Marlon Brando News Archive

Gangbusters

"GUYS and Dolls" is one of the world's most beloved musicals - but there were those who wanted it banned. In the new bio "Frank Loesser," about the famed composer-lyricist, Thomas Riis bares a Nevada minister's bizarre letter to Hollywood's censorship board after the Frank Sinatra-Marlon Brando flick hit theaters. "It is inartistic. There is not a tuneful melody in the show," raged the Rev. Felix Manley. "Sinatra never sang so poorly . . . [and] Brando should not even try to sing. If his 'singing' was dubbed by a ghost, please get a new ghost!" Luckily, the Production Code Administration ignored the beef, and the flick remains a favorite.

Sick Stick

MARIA Schneider - who was only 19 when she, Marlon Brando and a stick of butter filmed the world's most infamous sex scene in "Last Tango in Paris" - is still haunted by it to this day. "That scene wasn't in the original script. The truth is it was Marlon who came up with the idea . . . I should have called my agent or had my lawyer come to the set because you can't force someone to do some thing that isn't in the script," Schneider, now 55, tells Lon don's Daily Mail. As they shot it, "I was crying real tears. I felt humiliated and, to be hon est, I felt a little raped . . . Thankfully, there was just one take." She adds: "I never use butter to cook anymore - only olive oil."

Brando documentary examines the actor's actor

A new documentary about Marlon Brando shows he still mesmerizes fans who remember his range and raw emotion during a stunning career that saw him evolve from sex symbol to political activist to obese recluse.

"Brando," premiering at New York's Tribeca Film Festival, argues he remains the standard against whom actors are measured three years after his death and 60 years after he wowed Broadway with his performance in "A Streetcar Named Desire."

The festival, which ends May 6, was created by Brando protege Robert De Niro and is attended by experts familiar with Brando's work.

Yet the audience at Thursday night's two-hour and 45-minute screening howled with laughter at the humorous clips from Brando's most famous films and sat in stunned silence in the more poignant parts, such as his "I could have been a contender" scene from 1954's "On the Waterfront."

Producer Leslie Greif, who created the documentary along with writer Mimi Freedman, said the word "icon" was overused but nonetheless apt for Brando.

"That's what Marlon Brando is and was, because he was the first. He was an actor who stripped down, became raw," Greif said in an interview. "He wasn't afraid to take real emotion and real human angst and suffering and compassion and put it on film."

"Brando" will air in two parts on TV's Turner Classic Movies May 1-2.

Cinema greats such as director Martin Scorsese and actor Al Pacino appear in the documentary, still awed by a career that includes Brando's portrayal of sexy, volatile Stanley Kowalski in "Streetcar," and his later days as obese recluse.

Many of the 54 celebrities, childhood friends and relatives interviewed remain fascinated by Brando's range, subtlety and raw emotion.

"He was theatrical without being theatrical," said actor Martin Landau.

"He releases so much stuff it's like a walking sore," Dennis Hopper said.

Regarding Brando's breakthrough performance on Broadway in "Truckline Cafe" in 1946, Eli Wallach remarked, "We were left empty, empty, and wounded by this actor."

The documentary chronicles Brando's stunning early films from "The Men" in 1950 to "On the Waterfront" in 1954, a mid-career slump, and revival in "The Godfather" and "Last Tango in Paris" from 1972 and "Apocalypse Now" in 1979.

It also examines Brando's career-threatening political activism in favor of civil rights and Native Americans, which Black Panther Bobby Seale and Lakota activist Russell Means called unprecedented among white American celebrities.

When Brando refused his best actor Oscar for "The Godfather" and sent Sacheen Littlefeather to the stage in his place during the awards ceremony, Means said, "That was the finest moment for us in the 20th century."

Unseating the Brando?

Don't get so comfy in your Brando.

The estate of Marlon Brando filed suit Thursday in Los Angeles against the makers of a home-theater recliner known as the Brando.

The Brando camp claims the leather chair is an unauthorized, unlicensed attempt to cash in on the name of the late Oscar-winning star of The Godfather and On the Waterfront.

The complaint accuses Canada's Palliser Furniture Ltd., among others, of misappropriating of a dead celebrity's name. It seeks unspecified damages and a preliminary injunction.

An attempt to reach a Palliser spokesperson for comment Thursday afternoon was unsuccessful; a recorded message said the company's business day was done.

Per its Website, Palliser specializes in leather sofas, sectionals, chairs and home-theater accoutrements with names such as Melrose, Blake and Hemingway. The Brando was not featured on the site Thursday.

At the online home of Discount Leather Chairs, the Brando is hailed for providing "unparalleled comfort, sophisticated design and all the features you need to help create the ultimate home theater." Cup holders are standard; so-called "Bass Shakers," aka built-in woofer speakers, are optional.

According to Miko Brando, a son of the Hollywood legend, his father wasn't much for bells and whistles, or maybe even cup holders.

"He never owned home-theater furniture," Miko Brando told E! Online Thursday. "He just had a sofa and a TV."

Marlon Brando died in 2004 at the age of 80.

According to the lawsuit, first reported on by the Los Angeles Times, Palliser unveiled its Brando model "mere weeks" after the star's death.

In a January 2007 letter to Brando estate representatives, the lawsuit says, Palliser asserted its Brando had nothing to do with their Brando.

"Brando is a tourist cent[er] of Corsica in the Mediterranean Sea and hence its inspiration," the company said, per the lawsuit. "Palliser is certainly not associating its use of the name with the Hollywood Brando name."

When asked for his reaction to that assertion, Miko Brando responded with a laugh.

"Yeah, well, figure it out," the younger Brando finally said.

In true Godfather fashion, Miko Brando said he has nothing personal against the Brando recliner, as a recliner, that is. He's never even sat in one.

Like father, like son, apparently, Miko Brando isn't big on home-theater furniture of any brand.

Said Miko Brando: "I don't need one."

Movie studio Fox auctions movie star contracts

Movie studio 20th Century Fox will next month auction off more than 200 documents signed by stars such as Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and Marlon Brando, Daily Variety reported on Wednesday.

Proceeds from the sale, set to take place in New York on January 25 through auctioneer Swann Galleries, will benefit the Motion Picture & Television Fund, a charity for Hollywood actors and other employees.

Among the offerings are a 1946 internal memo advising that Norma Jean Dougherty was changing her professional name to Marilyn Monroe; a contract allowing Presley to violate strict grooming codes and wear his hair however he saw fit for "Love Me Tender," his 1956 feature film debut; and Brando's 1951 contract for "Viva Zapata," which paid him almost $125,000 for the film, the trade paper said.

Other contracts on the block have been signed by the likes of Lucille Ball, Cary Grant, Will Rogers, Rita Hayworth, Clark Gable, Katharine Hepburn, Lana Turner, Dean Martin, John Steinbeck, Natalie Wood, the Three Stooges, and Judy Garland, according to Swann's Web site.

"These papers are so cool that, as a fan of that history, I will have to restrain myself from bidding," Daily Variety quoted studio co-chairman Tom Rothman as saying.

Monroe's Plea To Brando

EIGHT months before her death, a desperate Marilyn Monroe asked Marlon Brando to help save her movie career and beat her growing depression, a never-before-seen letter reveals. "Please phone me as soon as possible. Time is of the essence," Monroe wrote to Brando, her occasional lover, during a period when she was feuding with her studio over control of scripts and characters. She also sent a poignant note to her acting coach Lee Strasberg, asking him to help her set up a production company, saying how she needed to extract herself from "quicksand I have always been in . . . As you know, for years I have been struggling to find some emotional security with little success, for many different reasons." The letters, which belong to the family of a Monroe business associate and will be auctioned by Bonhams & Butterfields in Los Angeles this December, were written as she underwent psychoanalysis following her divorce from playwright Arthur Miller. The following year, Monroe died of a drug overdose at 36, with officials calling it a "probable" suicide.

BRANDO ROLODEX ON THE LOOSE

CHRISTIAN Brando, the creepy killer son of superstar Marlon Brando, reputedly sold off his dad's personal Rolodex of the private home addresses, e-mails and phone numbers of over 100 of the world's most famous celebrities and politicians - and it was nearly auctioned on eBay until his horrified brother, Miko, put a stop to it.

"Christian sold it to an individual who had placed it on eBay," celebrity agent Richard Smith told us, adding that when Miko found out, he contacted his pal Keya Morgan, who quickly got it yanked.

Morgan declines to name the man who got the Rolodex from Christian. But he told Page Six, "I personally inspected the authenticity of the [Rolodex] and was shocked to see all the private cellphone numbers, home addresses, personal codes, etc., of the most powerful people in the Hollywood - there on the Internet for the whole world to see at a starting bid of $100.

"The names included Oprah Winfrey, Robert De Niro, Larry King, Al Pacino, Whoopi Goldberg, John Travolta, Bill Clinton, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Dustin Hoffman, Samuel L. Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor, Denzel Washington, Jack Nicholson, Tony Bennett and Jay Leno."

Morgan, who is collaborating on a book with Miko and personally knows many of the celebs on the Rolodex, said he compared his numbers with the ones up for grabs and, "I discovered most were still valid. This really made Paris Hilton's address book ending up on the Internet seem like a joke."

