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Monday, Nov 9, 2009
Dick Cavett, television talk show host
"Leashed violence"
"...speaking of strong physical impressions, the most powerful one I got from a guest was from Marlon Brando. The power in him hits you the second you meet him ...
"There was a knock at the door. I opened it to find a crowd of people, most of whom had formed a flying wedge to get Brando in through the mob outside the theater. Suddenly he came at me through the crowd, like a tank pushing through a haystack ...
"Being alone with him in a small room is like being in a cage with a large animal. It is hard to know where the effect comes from, but there is a sense of leashed violence about his presence that is exhilarating and weird ...
"My time alone with Brando in the dressing room before the show was a little spooky. He sat on my couch, took off his aviator glasses, and gave me an eye-widened stare. I had read about this habit of his and stared back ...(New York, early 1970s)"
[from "Cavett," by Dick Cavett with Christopher Porterfield (Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1974)]
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William Kunstler, radical lawyer
"Aloof, reclusive, retiring"
"The trial of Russell [Means] and Dennis [Banks], called the [Wounded Knee] Leadership Trial, began on January 8, 1974 in St. Paul, Minnesota ...
"I met Marlon for the first time at this trial. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, he has an affinity for Native Americans and had donated vehicles and bail money and supported their causes for many years. One evening, I joined Marlon and his girlfriend in their hotel room. He told me he had come to St. Paul to watch the Leadership Trial because he was planning a movie about Wounded Knee and wanted to see me in action. 'I'm a method actor, and I have to see the subject that I'm playing in his native habitat,' he said. Of course, I was very flattered ...
"Marlon and I became friends -- as much as it's possible to be friends with him -- and have worked together, over the years, on many political issues. Marlon is aloof, reclusive, and retiring. He loathes public appearances so much that he is no longer accessible to people in the movement, or anyone else for that matter. But with all his quirks, I liked him very much when we first met and still do.
[from "My Life as a Radical Lawyer," by William M. Kunstler with Sheila Isenberg (Birch Lane Press/Carol Publishing, 1994)]
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Charles Kuralt, broadcast journalist
"No fisherman"
"I spent a few days in the company of Marlon Brando. He wasn't very good company. For Brando, I guess I have to make an exception to my rule that the very famous, down deep, are just like you and me. Marlon Brando is not one bit like you and me.
"I was covering a big public squabble between the state of Washington and the Puyallup Indians over fishing rights ...
"Marlon Brando showed up from Hollywood and moved into a suite on the same floor of the same hotel where I was staying. I don't think anybody invited him, but Brando was eager to be known as a supporter of Indian causes, and he brought along a beautiful brunette secretary to handle his press releases ...
"His aim was to catch an illegal salmon on reservation waters, get arrested and make headlines to publicize the Indian cause. Morning after morning, he went out and trolled a salmon lure from a boat with a flotilla of photographers following and the Fish and Game officers watching from a respectful distance. The problem was that Marlon Brando was a movie star, not a fisherman ...
"I don't think Marlon Brando helped the Indian cause much, or furthered his own reputation either as Indian rights crusader or salmon fisherman. The press and the public, and maybe the fish, too, were all pretty weary of him before he left town ..." (Olympia, Wash., mid-1970s)
[from "A Life on the Road," by Charles Kuralt (G.P. Putnam's, 1990)]
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John Cassavetes, film director
"Too involved with causes"
"Brando is one of the best actors that ever lived, and I like him personally. But I'm angry with him. He's so involved with causes. I would think that if he were so concerned about the plight of Indians, for example, he would make a picture about them instead of going to Washington and talking about it. I don't think an actor should involve himself with causes. Whatever he has to say can be better said on screen." (1970s)
[from "Cassavetes on Cassavetes," edited by Ray Carney (Faber and Faber, 2001)]
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Mike Douglas, television host
"Getting to know him"
"...After enough years, enough thousands of shows, there were few names on the guest list that really got my adrenaline flowing. Marlon Brando. There's one. Getting a chance to meet the man I considered perhaps the finest actor of our time, and then have him come on the show for a rare interview--if I wasn't the host, I guarantee you I'd be watching that day.
".......
"He was expansive about his career, his co-stars, Tahiti. He was good. So honest. One hundred percent Brando. We took a break then spent one full segment on 'the plight of Native Americans.' He was and is a compassionate spokesman for that cause.
"But here's the point, and it's the point of a show like ours--I believe people listened more closely to his message because they were more sympathetic, because they had gotten to know Marlon Brando a little bit. After fifteen minutes, they were thinking, 'This Marlon Brando's all right, now let's hear what he has to say about Indians.'" (mid-1970s)
[ from "I'll Be Right Back: Memories of TV's Greatest Talk Show," by Mike Douglas with Thomas Kelly and Michael Heaton (Simon & Schuster, 2000)]
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