At various points, Brando takes off his shirt - or has it ripped off - to reveal a lithe, toned torso. He plays petulant, sexy brute Stanley Kowalski. Then, a few weeks later, the station broadcast “A Streetcar Named Desire,” the 1951 film that first catapulted Brando to stardom. In this pre-VCR, pre-video store era, I didn’t know when I’d ever see “On the Waterfront” - or Brando - again. I also couldn’t sleep that night, with my mind trying to burn Brando moments into memory - his great “I coulda been a contender” monologue or his tender love scenes with Eva Marie Saint. Two hours in the company of Brando - even with commercial breaks - left my heart thumping.
The thunderbolt hit me when he appeared on screen a few seconds into the film.
Playing onetime boxing champ Terry Malloy, Brando is all tough-guy bravado, masking a wounded, delicate heart aching to do the right thing. “Waterfront” is still revered as a landmark in American film for its hard-hitting script about waterfront corruption and its stellar ensemble cast, at the center of which was Brando. One June evening, the station showed “On the Waterfront,” which won eight Academy Awards in 1955, including a best actor trophy for Brando. My introduction came via a local TV station that broadcast classic films each weekday night. In the late 1970s, Brando was an aging star, coasting off his triumphs in “The Godfather” and “Last Tango in Paris.” He was my father’s age, with gray hair, a famously expanding waistline and an ego that almost drove Francis Ford Coppola to the brink of professional disaster on the set of “Apocalypse Now.” It would have been more typical for me to hang posters of Andy Gibb, Shaun Cassidy or even John Travolta, then the rising young star of “Saturday Night Fever” and “Grease.” But I admit Brando is an unusual object of desire for a 14-year-old girl in the late 1970s. 7.Ĭertainly, I’m not the first young female to have a celebrity crush. The Showtime film screens at San Francisco’s Opera Plaza Cinemas on Aug. This summer, the highly anticipated new documentary “Listen to Me Marlon” hits movie theaters in select U.S. Brando continues to fascinate more than a decade after his death.
Celebrity crushes: Falling in love with Marlon Brando – The Mercury News Close MenuĪt least I aimed high with my first love interest.
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