Most of Marlon Brando's possessions were auctioned through Christie's last year. Morgan says the late "Godfather" star's lawyer, David Seeley, is trying to recover the Rolodex from the man who says he acquired it from Christian. Meanwhile, "I turned down a $75,000 offer from an individual on Wall Street for the information on it," he said.

Christian's lawyer, Bruce Margolin, said he was unaware of any sale of the Rolodex but would look into it. Christian was convicted of the 1990 voluntary manslaughter of his half-sister Cheyenne's boyfriend, Dag Drollet, and was paroled six years later. Cheyenne committed suicide in 1995.

Brando script, Dean clothes in memorabilia auction

Marlon Brando's annotated script of "The Godfather," letters from playwright Tennessee Williams and dozens of other personal items are going up for auction in the latest sale to open the door on the once highly reclusive actor.

Heritage Auction Galleries of Dallas said on Wednesday the October 6-7 sale comprised about 100 items ranging from Brando's harmonica to his BAFTA British film award for the 1952 movie "Viva Zapata!" and still photographs taken during the filming of "Apocalypse Now."

The auction also features clothes worn in the films "East of Eden" and "Rebel Without a Cause" by James Dean. They were consigned for auction by a recently closed James Dean museum in Indiana.

The Dallas event is thought to be the second major sale of Brando memorabilia since the legendary actor died of lung failure in Los Angeles in July 2004 at the age of 80.

"Brando was simply one of the greatest actors and he was so reclusive in life that his mystique will always be celebrated," Doug Norwine, director of music and entertainment memorabilia at Heritage Auction Galleries, told Reuters. "These are such wild cards the prices could go through the roof."

A June 2005 auction of Brando's personal effects at Christie's in New York raised more than $2.4 million -- more than twice the presale estimate -- and included an annotated script of "The Godfather," which sold for a record $312,800.

Norwine said there was more than one "Godfather" script. The one being auctioned in October had been certified as genuine by Brando's assistant of 50 years, Alice Marchak, who has contributed most of the items.

"She (Marchak) said this was the script he would take into the trailer and practice his lines with. It is also signed," he said. He said the conservative estimate for the script was at least $35,000.

Brando, who won Oscars for "On the Waterfront" and "The Godfather," shunned mainstream Hollywood in the last 25 years of his life.

According to his biographer Peter Manso, he left instructions his bedroom be sealed with a padlock on his death. Manso said last year he thought Brando would be turning in his grave at having his belongings auctioned.

"Superman" DVD set restores ill-fated sequel

On the heels of "Superman Returns" storming the box office, the four original "Superman" movies starring Christopher Reeve are set to get the special DVD treatment.

The highlight of the November 28 DVD rollout: "Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut," a revised version of the controversial 1980 sequel as it originally was conceived and intended to be filmed by director Richard Donner, who also shot the 1978 original.

Donner was fired midway through the shoot and replaced by Richard Lester, who gave the film more of a comic bent. The version of the film being prepared for the DVD features Donner's original footage, shot but never used, including a never-before-seen beginning, a different ending and 15 minutes of Marlon Brando as Jor-El in key scenes that probe deeper into Superman lore and further the relationship between father and son.

Donner shot most of the "Superman II" footage while he was filming "Superman: The Movie." But as production on the sequel continued, friction between the director and the film's producers led to his dismissal. Lester was hired to finish the shoot but wound up making substantial changes.

Warner Home Video also is releasing a four-disc special edition of "Superman: The Movie," deluxe editions of "Superman III" and "Superman IV" and a two-disc special edition of Lester's theatrical version of "Superman II." The four films also will be available in an eight-disc boxed set, "The Christopher Reeve Superman Collection."

The four-disc "Superman: The Movie" includes two versions of the movie: The 1978 theatrical original and the 2001 director's cut.

Former Brando assistant sues actor's executors

A former assistant to Marlon Brando has sued the executors of the late actor's estate for more than $2 million claiming she was cheated out of a home she says Brando promised to give to her.

The suit, filed on behalf of Angela Borlaza in Los Angeles Superior Court late on Friday, alleges she was evicted from the house by executors Mike Medavoy and Larry Dressler, who she accuses of isolating Brando while he was still alive to gain control of his estate after he died.

The Oscar-winning actor, known for roles in movies like "On the Waterfront" and "The Godfather," died in July 2004 at age 80. Since then, several former associates have filed claims against his estate.

Borlaza's suit also provides some detailed insight into the actor's final days, saying he suffered from several diseases, including pulmonary fibrosis, according to a published report.

Borlaza, who began working for the actor in 1995 and became his executive assistant, claims in her suit that as his health worsened, the two verbally agreed that before he died he would buy her a home.

She moved into the house in 2002 and he bought it through a corporate entity he controlled, but the title was never transferred to Borlaza, according to the lawsuit.

Neither Medavoy nor Dressler could be reached for comment.

In December 2004, Brando's former business manager, Jo An Corrales, filed a $3.5 million claim against the estate alleging the actor sexually harassed her.

Other claims included one by a Tahitian airline that alleged Brando owed it money, and another by a friend seeking reimbursement for a ring she claimed she had lost at his Hollywood Hills home.

Brando screen test for Rebel Without a Cause part of 8-disc DVD set

Fans of Marlon Brando will be treated to a nearly 60-year-old screen test the actor took for the lead role in Rebel Without a Cause that is being included in a new DVD collection.

The footage from the late 1940s shows a baby-faced Brando auditioning for the movie - a few years before he made his big-screen debut in 1950's The Men. The role called for Brando to play a young criminal who urges his girlfriend to join him in escaping from the law.

"There is a magnetic power to him, as he is at the peak of his physical beauty and virile power - both as a man and as an actor," Darwin Porter, author of Brando Unzipped, told the Times of London newspaper earlier this week.

Porter said he was "mesmerized" by the actor's screen test, which studio officials believe was the first time Brando, then a stage performer, worked in front of a camera.

The screenplay he tested for was shelved, and the Rebel title was recycled years later for the 1955 film that made James Dean a star, said officials from Warner Home Video.

The footage is being released May 2 as part of an eight-disc DVD set featuring film adaptations of the works of playwright Tennessee Williams. The films include A Streetcar Named Desire, in which Brando starred, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Sweet Bird of Youth.

Warner officials said the test was found in the early 1990s by a studio employee looking for items to put on a video release of Dean's Rebel. Officials said they held it until they found an appropriate venue.

Brando died of lung failure in July 2004. He was 80.

Settlement reached in sexual harassment suit against Marlon Brando's estate

Lawyers for Marlon Brando's estate have settled a sexual harassment and unlawful termination lawsuit against the late actor's estate by his former business manager, attorneys said.

Details of the settlement, described as "amicable" by lawyers for Jo An Corrales of Kalama, Wash., were not released. Jo An Corrales filed her lawsuit against the Brando estate in Los Angeles Superior Court in April. She alleged that the late actor insulted her and subjected her to sexual innuendo, and that he exposed his genitals, touched her inappropriately, forced her to watch pornographic movies with him, and told her dirty autobiographical stories.

She also claimed she was unfairly removed as co-executor of Brando's will 12 days before he died.

Pete Linden, an attorney for Corrales, said Friday that both sides signed off an agreement.

Brando estate attorney Elizabeth Bawden had no comment.

Odd Couple's TV Idea

MICHAEL Jackson viewed legendary actor Marlon Brando as a "god" - and a potential TV co-star. Wacko Jacko and his buddy Brando hatched plans for a two-part TV special highlighting each other's careers, sources told The Post's David K. Li. Part 1 was to be set at Neverland, with Brando chatting up Jackson about his music. Part 2 was to be shot on Brando's private Polynesian island with Michael lobbing on-camera softballs to The Godfather. How much did Jackson admire Brando? Consider this frantic 4:41 a.m. voice message he left for former aide Marc Schaffel on June 18, 2001, urging him to get the deal rolling: "Marlon Brando is pushing, and he's a wonderful man. He's a god. We have to get this done. He wants to get it done before Christmas ... He just wants to make it a big deal. He wants a lot of money, and we would own it together . . . He really wants it, I mean I think that he feels he won't be living too much longer." Brando died July 1, 2004, before the project ever got off the ground.

Actress Jocelyn Brando, sister of the late Marlon Brando, dead at 86

Actress Jocelyn Brando, who appeared in more than a dozen films including two with her younger brother, Marlon, has died. She was 86.

Brando, whose married surname was Pennebaker, died Sunday of natural causes at her Santa Monica home, said her son, Martin Asinof of Tillamook, Ore.

Brando, who often defended and praised her better-known and controversial brother, made her Broadway splash in the late 1940s as the leading nurse in Mister Roberts.

She appeared in more than a dozen major motion pictures, beginning with Fritz Lang's The Big Heat with Glenn Ford in 1953 and ending with Mommie Dearest, which starred Faye Dunaway as mercurial actress Joan Crawford in 1981.

Brando appeared with her brother in two mid-1960s releases, The Ugly American and The Chase.

She also appeared in more than 50 television programs, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Virginian, Little House on the Prairie and Kojak, and had a recurring role as Mrs. Reeves in episodes of Dallas.

In a 1953 interview with the Los Angeles Times, she described her brother as a sweet, hardworking man.

"I asked him for a tip about pictures, and he answered, 'Oh, I just say the words. That's all I know about picture acting.' He probably was smart at that to let me find my own way," she said.

She was at her brother's side when he died at 80 of lung failure in Los Angeles on July 1, 2004.

