@highballco: Marlon Brando, the man who changed acting forever. Omaha, Nebraska. Both parents were alcoholics, his mother badly so, and he was expelled from military school. He went to New York at nineteen with no plan and ended up studying under Stella Adler, learning a way of working that nobody was doing on film yet. A Streetcar Named Desire in 1951 was the moment. He didn't perform lines, he seemed to be thinking them, mumbling, scratching, moving like a real person. Audiences had never seen it. Every actor after him copied it, including everyone else on your feed this week. Pacino, De Niro, Nicholson, all of them have said so plainly. Then On the Waterfront in 1954 and his first Oscar. The taxi scene is still taught everywhere. He got bored of it for a while and made some poor films. Then The Godfather in 1972, where he stuffed his cheeks with cotton wool at the audition and won the part outright. Second Oscar, which he refused, sending Sacheen Littlefeather to decline it on stage over Hollywood's treatment of Native Americans. Then Last Tango in Paris and Apocalypse Now. The look was the same revolution. White t-shirt, jeans, leather jacket, motorcycle. He made ordinary working clothes into the definition of cool and men have been wearing his outfits ever since without realising where it came from. He died in 2004. He had a difficult, sad life in a lot of ways and didn't pretend otherwise. Nobody has ever been more imitated. RIP legend. Find Highball's free newsletter in our bio. We find things worth your attention. 🔗 #mensfashion #cinema

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Friday 25 September 2026 00:33:58 GMT