#Swifty lazar movie

He did not notice its disappearance until 1994, when his lawyer informed him a London auction house was planning on selling it. SOMEONE STOLE HIS ON THE WATERFRONT OSCAR.īrando wrote that he honestly did not know what happened to his Oscar. Brando won his first (of two) Best Actor Oscars for the role. When Brando first saw the movie, he was 'so depressed' by his performance that he left the screening room without saying a word. While costumes were being fitted for the crooner to star, Brando changed his mind after producer Sam Spiegel convinced the actor to put his politics aside and re-team with his A Streetcar Named Desire director Elia Kazan, who had testified as a witness before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1952. BRANDO INITIALLY TURNED DOWN ON THE WATERFRONT, AND DIDN'T CARE FOR HIS PERFORMANCE IN IT.Īfter Brando returned the unread script- twice-Frank Sinatra was cast as Terry Malloy.

#Swifty lazar movie

When the movie was finally made in 1955, The New York Times critic Bosley Crowther wrote that James Dean was “imitating Marlon Brando in varying degrees.' 7. Brando turned down a $3000 per week offer from Warner Bros.

Lindner, about an inmate who admitted under hypnosis that he witnessed his parents having sex when he was just a baby and had been rebelling ever since. , when the film project was just a planned screen adaptation of Rebel Without a Cause: The Hypnoanalysis of a Criminal Psychopath, a 1944 book by Robert M. HE SCREEN TESTED FOR REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. 'I honestly think that broken nose made his fortune,' she said. She was glad he did not to listen to her. Irene Selznick, the show's producer, told Brando to get his nose reset. His co-star, Jessica Tandy, hid her surprise at his appearance by ad-libbing the line 'You bloody fool' and playing it off as if Stanley had just been in a street fight.Īfter the performance, Brando walked to the nearest hospital to get himself fixed up. Having just been punched in the face, and with his nose bleeding, Brando stepped back on to the stage. The stagehand then popped him in the nose, and blackened his eyes. The stagehand took it easy on Brando until the actor insisted he fight for real. To alleviate the boredom of playing Kowalski on stage for, at that time, over one year, Brando started to fight with one of the stagehands, who was an amateur boxer. HE BROKE HIS NOSE DURING A PERFORMANCE OF STREETCAR WHEN HE WAS BOXING WITH SOMEONE BACKSTAGE. Williams wrote that it was 'the most magnificent reading' he had ever witnessed. A few days after he was scheduled to arrive for his audition, Brando showed up at Williams' house, asked him why the lights were out, and then proceeded to fix the fuses and unclog the overflowing toilet bowl. The playwright was living in Provincetown, Massachusetts when his plumbing flooded.

HE FIXED TENNESSEE WILLIAMS' HOUSE BEFORE AUDITIONING FOR Lazar recalled how in 1945, Brando and his then-girlfriend, Blossom Plumb, would sit silently for hours at a time listening to Lazar make deals over the phone.Ĥ. HE WOULD SPEND HOURS WATCHING AN AGENT MAKE DEALS.Īgent Irving Paul 'Swifty' Lazar helped Brando get a $10 raise, from $65 to $75 a week, for his Broadway debut in I Remember Mama. Brando was also a night watchman in a factory. In Brando: Songs My Mother Taught Me, he wrote that he followed that gig with brief stints as a waiter, a short-order cook, and a sandwich man. In New York, Brando worked as an elevator operator at Best & Co., a department store. After that, in the spring of 1943, he moved to New York to live with his sister in Greenwich Village. He was never caught, but got himself expelled anyway for other infractions. In a stroke of genius, Brando then organized a committee to find out who was responsible. Once there, Brando wrote that one night he climbed the bell tower, removed the 150-pound clapper, then carried the clapper 200 yards and buried it. HE WAS EXPELLED FROM TWO SCHOOLS.īrando was expelled from high school, allegedly for riding a motorcycle down the hallway, which forced his father to send him to Shattuck Military Academy in Faribault, Minnesota. Here are 16 stories about his just-as-legendary antics. Ever since, the seemingly tall tales of Brando clashing with actors, writers, and directors have only multiplied over the years. The student-turned-face of Method acting, as taught to him by Stella Adler, first gained attention for his performance as Stanley Kowalski in the Broadway run of A Streetcar Named Desire in 1947. was one of the most famous and influential actors of the second half of the 20th century.