BRANDO'S MAID SUES TV SHOW

MARLON Brando's ailing former maid has slammed the defunct show "Celebrity Justice" with a lawsuit for sneaking into her retirement home last year to callously break the news of Brando's passing to her.

The suit alleges reporters for the canceled show broke into the dementia-stricken octogenarian's room at the Dan Mar Retirement Villa in L.A. and videotaped her reacting to the star's death without her legal consent.

Blanche Hall, who was 84 at the time, is suing Harvey Levin Productions, which backed "Celebrity Justice," as well as Time Warner and Time Telepictures Television, which were involved in getting the show on the air.

The charges filed in Los Angeles Superior Court include trespassing, invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress and "elder abuse."

According to court papers obtained by PAGE SIX, the defendants learned of Hall's existence after scoring a copy of Brando's will in July 2004. The will listed Hall as a beneficiary of his estate and included her address.

According to sources familiar with the case, "Celebrity Justice" executive producer Harvey Levin - now a talking head on "The People's Court" - is accused of sending two reporters to break into Hall's room for the mean-spirited footage.

"[The] defendants' conduct was fraudulent, intentional and malicious and done specifically for the purpose of causing [Hall] to suffer mental anguish and emotional distress," court papers allege.

The retirement home visit was done "with knowledge that [Hall's] emotional and physical distress would result and was done with a wanton and reckless disregard for the consequences to plaintiff and is further despicable in that it was done for the purpose of capturing it on videotape and broadcasting it on television around the world."

For years, Hall took care of Brando's children and was reportedly close to the beleaguered star, who died July 1, 2004 in L.A.

A spokesperson for tmz.com, Levin's current project, confirmed that Harvey Levin Productions was named in the suit, but added, "No professional or personal wrongdoing has been alleged against [Levin] personally."

Presley Tops Forbes' Dead Celebrities List

Elvis Presley tops the annual Forbes list of celebrities who are the top moneymakers from beyond the grave. The singer, who died in 1977, made an estimated $45 million in the past year.

Cartoonist Charles Schulz (2000) is next on the list with $35 million, followed by musician John Lennon (1980), who raked in $22 million.

Artist Andy Warhol's (1987) take was $16 million, "Cat in the Hat" author Dr. Seuss (1991) made $10 million, followed by actor Marlon Brando (2004) with $9 million.

Actress Marilyn Monroe (1962) and "Lord of the Rings" author J.R.R. Tolkien (1973) are tied with $8 million apiece. George Harrison (2001), Johnny Cash (2003), and Irving Berlin (1989) finished in a three-way tie, with each musician bringing in $7 million.

We Hear...

THAT Shirley MacLaine says the one actor she'd like to have worked with was Marlon Brando. "We talk about it all the time," she told Fox News Channel's Bill McCuddy. The co-star of "In Her Shoes," famous for her other-worldly ways, told McCuddy: "Marlon is doing just fine — and he's much thinner"

Brando: actor, recluse and now pulp-fiction author of 'Fan-Tan'

Actor Marlon Brando has been immortalized in film for playing a Mafia boss, a luckless boxer and a rebellious biker, but 14 months after his death he is now also an author of a swashbuckling pirate novel.

"Fan-Tan," a pulp fiction novel authored by Brando and a longtime associate, movie director Donald Cammell, arrived on bookshelves this week after their unfinished manuscript was polished by film historian David Thomson and published by Random House imprint Alfred A. Knopf.

The book offers Brando fans a rare insight into the reclusive star's love of the South Pacific and of Asian women and is a work the actor did not want published.

Thomson admits the book he finished is no classic.

"It's not profound literature, but it's an adventure story and quite a good adventure story, very unexpected coming from Brando," Thomson told Reuters. "It tells us a lot about him."

Brando fell in love with the South Pacific while filming the 1962 classic "Mutiny on the Bounty" in Tahiti. He later bought his own South Pacific island and, in 1979, proposed to Cammell that they collaborate on a pirate story.

"He made the South Seas a great part of his life. Clearly this story comes out of the books he read and the things he learned about the seas during his time out there," Thomson said. "He was also crazy about Asian women."

Set in 1927, the book tells the story of a sea captain named Anatole "Annie" Doultry who, while serving time in a Hong Kong prison, saves the life of a prisoner. On his release he learns he has won the gratitude of that prisoner's boss, a beautiful gangster named Madame Lai Choi San.

Madame Lai proposes that Anatole join her in a robbery of a British-owned ship carrying a fortune in silver. Unable to resist, he gets swept up in a tale of pirates, a typhoon, a scorching sex scene and hand-to-hand combat.

Publishers Weekly gave an upbeat review, saying "the stylish result will delight readers who love movies, Marlon Brando, sea stories, Chinese pirates or adventure tales."

The Washington Post was less enthused. "It is the wreck you would expect. It is also the wreck you wouldn't expect -- an exceedingly strange, high-stepping, low-stooping tale that pulses fitfully with talent -- all of it Cammell's."

Brando conceived of the story's main character -- an outsized 50-something sea captain with more than a passing resemblance to the increasingly outsized actor.

Originally destined to be a film treatment, Brando's contributions consisted of improvising scenes. The actual work of writing fell to Cammell, the director of several obscure 1970s films best known for his movie "Performance."

Cammell spent years transforming the draft into a novel and pitched then-London based editor Sonny Mehta, but Brando pulled the plug on the project after he, as usual, lost all interest.

Thomson said their friendship had soured years earlier when a middle-aged Cammell had an affair with a 14-year-old girl named China Kong -- the daughter of one of Brando's mistresses.

Cammell shot himself in 1996. After Brando died last summer, Kong approached Mehta, now with Knopf in New York, with the manuscript. Mehta turned to Thomson to edit Cammell's opus and write the final chapter.

Peter Manso, author of the definitive 1995 biography, "Brando: the Biography" maintained Brando never intended the book to be published. The fact that it was, Manso said, in part vindicated his fears toward the end of his life that his estate would be abused.

Marlon Brando novel, 'Fan-Tan' to be published

Marlon Brando died in July 2004 but his work lives on. His work as an author, that is.

Brando is co-author of the book, "Fan-Tan", which hits the shelves in early September.

"Fan-Tan" is an adventure story about an early 20th-century pirate, strikingly similar to Brando. Both were middle-aged, overweight, mischievous and fond of Asian women.

The book tells the story of the pirate Annie (for Anatole) Doultry. While serving a stint in a Hong Kong jail, Doultry saves the life of a fellow prisoner. For his efforts, Doultry wins the favour of the glamorous and wealthy pirate, Madame Lai Choi San. Doultry can't resist her charms, and adventure and sex ensue.

The roots of the book go back to the late 1970s when Brando was angry at the Hollywood system and only working occasionally. Brando turned to writing a screenplay - Fan-Tan - the title taken from the Chinese gambling game.

Brando eventually asked for assistance from Donald Cammell, a man with some film experience, who like Brando, shared an outrageous lifestyle and an artistic temperament.

The two worked together for eight months on Tetiaroa, Brando's island in Tahiti. Brando decided that he did not want to make Fan-Tan into a film and he and Cammell were paid $100,000 US by Pan Books to convert the story into a novel.

Brando and Cammell had a falling out, and Brando returned the advance, paying Cammell's share. In 1982, Cammell committed suicide and Brando died last year at the age of 80.

After Brando's death, Cammell's widow China Kong, resurrected the manuscript and sold it to publisher Alfred A. Knopf.

Film historian David Thomson was brought in to edit the book and write the final chapter which Brando had outlined but not completed.

"The character of Annie Doultry is plainly a self-portrait of Brando," said Thomson. "There are transcripts of conferences he and Cammell had, and Brando did a lot of improvising, playing the Annie Doultry character. Plainly he saw this as a part that he might play in a movie himself."

"Fan-Tan", years in the making, will be released on September 6.

No word yet on whether some other actor will eventually get a chance to portray the part Brando was born to play.

Marlon Brando's effects sell for $2.4 million

Hollywood legend Marlon Brando's personal effects were auctioned on Thursday in a sale that raised more than $2.4 million, but which Brando's biographer said would have the renowned recluse "turning over in his grave."

Fans and collectors flocked to Christie's salesroom and telephone bidders called in from around the world during the 6 1/2 hour auction. The final tally for the 320 items sold was well above the presale estimate of about $1 million.

Many of the lots featured scripts, pictures, clothing and other materials from Brando's movies. His annotated script from "The Godfather" collected $312,800 -- a record for an auctioned film script -- and far surpassed the $10,000-$15,000 estimate.

A note from "The Godfather" author Mario Puzo appealing to Brando to take the starring role garnered $132,000, much more than the anticipated $800-$1,200. And a telegram to Marilyn Monroe when she was hospitalized for depression sold for $36,000. It was predicted to fetch between $300 and $500.

Marlon's daughter, Rebecca Brando, told Reuters she was happy with the way the auction was conducted, but said it was an emotional day for her.

"It is sad ... all these things were part of my childhood," she said.

Proceeds will be split among Brando's nine children, all of whom she said were in favor of the auction.

But Brando biographer Peter Manso said, "I think the whole auction is creepy and I can tell you I'm not the only one who thinks so after spending two days with (Brando's son) Christian."

"The auction borders on complete tastelessness and Brando would never, ever, ever have wanted this," the author of "Brando: The Biography" told Reuters by telephone.

