"Based on new and revelatory material from Brando's own private archives, an award-winning film biographer presents a deeply-textured, ambitious, and definitive portrait of the greatest movie actor of the twentieth century, the elusive Marlon Brando, bringing his extraordinarily complex life into view as never before." -- Amazon.com.

"When Marlon Brando burst onto stage and screen in the late 1940s, he fundamentally changed the way other actors perceived their craft. The charismatic, enigmatic Brando was immediately heralded as the 'American Hamlet'--the one Yank who could surpass Olivier, Gielgud, and Richardson as the standard of acting greatness. His approach was natural, honest, and deeply personal, resulting in performances--A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, Julius Caesar, The Godfather, and others--that are still today without parallel. But Brando's impact on American culture extends far beyond his professional significance. He both codified and challenged midcentury American ideas about masculinity. He was also a whistleblower on American politics--a Cassandra warning us of the challenges to come. Brando predicted and feared the ubiquity of celebrity culture. His advocacy for social justice and against racism, often dismissed at the time as dilettantism, now appears to have been the least a person of his influence could have done (he was arrested more than once) during that period of widespread inequity. Brando believed that to conduct business as usual during national moral crises--the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, constitutional threats under Richard Nixon--would make him complicit in the problem. What mattered to this son of abusive, alcoholic parents was not winning Academy Awards but aiding others who, like him, felt powerless. Yet closer to home, the wounded Brando's great empathy often failed the women in his life and his own children. Psychologically astute, masterfully researched, and based on new and revelatory material from Brando's own private archives, [this book] explores the star in full, revealing his extraordinarily complex life to be remarkably relevant to today."--Dust jacket.