Hollywood legend Marlon Brando, hailed as one of the greatest actors of the 20th century in a career that also contained eccentric behavior and personal tragedy, has died at the age of 80.
The reclusive and brooding two-time Oscar winner and star of such classics as On the Waterfront, The Godfather and A Streetcar Named Desire died of progressive lung failure in a Los Angeles hospital on Thursday.
"It all just happened rather suddenly," Brando's friend of 50 years, Jay Kanter, said, adding that Brando had been ill "on and off" for some time but that he had seemed "fine" just a few weeks ago.
FILE PHOTO: AP
"He passed away peacefully on Thursday in the early evening. There were a couple of members of his family present," he said, adding that Brando's funeral would be "very private."
The definitive "method" actor had been vastly overweight and reportedly ill for years and was rarely seen in public.
The reluctant star had lived for years as a recluse in his hilltop home in Los Angeles and, despite his huge professional success, was reportedly deeply in debt when he died.
In a forthcoming biography called Brando in Twilight, author Patricia Ruiz said that Brando, once the movie industry's highest-paid actor, was nearly destitute with debts amounting to US$20 million.
Devastated by mammoth legal fees incurred by his son Christian's murder trial, he was reduced to surviving on federal retirement insurance, a Screen Actors Guild pension and small residuals, according to the manuscript.
The cinema world mourned the loss of the enigmatic superstar, one of its last connections with Hollywood's Golden Age, with celebrities including Sophia Loren and US President George W. Bush paying tribute to him.
"Marlon would hate the idea of people chiming in to give their comments about his death. All I'll say is that it makes me sad he's gone," said Francis Ford Coppola, who directed him in 1979's Apocalypse Now.
Brando had a dramatic life marked by dizzying highs and great tragedy, notably the 1995 suicide of his daughter Cheyenne and the manslaughter conviction of Christian for killing Cheyenne's abusive fiance in 1990.
Born in 1924 in Omaha, Nebraska, Brando grew up in a broken and alcoholic household that spawned demons that would plague him for the rest of his life.
Brando, who made more than 40 films in his half-century career, won best actor Oscars for On the Waterfront and for his role as the mafia boss Don Corleone in 1972's The Godfather. But in his later years, he lost his seductively chiseled looks and became bloated by his gluttonous appetite and famed for his reclusive lifestyle and turbulent liaisons with women.
He became known for his on-set temper tantrums and bizarre behavior. In 1973, he sent an actress disguised as an American Indian to refuse his Godfather Oscar in an effort to highlight the plight of Native Americans.
Brando, who was married and divorced three times, had around 11 children with his wives and several other women, including his Guatemalan housekeeper.
People can preregister to receive their NT$10,000 (US$325) cash distributed from the central government on Nov. 5 after President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday signed the Special Budget for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience, the Executive Yuan told a news conference last night. The special budget, passed by the Legislative Yuan on Friday last week with a cash handout budget of NT$236 billion, was officially submitted to the Executive Yuan and the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon. People can register through the official Web site at https://10000.gov.tw to have the funds deposited into their bank accounts, withdraw the funds at automated teller
PEACE AND STABILITY: Maintaining the cross-strait ‘status quo’ has long been the government’s position, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan is committed to maintaining the cross-strait “status quo” and seeks no escalation of tensions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, rebutting a Time magazine opinion piece that described President William Lai (賴清德) as a “reckless leader.” The article, titled “The US Must Beware of Taiwan’s Reckless Leader,” was written by Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Defense Priorities think tank. Goldstein wrote that Taiwan is “the world’s most dangerous flashpoint” amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said that the situation in the Taiwan Strait has become less stable
FRESH LOOK: A committee would gather expert and public input on the themes and visual motifs that would appear on the notes, the central bank governor said The central bank has launched a comprehensive redesign of New Taiwan dollar banknotes to enhance anti-counterfeiting measures, improve accessibility and align the bills with global sustainability standards, Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) told a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday. The overhaul would affect all five denominations — NT$100, NT$200, NT$500, NT$1,000 and NT$2,000 notes — but not coins, Yang said. It would be the first major update to the banknotes in 24 years, as the current series, introduced in 2001, has remained in circulation amid rapid advances in printing technology and security standards. “Updating the notes is essential to safeguard the integrity
REASSURANCE: The US said Taiwan’s interests would not be harmed during the talk and that it remains steadfast in its support for the nation, the foreign minister said US President Donald Trump on Friday said he would bring up Taiwan with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) during a meeting on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in South Korea this week. “I will be talking about Taiwan [with Xi],” Trump told reporters before he departed for his trip to Asia, adding that he had “a lot of respect for Taiwan.” “We have a lot to talk about with President Xi, and he has a lot to talk about with us. I think we’ll have a good meeting,” Trump said. Taiwan has long been a contentious issue between the US and China.
RSS