According to Manso, Brando left instructions that his bedroom be sealed with a padlock after his death.

"I can assure you Marlon is turning over in his grave to think that someone has his driver's license."

Even mundane items went for thousands of dollars. At auction, a pair of Brando's California driver's licenses went for $25,000. A collection of credit cards sold for $10,000. And a burrwood coffee table made by Brando garnered $5,500, double the estimate.

A 1959-dated letter from Martin Luther King Jr. asking for Brando's help with the youth march for integrated schools was sold for $11,000, nearly three times its pre-auction estimate.

In addition to the high-rolling professional collectors, many fans showed up to join in the bidding.

Margaret Meyer said she heard about the auction on the radio and flew to New York City from Buffalo at the last minute because she loved Marlon Brando since she was a child.

"He's been my favorite actor since I was 10," said Meyer, who snared a framed set of American Indian beaded necklaces that she said she will either wear or hang on her wall.

New Yorker Joseph Tandet said he came to try to buy something for his cousin, who, he said, had dated Brando, "before he was Marlon Brando."

Brando, regarded as one of the world's greatest actors, launched his career after a stage performance as a swaggering brute in "Streetcar Named Desire." He later immortalized the role in the 1951 screen version.

He won Oscars for "On the Waterfront" in 1954 and "The Godfather" in 1972, and influenced subsequent generations of actors.

The enigmatic actor shunned mainstream Hollywood and advocated environmental and Native American causes. He died in July of lung failure at the age of 80.

His estate, worth just over $20 million, was split among his nine children after he died.

$1 Mil Expected for 'Insensitive' Brando Auction

Marlon Brando's personal effects will go up for auction on Thursday, June 30 at Christie's in New York and are expected to fetch upwards of $1 million.

Peter Manso, author of "Brando: The Biography," says the auction is "grossly insensitive" and that the actor would be "turning over in his grave" if he knew his personal items were being sold, reports Reuters.

The biographer claims that Brando had left instructions that upon his death, his bedroom should be locked up since "They will steal the buttons off my shirt."

Among some of the more private items up for sale include: a medical alert tag listing his allergy to penicillin, his driver's licenses, credit cards, childhood awards won at summer camp, cotton kimonos and books. Private correspondence between Brando and Martin Luther King Jr., Francis Ford Coppola, Jack Kerouac, Marilyn Monroe, Joan Baez and Barbra Streisand will also be sold.

Some of the items up for sale related to his films include notes for "Mutiny on the Bounty" and a written plea from "The Godfather" author Mario Puzo requesting the actor take the titular role.

Reflecting the eccentric actor's love for jokes and magic tricks are four Japanese boxes filled with miscellaneous items including a fake severed finger.

It was previously reported that the black velvet tunic the legendary actor wore as Jor-El, Superman's biological father, would also be put up for auction.

Brando, a two-time Oscar winner for "On the Waterfront" and "The Godfather," died in Los Angeles on July 1, 2004 at the age of 80.

Brando's personal effects on auction in NY

The personal effects of Hollywood legend Marlon Brando -- everything from script notes to a fake bloody finger -- will be sold next week in New York in an auction that will provide some clues to the life of the intensely private actor.

The more than 300 lots in Thursday's auction at Christie's are being sold by Brando's estate.

Many of the lots feature scripts, pictures, clothing and other materials from Brando's movies. There are 36 pages of meticulously written notes on "Mutiny On The Bounty," where Brando explores themes and plots and sub-text in the film. Also for sale is a note from "The Godfather" author Mario Puzo appealing to Brando to take the starring role.

Other lots include correspondence between Brando and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., "Godfather" director Francis Ford Coppola, writer Jack Kerouac, Barbra Streisand and other entertainment world figures.

Four Japanese lacquer boxes filled with jokes and magic tricks, including a fake severed finger, balance Brando's reputation for dramatic intensity with his prankster side.

Also up for bid are furniture, musical instruments, books, artwork and caricatures that Brando drew. The more mundane items include Brando's expired driver's licenses, old credit cards, awards he won at summer camp in his youth and a medical alert tag noting his allergy to penicillin.

On stage and screen, Brando was known for iconic portrayals of brute male ego in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and of brooding menace as a Mafia kingpin in "The Godfather."

Brando died last July at the age of 80.

Make an offer they can't refuse

Marlon Brando was as enigmatic as he was mythic, a man who donned muumuus as casually as he revolutionized acting.

So it's fitting that an upcoming auction of the legend's personal effects - he died last July at age 80 - is a mix of the endearingly bizarre and the downright momentous. And if this collection does nothing else, it confirms Brando's status as a world-class pack rat.

"We went to (Brando's) house not long after his death to find this metal container (outside the house) filled with all this amazing stuff," says Helen Bailey, a specialist in popular entertainment at Christie's, which will gavel The Personal Property of Marlon Brando on June 30 in New York. "Some people are hoarders, and thankfully he held on to his stuff."

Bailey says family members secured pieces of sentimental value before consigning the trove to the auction house. Proceeds of the sale, which is expected to generate more than $1 million, go to the estate. A public preview begins Saturday.

Among the 250 lots are such memorabilia as a leather belt with the words "Might Moon Champion" (pre-auction estimate: $700-$900), given to the actor by his Godfather co-stars after they taught him the art of dropping his drawers in public. There's also a foosball table and a pair of souvenir bongos from Cuba ($800-$1,200 for each lot) that hint at Brando's offbeat leisure pursuits.

A moody photo of Brando embracing actress Rita Moreno ($600-$800), culled from the actor's home office, is, "incredibly, the only real tangible clue in the house that this man worked in show business," Bailey says.

But other lots pay homage to his half-century Hollywood reign, including letters from Jack Kerouac ($5,000-$7,000), who rambles about starring opposite the actor in a hoped-for film production of On the Road, and The Godfather author Mario Puzo ($800-$1,200), who tells Brando he is "the only actor who can play the godfather with that quiet force and irony."

Perhaps the most compelling item is Brando's script ($10,000-$15,000) from that career-defining film. It contains his handwritten notes about how to play the role of Don Corleone, including the telling observations, "Through the nose ... high voice."

"In terms of film scholarship, this script is incredibly valuable," says Patricia Hanson, film historian at the American Film Institute. "I hope it doesn't disappear permanently into someone's private collection. It sheds light on how the actor saw himself, and on the entire filmmaking process."

Moon Memento

AS Christie's puts together the catalogue for its June 30 sale of Marlon Brando's personal property, the auction house is still unearthing items that give curious insights into the legendary actor's psyche. Bidders are expected to plunk down $700 to $900 to walk off with Brando's brown leather belt, decorated with the words "Mighty Moon Champion," given to him by James Caan and Robert Duvall after Brando mooned the assembled crowd during filming of the wedding scene in "The Godfather."

Marlon Brando Items to Be Auctioned

Marlon Brando fans, it's time to make an offer that can't be refused. More than 250 items, including Brando's annotated script from 1972's "The Godfather" and a letter from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. urging his participation in a civil rights march, will be auctioned June 30. The items are being put up for bid by Brando's estate.

Helen Bailey, the head of popular arts at Christie's New York, expects the auction to reap over $1 million. But given the intensity of many Brando fans, it could be significantly more, she said, especially for items that give insight into Brando's method acting and approach to characters.

"Some of the earlier scripts are really interesting," Bailey told The Associated Press Thursday. "Later on, he didn't make that many notes and said he didn't learn his lines, but in the `50s and `60s, there's a lot of notations on the scripts and pages and pages of notes."

The collection features items removed from Brando's Los Angeles home, where the famously private actor had lived since 1960. He died of lung failure in July 2004 at age 80.

Another highlight is a letter from Mario Puzo, who shortly after publishing "The Godfather," wrote Brando: "I think you're the actor who can play the Godfather."

Bailey says that many of the items relate to Brando's interest in American Indians, including a gift of artifacts from Val Kilmer, his co-star in 1996's "The Island of Dr. Moreau."

Also available will be Brando's Oscar nomination certificate for "On the Waterfront" and the black velvet tunic he wore in "Superman" in 1978.

Other items are more personal, including numerous musical instruments, boxing gloves and his foosball table.

The collection will be open to public viewing June 24-29 at Christie's in New York and June 7-10 at the auction house's Los Angeles gallery.

Brando Island to Become Luxury Resort

It was near where he filmed "Mutiny on the Bounty," and fell in love with his Tahitian co-star. Years later, it was Marlon Brando's retreat, where he would lie on the beach and marvel at the night sky.

As he pondered his own twilight, Brando envisioned sharing his private atoll in French Polynesia.

Celebrities could go there to escape the paparazzi. Each villa could have a Polynesian couple to cook for guests, take them spearfishing, teach the Tahitian names of the plants and birds and play the guitar at night.

Less than a year after his death last July from lung failure at age 80, Brando's vision could be nearer reality.

An environmentally-sensitive 30-bungalow resort, to be called, "The Brando," is scheduled to open in 2008 on Tetiaroa, the island the actor bought in 1965. The only current inhabitant is Brando's son, Teihotu, one of his children with ex-wife Tarita Teriipia.

"Marlon always felt that the Polynesians, more than anyone else in the world, had found an unhurried and humorous way to go through life. He always hoped his life could be so uncomplicated, but unfortunately that was not the case," said developer Richard Bailey, CEO of Tahiti Beachcomber SA, who worked with Brando in the years before his death.

