Overview

When people think about Marlon Brando, they think of the movie star, the hunk, the scandals. In Brando's Smile, Susan L. Mizruchi reveals the Brando others have missed: the man who collected four thousand books; the man who rewrote scripts, trimming his lines to make them sharper; the man who consciously used his body and employed the objects around him to create believable characters; the man who loved Emily Dickinson's poetry. To write this biography, Mizruchi gained unprecedented access to a vast number of annotated books from Brando's library, hand-edited copies of screenplays, private letters, and recorded interviews that have never before been quoted in a biography. Original interviews with some of the still-living players from Brando's life, including Ellen Adler, his one-time girlfriend and the daughter of his acting teacher Stella Adler, provide even deeper insight into the complex person whose intelligence belied the high-school dropout. Mizruchi shows how Brando's embrace of foreign cultures and social outsiders led to his brilliant performances in unusual roles-a gay man, an Asian, a German soldier-to test himself and to foster empathy on a global scale. We also meet the political Brando: the civil rights activist, the close friend of James Baldwin, the actor who declined his Oscar to support Indian rights. More than seventy stunning-and many rare-photographs of Marlon Brando illuminate this portrait of the man who has left an astounding cultural legacy.

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9780393082869

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Reviews

Brimming with colorful anecdotes and details... a wonderfully cohesive work about Brando, both as an actor and a man. [Mizruchi is] the first to have access to Brando's private archives, including his extensive library, film archives and research materials... Fascinating. -- Tom Shone To understand the complete Brando...any future biographer will now have to take account of Mizruchi's Brando as well-to somehow square the lover and the sensualist with the critical thinker. -- Julia M. Klein Renowned cultural scholar Susan L. Mizruchi explores the Brando that was not visible to the world in order to better understand the one that was-a Brando that was independent of the public persona and often at odds with it. The most amazing restoration work on an artist's image that I've ever seen. -- Greg Carpenter

[Mizruchi is] the first to have access to Brando s private archives, including his extensive library, film archives and research materials Fascinating. --Tom Shone

Renowned cultural scholar Susan L. Mizruchi explores the Brando that was not visible to the world in order to better understand the one that was a Brando that was independent of the public persona and often at odds with it.

"""Brimming with colorful anecdotes and details... a wonderfully cohesive work about Brando, both as an actor and a man."" -- Publishers Weekly ""[Mizruchi is] the first to have access to Brando's private archives, including his extensive library, film archives and research materials... Fascinating."" -- Tom Shone - Atlantic ""To understand the complete Brando...any future biographer will now have to take account of Mizruchi's Brando as well-to somehow square the lover and the sensualist with the critical thinker."" -- Julia M. Klein - Boston Globe ""Renowned cultural scholar Susan L. Mizruchi explores the Brando that was not visible to the world in order to better understand the one that was-a Brando that was independent of the public persona and often at odds with it."" -- Examiner ""The most amazing restoration work on an artist's image that I've ever seen."" -- Greg Carpenter - Sequart Magazine"

Author Information

Susan L. Mizruchi, a professor of English at Boston University, specializes in American literature, cultural history, and film.

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