descent, and was born and raised in Santa Barbara, California. [10] [9] [11] Littlefeather's father was Manuel Ybarra Cruz, a saddlemaker of Mexican descent who was born and raised in Oxnard, California. [12]Medina, Eduardo; Levenson, Michael (October 29, 2022). "Sacheen Littlefeather and the Question of Native Identity". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved October 29, 2022. Draper, Jason (May 26, 2023). "Who's Who On The Beatles' 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' Album Cover". UDiscover Music. Archived from the original on August 26, 2023 . Retrieved August 25, 2023. Capote, Truman (November 2, 1957). "Marlon Brando, on Location". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X . Retrieved May 19, 2023. After appearing as oil tycoon Adam Steiffel in 1980's The Formula, which was poorly received critically, Brando announced his retirement from acting. However, he returned in 1989 in A Dry White Season, based on André Brink's 1979 anti-apartheid novel. Brando agreed to do the film for free, but fell out with director Euzhan Palcy over how the film was edited; he even made a rare television appearance in an interview with Connie Chung to voice his disapproval. In his memoir, he maintained that Palcy "had cut the picture so poorly, I thought, that the inherent drama of this conflict was vague at best." Brando received praise for his performance, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and winning the Best Actor Award at the Tokyo Film Festival. [ citation needed] At the 2023 95th Academy Awards ceremony, the Academy did not recognize Littlefeather at their in memoriam segment. [91] [92] Later career and activism [ edit ]

Bain, David Haward. The Old Iron Road: An Epic of Rails, Roads, and the Urge to Go West. New York: Penguin Books, 2004. ISBN 0-14-303526-6. Bly, Nellie (1994). Marlon Brando: Larger than Life. New York City: Pinnacle Books/Windsor Pub. Corp. ISBN 0-7860-0086-4. Littlefeather was described as a founding member of the Red Earth Indian Theater Company in Seattle when awarded an Eagle Spirit Award (Honorary) at the 2013 American Indian Film Festival. [93] [94] Contemporary accounts of the founding of the Red Earth Performing Arts Company by Nez Perce actor and playwright John Kauffman, Jr in 1974 do not mention Littlefeather. [95] [96] In 1978, it was reported that Littlefeather would travel to Newfoundland with the Greenpeace Foundation to protest the Newfoundland seal hunt along with politicians and other show business personalities. [97] She served as an advisor to PBS's Dance in America: Song for Dead Warriors (1984), which earned its choreographer, Michael Smuin, an Emmy Award. [98] [99]Desfor, Irving (June 9, 1976). "Camera Angles". Danville Register & Bee. Archived from the original on November 14, 2020 . Retrieved July 14, 2020– via Newspapers.com. Brando arrested 9 years ago as he led "fish-in" by Indians". The Free Lance–Star. Associated Press. March 29, 1973 . Retrieved October 3, 2022. Grobel, Lawrence (2000). Above the Line: Conversations about the Movies. New York City: Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-80978-1.

Brando met actress Rita Moreno in 1954, and they began a love affair. Moreno later revealed in her memoir that when she became pregnant by Brando, he arranged for an abortion. After the abortion was botched, and Brando fell in love with Tarita Teriipaia, Moreno attempted suicide by overdosing on Brando's sleeping pills. [118] Years after they broke up, Moreno played his love interest in the film The Night of the Following Day. [ citation needed]Review: 'The Freshman' ". Variety. December 31, 1989. Archived from the original on January 6, 2017 . Retrieved February 3, 2017.

This school of acting served the American theater and motion pictures well, but it was restricting. The American theater has never been able to present Shakespeare or classical drama of any kind satisfactorily. We simply do not have the style, the regard for the language or the cultural disposition ... You cannot mumble in Shakespeare. You cannot improvise, and you are required to adhere strictly to the text. The English theater has a sense of language that we do not recognize ... In the United States the English language has developed almost into a patois. [193] During the 1947 production of A Streetcar Named Desire, Brando became enamored with fellow cast member Sandy Campbell, [107] who played the minor role of the young collector. Brando had asked Campbell to have an affair with him and was often seen standing in the wings with Campbell and holding his hand. [108] According to Truman Capote, both Campbell and Brando confessed to having been in a sexual relationship. [109] "I asked Marlon, and he admitted it. He said he went to bed with lots of other men, too, but that he didn't consider himself a homosexual. He said they were all so attracted to him. 'I just thought that I was doing them a favor,' he said." [110] In his 1957 interview with Brando for The New Yorker, Capote claimed to have first encountered Brando at a rehearsal for A Streetcar Named Desire while he was sleeping on a table on the stage in an empty auditorium. [111] However, the story was appropriated from Sandy Campbell, as confirmed by his partner, Donald Windham. [112] [113] Brando was also a supporter of Native American rights and the American Indian Movement. The March 1964 fish-in protest near Tacoma, Washington, where he was arrested while protesting for fishing treaty rights, won him respect from members of the Puyallup tribe, who reportedly dubbed the spot where he was arrested "Brando's Landing." [157] [158] At the 1973 Academy Awards ceremony, Brando refused to accept the Oscar for his career-reviving performance in The Godfather. Sacheen Littlefeather represented him at the ceremony. She appeared in full Apache attire and stated that owing to the "poor treatment of Native Americans in the film industry", Brando would not accept the award. [159] This occurred while the standoff at Wounded Knee was ongoing. The event grabbed the attention of the US and the world media. This was considered a major event and victory for the movement by its supporters and participants. [ citation needed] Hogan's Heroes' Star Cynthia Lynn Dies at 76". Variety. March 11, 2014. Archived from the original on March 4, 2017 . Retrieved December 29, 2018.Brando had a long-term relationship with his housekeeper Maria Cristina Ruiz, with 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). Brando also adopted Petra Brando-Corval (born 1972), the daughter of his assistant Caroline Barrett and novelist James Clavell. [130] [131] In January 1973, she appeared in "Make-up for Minority Women' and was identified as a professional model. [45] As a spokesperson for the National American Indian Council, she protested President Richard Nixon's budget cuts to federal Indian programs in February 1973. [46] On March 6, 1973, she participated in a meeting between the Federal Communications Commission and members of several minority groups about the representation of minorities on television. [47] In an interview published just before her Academy Awards appearance, she stated that she had helped send two Indian nurses to Wounded Knee and that she had relinquished her United States citizenship, along with seven Native Americans. [48] At the age of 29 her lungs collapsed. [59] After recovering, she received a degree from Antioch University in holistic health and nutrition with an emphasis in Native American medicine, a practice she credited with her recovery. [9] [106] In 1991, Littlefeather was reported to be recovering from radical cancer surgery. [32] A 1999 article stated she had developed colon cancer in the early 1990s. [133]