Major obstacles to the project have been cleared, but there is much work to be done to create the $40-million project on a 150-acre island with no electricity or running water.

"There's no water, no electricity, no sanitation -- none of the basic things that you need to live, much less provide luxurious comforts expected by today's well-heeled traveler," Bailey said.

The problems are being addressed in ways that will keep the island pristine and that are sensitive to the sea turtles that spawn there, Bailey said.

Fresh water will flow from a small desalination plant; electricity is to generate from solar panels that would line a turboprop runway. Air conditioning would be created by blowing air across pipes that circulate icy sea water below the ocean's surface -- a technology that Brando learned about and promoted for use.

Guests arriving from Tahiti would get a golf cart, a map of the island and instructions on how to respect the environment. Each villa would be on a five-acre beachfront plot invisible from other villas and from the lagoon.

Brando "wanted a place where his friends could escape the paparazzi and find some inner peace," Bailey said.

Brando spoke fondly of that privacy, once telling CNN interviewer Larry King: "When I lie on the beach there naked, which I do sometimes, and I feel the wind coming over me and I see the stars up above and I am looking into this very deep, indescribable night, it is something that escapes my vocabulary to describe."

Legal challenges remain, among them a lawsuit by Jo Ann Corrales, who says she was Brando's business manager but was removed as an executor of his will days before his July, 2004, death.

Corrales says the project overlaps a half-acre chunk of Tetiaroa that Brando deeded to Michael Jackson in 2003 after visiting Jackson's Neverland Valley Ranch.

Estate attorneys say the offer to Jackson was merely a token gesture and Bailey said Brando never mentioned the deed even though they spoke until just before he died.

Brando Pants

FANS of Marlon Brando who want a piece of his legacy should check out Los Angeles thrift store Cinema Shop on La Brea. Spies say Brando donated all of his clothes to the shop, where just $10 will get you a size-52 pair of pants. "Everything is from Rochester's Big & Tall store and is between a size 40 and 52," said one shopper.

Brando Hotel Planned for His Private Island

A hotel envisioned by late actor Marlon Brando will be built on Tetiaroa, a private island he owned in Tahiti.

Called The Brando, the luxury eco-hotel is scheduled to open in 2008 and will boast 30 deluxe villas. The screen legend had been working with Tahiti Beachcomber SA's CEO Richard Bailey to create the environmentally enlightened project.

"We worked together on this project for three years before he died," says Bailey. "I am privileged to have known him, and honored to play a part in his legacy by bringing one of his dreams to fruition."

In keeping with Brando's vision, the exclusive resort will highlight the island's beauty while remaining ecologically responsible.

"There will be only one hotel on Tetiaroa, on Motu Onetahi, which is in keeping with Marlon's wishes, and the rest of the atoll will be set aside as a private natural preserve," explains Bailey. "The Brando eco-hotel will be exactly what Marlon would have wanted: Energy-autonomous and built with natural materials, it will rest lightly on its environment and be nearly invisible from the water. It will showcase the latest in renewable energy technologies."

To monitor the state of the local flora and fauna, Bailey will employ marine biologist and veterinarian, Dr. Cecile Gaspar, who has carried out extensive studies on Tetiaroa to ensure that such a project will not disturb the ecosystem, which includes sea-turtle hatching grounds and the designated seabird sanctuary on Motu Tahuna Iti.

Brando purchased Tetiaroa in 1965 after filming "Mutiny on the Bounty" and meeting his wife Tarita Teriipaia there.

Brando, a two-time Oscar winner for "On the Waterfront" and "The Godfather," died in Los Angeles on July 1, 2004 at the age of 80.

Brando Almost Did Not Play 'The Godfather'

Marlon Brando repeatedly rejected playing the role of Don Corleone in "The Godfather," telling an assistant: "It's about the Mafia. I won't glorify the Mafia," according to an article in the new issue of Vanity Fair released on Tuesday.

In the magazine's annual Hollywood issue, novelist and Brando's longtime friend Budd Schulberg said the actor's assistant, Alice Marchak, begged him to read the book.

Schulberg, who wrote the screenplay for "On the Waterfront," one of Brando's most famous films, said at one point, the actor threw the book at her, saying, "For the last time," he said, "I won't glorify the Mafia!"

But Schulberg said that by some magic, the next time Marchak showed up, Brando had used an eyebrow pencil to draw a little mustache on himself and said, "How do I look?"

Marchak responded: "Like George Raft," an actor who often played gangsters on the big screen.

Each time she went to see Brando, Marchak told Schulberg, he was wearing a different Mafia-don mustache.

Despite his initial reservations about the film, Brando obviously had a change of heart. But Paramount studio executives objected to Brando playing the role and demanded he take a screen test. Brando obliged.

The role revived Brando's career and won him a second Academy Award, which he turned down.

Brando died in July at age 80.

Brando's Tahitian Ex-Wife Tells All in New Memoir

The memoirs of Marlon Brando's Tahitian former wife hit bookshelves in France Monday, lifting the lid on the secretive actor's troubled life and the suicide of their daughter Cheyenne.

"Marlon, My Love, My Suffering" by Tarita Teriipaia details the tortured 43-year relationship the pair struck up when Brando landed in Tahiti in late 1960 to film "Mutiny on the Bounty," in which Teriipaia was cast as his love interest.

The Oscar-winning star of "The Godfather" and "On the Waterfront," who died in July 2004 at the age of 80, is depicted as a volatile tyrant who could be physically and mentally cruel one moment, tenderly loving the next.

Teriipaia, 63, said she told the actor she was writing her life story to get over the traumas of the past. Publisher XO Editions plans an initial print run of 50,000 for France and is in talks to translate the book.

"We lived terrible tragedies and we all suffered a lot. Marlon never spoke about it. I wanted our children, all our grand-children to know our history," she told her co-author Lionel Duroy in this week's edition of Paris Match magazine.

Born to a fisherman on the French Polynesian island of Bora Bora, the starlet was initially underwhelmed by Brando's advances on the set of "Mutiny" before succumbing to the womanizing actor during filming in Los Angeles.

She says Brando begged her to have his child but changed his mind when she became pregnant, urging her to have an abortion. She refused and the couple had a son, Teihotu, later followed by a daughter, Cheyenne.

Brando was a regular visitor to Tahiti, buying an estate for Teriipaia and pouring millions into Tetiaroa, a South Seas atoll he bought in 1966, where his ashes are scattered.

He worshipped his daughter but when she began having violent fits he withdrew and consigned her to a series of psychiatric institutes.

"When she started being ill, he stopped coming here, to Tahiti, and no longer called," said Teriipaia.

Christian Brando, his son by Welsh actress Anna Kashfi, was sentenced to 10 years in jail for the 1990 murder of Cheyenne's boyfriend. Cheyenne never recovered and hung herself in 1995 at the age of 25.

It was during a grief management session with a psychiatrist that Brando finally told Teriipaia that he loved her, decades after they first met. Though they lived thousands of miles apart and Brando had numerous affairs, he always loomed over her life.

"He attracted me and at the same time he scared me," she said. "He gives me everything. With him I feel protected, he watches over me, he gives me everything I want."

Several times, she tried to rebuild her life with other men but the possessive movie star always intervened. Teriipaia said writing the book was cathartic.

"It allowed me to understand that despite everything, we loved each other. It was probably an impossible love, but it was our love," she said.

Brando Ex-Business Manager Files Lawsuit

Marlon Brando's former business manager filed a $3.5 million claim against his estate, alleging the Oscar winner sexually harassed her and breached their contract by removing her as a co-executor of his will days before his death.

The lawsuit comes nearly six months after Brando died of lung failure July 1 in Los Angeles. He was 80.

The claim, submitted by lawyers for Jo An Corrales of Kalama, Wash., says Brando "caused a hostile work environment due to his continuous acts of sexual harassment." The claim says the harassment continued throughout her employment from December 2000 until March 8.

No other details of the allegations were included in the claim filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Corrales is among several people or companies that have submitted claims against the estate.

Brando's will named nine children as beneficiaries. Trustees, including Hollywood producer Mike Medavoy, must decide which claims will be accepted or rejected.

Neither Medavoy nor lawyers for the estate could be reached for comment Thursday, the Los Angeles Times said.

Brando Returns as 'Godfather' for Gamers

The late Marlon Brando will star in "The Godfather" again, beginning with a trailer for a video game that aired Tuesday on Spike TV's "Video Game Awards 2004" live broadcast.

The game, the latest from Electronic Arts' growing slate of Hollywood licenses, will be based on both Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 movie and the original novel by Mario Puzo.

Besides enabling the virtual Brando to reprise his Oscar-winning role, EA also secured the rights to the Grammy-winning music Nino Rota composed for the movie and its soundtrack album.

EA acquired the rights to use Brando's likeness for the game prior to the actor's death July 1 and is working with Paramount Pictures during the project. The game developer and publisher has not announced deals with any other talent from the film, but the game is not slated to ship until fall 2005.

"The Godfather" has been consistently popular since it won an array of Academy Awards, including best picture. EA's license includes the rights for extending the franchise, similar to its deal with the Harry Potter property.

This is the second high-profile crime story to draw from the Hollywood archives. Vivendi Universal Games is developing a game based on Brian De Palma's movie "Scarface," potentially pitting Tony Montana against Don Corleone in a war for territory -- and market share -- next fall. The "Scarface" game is a sequel to the 1983 film, allowing players to assume the role of crime boss Tony Montana in a third-person adventure. Screenwriter David McKenna wrote the script for that game, which is in development at Radical Games.

"The Godfather" video game, which is expected to earn a Mature rating, will allow players to become part of one of the most famous crime stories of all time. Although no details about the game have been released, gameplay is expected to blend elements of such popular crime video games as Take-Two Interactive's "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" and Activision's "True Crime: Streets of LA." Both allow players to explore the world on foot and in vehicles as they interact with characters and accomplish missions. Should "The Godfather" game follow this popular model, it would be EA's first entry into this best-selling crime genre.

Traditionally, EA publishes games for all platforms, including PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube and PC, and "The Godfather" is expected to follow this pattern.

Creditors Line Up for Piece of Brando's Estate

From a friend who lost a diamond ring down his drain to a small airline that flew guests to his private Tahitian island, would-be creditors are lining up to make claims on Marlon Brando's estate two months after he died, a lawyer said on Thursday.

But family members named as beneficiaries in Brando's will have kept a united front, with no squabbles breaking out, since probate of his $21.6 million in assets began last month, David Seeley, the attorney representing the estate, said.

Probate is the process by which a court distributes the estate of a deceased person.

"At this point in the process, everyone is pulling together and working together to make this as easy as possible in a very difficult time," the Seattle-area based Seeley told Reuters.

Seeley said at least five or six potential creditors have informed the estate that they intend to file claims, including Tahitian-based Air Moorea and Joan "Toni" Petrone, a longtime friend who also worked as a personal assistant for many years.

"I suspect there's going to be a whole lot more than that," he said. Hollywood producer Mike Medavoy, one of the executors of Brando's will, told the Los Angeles Times he doubted total claims against the estate would exceed $1 million.

Seeley confirmed a Times report that Air Moorea was planning to seek roughly $460,000 in business costs that the charter airline claims Brando owed the company for flying tourists to the Tahitian atoll he purchased in 1966.

Meanwhile, Petrone is seeking reimbursement for a $3,000 diamond and platinum ring that she lost down the drain while chopping up vegetables over the kitchen sink in his Mulholland Drive home about 10 years ago, Seeley said.

A petition for probate filed by Brando's estate in July listed private assets worth $3 million and real estate valued at $18.6 million, including his California home and the Tahitian island.

The will lists 10 surviving children, ages 46 to 10, and names all as beneficiaries except for his adopted daughter Petra Brando-Corval. It also provides monthly payments for two friends of Brando's.

Brando died July 1 at age 80. Word of initial claims on his estate came as new details surfaced about Brando's final days and the aftermath of his death.

Family and friends told the Los Angeles Times the Hollywood legend suffered from pulmonary fibrosis and depended on a portable oxygen tank to help his breathing during the last months of his life.

He also enjoyed visits to the Neverland Ranch of pop star Michael Jackson, a close friend who employed Brando's son, Miko, the Times reported.

BRANDO: WEIRDER THAN EVER

AFTER he died last July, Marlon Brando's ashes were mixed together with those of his long-rumored lover Wally Cox and scat tered in Death Valley. Apparently Brando had kept Cox's ashes around since the star of the "Mr. Peepers" TV show, who was once his roommate, died in 1973. That wasn't Brando's only bizarre rela tionship. He was a frequent guest at Michael Jackson's Never land ranch. "The last time my father left his house to go any where, [it] was with Michael," Brando's son Miko told the Los Angeles Times. By the time he died at 80, Brando was no longer a behemoth, having lost 85 pounds because of pulmonary fibrosis, which required him to have a portable oxygen tank on hand at all times. And although Brando left an estate worth $21.6 million, the paper reports his family is preparing to cash in with a set of DVDs based on Brando's "Lying for a Living" acting classes, which fea ture the likes of Sean Penn, Nick Nolte and Jon Voight.

Report: Marlon Brando's Ashes Scattered

The ashes of legendary actor Marlon Brando were spread in Tahiti and Death Valley, according to a newspaper report.

A memorial service for Brando, who died of lung failure at age 80 on July 1, was held at the home of Hollywood producer Mike Medavoy and was attended by Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson and Sean Penn, the Los Angeles Times reported in Wednesday editions.

In the last months before his death, Brando had dropped 85 pounds from his once-large frame and needed a portable oxygen tank to aid his breathing, family members and friends said. But he sought to keep his condition quiet.

Some of Brando's ashes were scattered in Death Valley, a place that the actor cherished, his son Miko Brando told the newspaper. The ashes of Brando's late friend Wally Cox, who died in 1973, were also poured onto the desert landscape as part of the same ceremony; how Cox's ashes were in the possession of Brando's family was unknown.

Despite being known as a recluse, Brando ventured to Neverland Ranch more than a year before he died to visit pop star Michael Jackson, whom he'd first met through Quincy Jones in the 1980s. Jackson is the godfather of Brando's 9-year-old granddaughter Prudence.

"The last time my father left his house to go anywhere, to spend any kind of time, it was with Michael Jackson," Miko Brando, a longtime Jackson employee, told the newspaper.

Brando's son also spoke of how friends and family will try to preserve the actor's legacy. Most notable is a collection of DVDs based on unreleased footage shot within the past three years showing Brando teach acting to Jon Voight, Nick Nolte and Penn.

Also being discussed is cataloging hundreds of pencil drawings made by Brando and obtaining trademarks on the actor's name and likeness.

BATTLE FOR BRANDO ISLES

OFFICIALS in Tahiti are desperately trying to keep developers from pouncing on a bunch of islands that were owned by Marlon Brando. The reclusive star bought the islands of Tetiaroa, which total about 1,500 acres, for a song in the 1960s; they're now worth about $21 million. Since Brando's death there's been a mad scramble from "investors" in his property to obtain building permits, reports the BBC online. However, Brando signed agreements with Tahitian authorities giving them right of first refusal if the islands ever changed hands. Officials want to turn Brando's acreage, the refuge of Tahitian royalty in the 19th century, into a bird sanctuary. Brando frequently relied on Tetiaroa for inspiration. In "Last Tango in Paris," his character utters a strange word as he dies. "I asked him, 'What the hell are you saying?' " director Bernardo Bertolucci, tells the upcoming issue of Premiere. "He told me years later: 'Tetiaroa.' "

Auctioneer Puts Brando Jackets Up for Bids in L.A.

Even after his death, Marlon Brando memorabilia is expected to be worth about as much as it was when the legendary actor was alive, so please, make Joseph Maddalena an offer he can't refuse.

This week, Maddalena's Hollywood collectibles auction house Profiles in History is auctioning off two jackets worn in movies by Brando, who died earlier this month of lung failure.

Neither is the tuxedo jacket he wore in perhaps his most memorable film role playing a Mafia boss whose offers no one should refuse in 1972's Oscar winning "The Godfather."

But one is a pinstriped suit coat Brando donned for the 1955 musical "Guys and Dolls" as gambler Sky Masterson. It is expected to fetch between $4,000 and $6,000, Maddalena said.

The other is a sport coat the reclusive actor wore in 1965 espionage thriller "Morituri." It could bring as much as $1,200 to $1,500, Maddalena said.

He added the jackets had been scheduled to be sold at the auction well before Brando died July 1 in a Los Angeles hospital and, curiously, he did not expect their value to rise much, if at all, because of the actor's death.

"I don't think it's going to make that big of a difference," he said.

Maddalena said that because Brando became reclusive in his latter years, the number of the collectors interested in his memorabilia was already fairly finite.

If Brando had been revered like John Wayne or Lucille Ball, or if he had died young and tragically like River Phoenix, that may have made a difference.

Profiles in History sells Hollywood film and TV memorabilia. Also among the 477 items in its current auction is the 1979 Ferrari driven by Tom Selleck in TV show "Magnum P.I.," which carries a pre-sale estimate between $60,000 and $80,000. Interested bidders can check into the auction on Internet site Ebay.

UNKINDEST CUT

MORE on Marlon Brando's circumcision at age 60, which we reported on last week. "It's 100 percent true," a reader e-mailed us. "My mother worked in surgery at St. John's Hospital at the time and was there for it." St. John's in Santa Monica was the hospital to the stars for decades until it was eclipsed by Cedars Sinai. "My mother worked there for 40 years, and boy, did she have some scary stories to tell about the terrible acne scars on Richard Burton's back!!" As for Brando? Our correspondent denies the star converted to Judaism — it is inconceivable he could have learned Hebrew since he had so much trouble remembering his lines in English. Our tipster divulges: "It seems the surgery was necessary for medical reasons — an infected gunky mess."

Brando Ends Film Career As Elderly Woman

Marlon Brando started his screen career as a muscular leading man, and ended it as ... an elderly woman. The actor's last role was a voice performance for the animated comedy "Big Bug Man," about a candy factory worker (Brendan Fraser) who gets superpowers after insects bite him. The film is set for release in 2006.

Brando voices Mrs. Sour, the candy company's owner — and he did it wearing a blond wig and a dress, with full makeup and white gloves, according to writer/co-director Bob Bendetson.

"He was gorgeous," Bendetson said. "I guess it was part of his Method training or something, where you almost embarrass yourself as the character, so that way you're free to be the character. ... About halfway through he took off the wig because he was getting too hot."

As anyone who saw the 1976 Western "The Missouri Breaks" knows, it wasn't the first time Brando was in drag. His hired-gun character unforgettably wore a pinafore and bonnet. In 1996's "The Island of Dr. Moreau," Brando also overdosed on make-up with a performance buried under layers of white Kabuki-style face paint.

"I think part of it was that he just liked to mess with people," Bendetson said. "He did like to be playful, but I think the other part was he thought this would just help his character."

Bendetson, formerly of "The Simpsons," said he originally approached Brando for the role of a money-grubbing 600-pound man who runs the candy factory on the cheap.

It turned out to be an offer "The Godfather" star COULD refuse.

Brando, who also starred in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "On the Waterfront," thought it would be fun to voice the old lady instead — and she was only in three scenes. He needed just one day to record the voice for the short, slack-breasted, blond character, who has a cascade of wrinkles for a mouth.

"I was told by his agent and manager that it was always a dream of his to play a woman in an animated movie. For some reason, that was his dream," Bendetson said.

"It was recorded in his home. In the last year of his life he was pretty frail, he was on oxygen six hours a day and didn't want to leave his home, or felt he couldn't. So we brought the recording crew up there and recorded in his bedroom as he sat on his couch."

The director wouldn't say what he paid Brando, who died July 1 at 80, but said he did bring him special treats on June 10, the day they recorded.

"He didn't want to be treated like an icon. When you dealt with him you had to talk to him like a regular guy, he was very anti-Hollywood. But then the other part of him," Bendetson said, "he wanted a little gift to be brought ... It was Persian caviar, imported cheeses and red wine. He loved it."

Are Brando's Secrets Buried with Him?

Marlon Brando secretly taped phone conversations -- and now some of the biggest names in Hollywood are terrified their darkest secrets will be exposed, The ENQUIRER has learned exclusively.

The rotund actor loved nothing more than phoning friends and dishing dirt for hours about the showbiz elite -- and even persuaded Marilyn Monroe to disclose her secrets about the Kennedys, say sources.

The Hollywood legend spilled gay and straight sex secrets of stars, reveled in details of cheating and sordid affairs, got actors to disclose their mistresses -- and even spoke freely about his own bisexual lifestyle . . . all on tape.

SECRET SYSTEM

"Marlon secretly tape-recorded his phone calls -- he was the consummate control freak," divulged best-selling author Peter Manso, who wrote the definitive book on the actor's life, "Brando: The Biography."

In an exclusive interview following Brando's death, Manso told The ENQUIRER:

"Marlon had a sophisticated and elaborate tape-recording system in his Mulholland Drive home and all the calls were automatically taped. It was connected to his eight or nine phone extensions all over the house.

Brando's Estate Valued Over $20 Million

The late Marlon Brando not only left behind a legacy on film, but also an estate valued at approximately $21.6 million.

The two-time Oscar winner's estate consists of his Beverly Hills home, the Tetiaroa resort of 11 islands in Tahiti, paintings, sketches and rare scripts, reports USA Today.

Attorneys are filling a petition for probate, which will allow the Los Angeles Superior Court to distribute Brando's assets. Executors of Brando's will include friend Arva Douglas, business manager Larry Dressler and producer friend Mike Medavoy.

Results of the probate will be made public at an as yet unspecified date.

Brando died in a Los Angeles hospital of lung failure on Thursday, July 1 at the age of 80. The unmarried actor leaves behind eight children.

BRANDO'S DEATHBED SURPRISE

MARLON Brando made former studio head Mike Medavoy an offer he couldn't refuse: The late acting legend changed his will less than two weeks before he died and named Medavoy as one of the executors.

Medavoy says Brando switched executors to make sure his children benefit from his estate. And he claims that anyone who challenges the will is motivated by greed.

Brando's old friend, 84-year-old Alice Marshak, was dropped as executor — a deathbed decision that left her stunned, she told TV's "Celebrity Justice."

"There's no greed motive whatsoever," Marshak told the show. "About five years ago, when Marlon was having some cash-flow problems, I sold my house and gave him the proceeds."

Meanwhile, one of Brando's daughters isn't so sure she'll see any money from Medavoy — and claims she doesn't care.

Lisa Worme, who claims to be Brando's long-lost daughter, said Brando never acknowledged her existence.

"I didn't even get a birthday card," she said. She only knew of her relationship to Brando for the last six years, but, she claimed, "He's known about it all his life. I'd like to meet my brothers and sisters. I would like to go to the funeral, that's all I want."

Worme's mother, Cynthia Lynn, played Helga on "Hogan's Heroes," and in 1964 she appeared in the movie "Bedtime Story" with Brando. "She was so young at the time and gullible, but she was married," Worme said. "And I guess, you know, a little affair broke out and out came me."

Worme claims that Brando and her mother decided to keep the fact that she was their child a secret. But six years ago, she says, her mother finally told her the truth. Cynthia Lynn confirmed her daughter's story.

"I think they should have told me," Worme said. "I think that every child deserves to know who their real parents are. I don't think they should be lied to."

Worme, who now has kids of her own, says she tried to contact Brando but never succeeded. Last week, she was turned away at his estate after he died, but she says she won't be battling Brando's other children over his fortune.

"I don't want any money at all," she said. "If he left it to me out of his own free will, then I may accept it, but would I go and get a lawyer and attack their estate and do all that? No."

Tidbits

IF YOU are over 40, the moment some body famous who is also "over 40" dies, everybody calls up to ask for your remembrance. This happened to me last weekend when Marlon Brando suddenly left this vale of tears.

I didn't have much to offer. The only time I ever saw Marlon in the flesh was at a matinee performance of Jose Ferrer in a play called "The Shrike." Marlon sat toward the front in the middle of a row. At intermission, the audience filled both aisles to get a look at him. He finally draped his leather jacket over his head and just sat there until the house lights dimmed. He fled the theater before the final curtain fell. It was at this play that actor Ferrer stepped out of character, walked down to the footlights and chided the audience. He said, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is not television. When you talk and make a lot of noise we onstage can hear you. Now, let's begin again . . ." And he walked back upstage and started his lines over.

The only time I ever spoke to Marlon Brando was in 1953. My friend, Elaine Stritch, had a date with him, and late in the evening, there I was in my tiny cold-water flat in Greenwich Village when the phone rang; it was Elaine. "Liz, here's somebody who wants to talk to you." She put Marlon on the phone. (This was a thing girlfriends used to do; maybe they still do!) Marlon and I had a wonderful chat. We talked a lot about how crazy Elaine was. He asked me what it was like to work for Modern Screen, a big movie magazine of that time. I also told him how much I had admired his performance in "A Streetcar Named Desire." He said something like, "Aw, shucks!" And that was it, my telephone "date" with Marlon Brando.

The great behind-the-scenes skinny on Marlon was about his kind-hearted nature. Although he romanced many beautiful women and many talented ones as well, he had a soft spot for others less spectacular. I suppose one could say he lived by the H.L. Mencken dicta — "if after I depart . . . you remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl." Marlon would often offer up one night of love that no girl would ever forget. He was the king of the "mercy fling."

We Hear...

THAT Marlon Brando's nine children have hired at least four sets of lawyers to represent their interests in the battle over his estate, and many of them feel Christian should not get as much because Brando spent millions to defend him during his murder trial . . .

Brando Cremated in Private Service in Los Angeles

Acting great Marlon Brando was cremated in a private funeral attended only by family and cloaked in the kind of secrecy that shrouded the last years of his life, his lawyer said on Tuesday.

The service, which relatives managed to keep under wraps until a day after the fact, was held in Los Angeles on Monday, said Seattle-area attorney David Seeley, who represented Brando and his business interests for the past four years.

Seeley said he was not privy to details of the ceremony and knew of no plans for a public memorial service.

"All I can tell you is ... anything that's going to occur in the future is a private family matter," Seeley told Reuters. "They're keeping it under a closed, need-to-know basis."

The actor's older sister, former actress Jocelyn Brando, was quoted by Foxnews.com columnist Roger Friedman as saying, "There will be no service of any kind."

She added: "If someone wants to do something, that's their business. But Marlon would have hated it. He would not have liked it, and we don't want to do anything he didn't want to do. He's off on his trip, whatever that is."

The low-key aftermath of Brando's death was in keeping with his intensely private nature late in life after a celebrated, half-century career in such memorable films as "A Streetcar Named Desire," "On the Waterfront" and "The Godfather."

Seeley also dismissed widely circulated media reports that the enigmatic actor, who died last Thursday at age 80, had left behind precise, taped instructions for how he wanted to be memorialized.

According to accounts in the British press, the two-time Oscar winner had requested that a final service be led by his friend and neighbor, Jack Nicholson, that certain people not be invited and that his ashes be scattered over the Tahitian atoll he bought in 1966.

"None of that is true as far as I'm aware," Seeley said. "He left a will that's going to be probated, and that's the document that's going to control how everything gets distributed."

Seeley said that Brando was not married at the time of his death, and that he had nine children, including those he adopted and his deceased daughter, Cheyenne, who committed suicide in 1995.

A spokeswoman for UCLA Medical Center said last week that the performer had died of lung failure. His sister told Foxnews.com that Brando had suffered from the chronic lung ailment pulmonary fibrosis.

The best of Brando on 10 DVDs

We all know "Stel-aaaaah!" and "I coulda been a contender." But Marlon Brando also was the only actor who uttered "Friends, Romans, Countrymen" and classic be-bop biker lingo in consecutive movies.

Brando, who died Thursday, set the acting pace in the early 1950s, bringing his inimitable talent to disparate roles, each with distinct dialogue.

Yes, the Brando credo eventually became "take the money and slum." Yet when the rebel rose again in the early 1970s, he proved his phenomenal success in the '50s was no fluke.

Most of the top choices for a best-of-Brando retrospective have made it to DVD. Key exceptions are two standouts from the second tier: Elia Kazan's Viva Zapata! (1952) and 1953's Julius Caesar. Here are the top 10 Brando DVDs I'll keep watching:

The Men (1950). Everyone knew A Streetcar Named Desire was coming, but Brando's screen debut was smaller in scale - a semi-documentary, as they used to be called, from director Fred Zinnemann (From Here to Eternity) about paraplegic ex-GIs adjusting to postwar life. To prepare for his role, Brando spent time with the real-life injured veterans; it paid off on screen.

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). Brando and director Elia Kazan re-created their Broadway smash, with castmates Karl Malden and Kim Hunter returning as well. Vivien Leigh replaced Jessica Tandy, who originated the role of Blanche. Even now, you still can't avert your eyes from Brando - yet he was the only one of the four leads who didn't receive an Oscar. Sexually suggestive scenes, which censors once wouldn't allow, have been restored.

The Wild One (1953). Bikers invade a California burg, consume numerous brewskis and play "re-bop" 78s on an eatery's jukebox. As Johnny, Brando mixes it up with rival Lee Marvin. When someone asks him what he's rebelling against, Brando memorably responds: "Whattaya got?"

On the Waterfront( 1954). The last and greatest of the Kazan-Brando collaborations. Brando got his first Oscar (statuettes went to Kazan and the picture, too) for ratting out crooked union boss Lee J. Cobb in what many, myself included, regard as the greatest screen performance ever.

Sayonara (1957). A box office bonanza and best-picture Oscar nominee, this lushly mounted plea for racial tolerance remains a guilty pleasure for those who like their Hollywood romances with a capital "H." Oscar-nominated Brando, vital and authentic as an Air Force major, battles the brass over his taboo romance with a Japanese dancer (Miiko Taka).

One-Eyed Jacks (1961). Brando's only directorial effort, a gorgeous VistaVision Western burdened by delays and cost overruns, is sometimes described as a critics' piρata that became a cult classic. Actually, the original reviews were pretty strong, touting the Technicolor and the dynamics between crooked sheriff Karl Malden and the friend (Brando) he shafts. My favorite line from my favorite revenge movie: "Get up, you big tubba guts."

The Godfather (1972). Many have made persuasive revisionist cases for The Chase (1966), Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967) and Burn! (1969; '70 in the USA) - yet years of flops combined with Brando's transparent indifference took a toll on his career. Only after a struggle did Brando land the Don Corleone lead in Francis Ford Coppola's Mob epic from Mario Puzo's best seller. Yet Brando's power is so immense that you can feel it even in the 75 minutes in the middle when he's off the screen. Result: a second Oscar - this one refused.

Last Tango in Paris (1973). Distraught American male, younger Parisian sex partner, empty apartment and guns and butter. Bernardo Bertolucci's most notorious movie got launched into the mainstream by Pauline Kael's New Yorker rave. With The Godfather, this is arguably the greatest one-two punch in acting history.

Apocalypse Now (1979). Brando's murky Colonel Kurtz character is actually this Coppola production's key flaw, yet it's a credit to the actor's weight (by then, a noun with dual connotations) that he made the film's journey a million times more gripping than the prospect of finding, say, a Jason Patric at river's end.

The Freshman (1990). Brando knocked this comedy before its release, then apologized (and should have). Delightfully spoofing his Godfather persona, he befriends both NYU film student Matthew Broderick and a few contraband Komodo dragon lizards.

Brando Family Stays Mum on Funeral Plans

Marlon Brando's family has remained silent about funeral arrangements for the actor who died last week at 80.

One of Brando's sons, Miko, has issued a statement saying, "out of respect for my father, the services will be private. My family and I would like to thank everyone for their kind thoughts and words."

The reclusive Brando died of lung failure at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at UCLA Medical Center, according to hospital spokeswoman Roxanne Moster.

Brando revolutionized Hollywood's image of a leading man playing street-tough, emotionally raw characters in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "On the Waterfront" and then revived his career a generation later as the definitive Mafia don in "The Godfather."

Column: Brando's Storied Life Had Heartbreaking End

Twice I snuck onto soundstages to watch Marlon Brando at work -- verboten, according to Brando's self-imposed rules -- and both were striking experiences not easy to forget.

The first time, in 1958, was when Brando was filming "The Young Lions" at 20th Century Fox, a time when he was Hollywood's undisputed king, even though that title supposedly belonged to Clark Gable (since 1938, nicknamed "The King") and Elvis Presley, who at 23 was already being called "the king of rock 'n' roll." But Brando was the real sovereign -- everyone was in awe of him, afraid of him, determined not to displease him. When he walked, the California earth trembled.

At this point, all his work had been golden; he was trim, 34 and it was no secret that every script in town had first been routed across his agent's desk. Whenever he agreed to be in a film, that project automatically became a bona fide event; "Lions" was more so because it marked Brando's first (and as it turned out, his only) teaming with Montgomery Clift, the only other actor in the business at the time who stirred up as much interest. (Unfortunately, when "Lions" opened and audiences discovered the two icons had no scenes together, enthusiasm wilted considerably.)

But Brando was a marvel to watch at work: insightful, instinctive, amazingly graceful and meticulous in his working with props, never giving the same line reading twice but equally as truthful each time through. (All this viewed, by the way, while I was hiding behind some off-the-set scenery; it was strictly a no-visitors-allowed situation when Brando worked.)

One thing I particularly remember is Brando's kindness to Maximilian Schell, with whom he was sharing the scenes. At that point, Schell was brand new to America and not yet comfortable speaking English. Brando treated him like a cherished kid brother, protecting Max from an irritated director when Schell's English failed him, encouraging him and protecting him through the mine fields of moviemaking; it seemed especially striking considering Brando's reputation for being a tough combatant with most of those in his wake.

The next time I watched Brando work was 21 years later when he was playing George Lincoln Rockwell in the 1979 TV miniseries "Roots II: The Next Generation." This time I didn't have to hide, only to be quiet and inconspicuous; John Erman, a friend of mine for years, was the director and had invited me to come and watch even though visitors were still not, to put it mildly, being welcomed by The Man. By this time, Brando's weight had ballooned considerably and he played his scenes sitting at a desk and, no longer willing to memorize lines, he read his dialogue from nearby cue cards. Yet when the cameras turned, the effect was still mesmerizing, the magic intact.

It is, however, my last image of Brando that's the most difficult of all to erase. It was in 2001, when Brando participated in the much-discussed Michael Jackson 30th anniversary gala produced by David Gest at Madison Square Garden. Sitting onstage, alone, he talked slowly and quite incoherently about starving babies and other world ills, which confused, then frustrated, then ultimately irritated an arena packed with people who were in a party mood, having paid to see a rock 'n' roll concert.

First the booing began, which he didn't seem to notice, and he continued on; finally, to bring an end to the debacle, the stage lights were turned off, leaving him sitting in the dark. (The entire episode, wisely, was clipped from the show's TV version.) It was his first stage appearance in New York since he'd electrified the town 54 years earlier in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and a heartbreaking finish for one of the genuine giants of both the stage and screen. It's sad that none of his fame, power or esteem ever seemed to bring him either peace or pleasure, satisfaction or happiness.

Greek actress Irene Papas quoted as saying Brando was passion of her life

After Marlon Brando's death, actress Irene Papas has decided to reveal that he was the great passion of her life, a love that the couple kept private, Italian daily Corriere della Sera said Sunday.

The newspaper said the Greek tragic actress poured her heart out to a journalist who approached her at a theatre in Greece in hopes of getting a comment about Brando, who died Thursday in Los Angeles. "A comment? What can I say? That I esteemed him, but I want to add something," Corriere quoted Papas as saying.

Invited to continue, Papas, according to Corriere, replied: "I loved Marlon Brando. I really cared about him. We had a (love) story. Let's call it a long relationship."

"Perhaps I'm doing wrong to speak about it, now that he's not around to contradict me, but I'm confessing it precisely because, as of today, he's in the absolute, far from everybody, belonging to everyone," the actress was quoted as saying.

She claimed neither talked about the relationship because "we didn't want to share with anyone this love that wasn't a true secret but a private one, belonging to us," Corriere said.

Papas said she and Brando met 50 years ago in Rome, when he was 30 and she was 24.

"I have never since loved a man as I loved Marlon. He was the great passion of my life, absolutely the man I cared about the most and also the one I esteemed most, two things that generally are difficult to reconcile," the paper quoted her as saying.

Papas was interviewed at the ancient Greek theatre in Epidavros, about 175 kilometres southwest of Athens, where she had attended a performance. She said she last saw Brando five years ago in Greece when he was there for a conference, "and despite everything he was still magnificent for how he used his head and how he would reply to you."