Marlon Brando, Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American screen and stage actor.
Brando is widely regarded for bringing a gripping realism to film acting and is generally considered to have been one of the greatest and most influential actors of the 20th century. A cultural icon, Brando is most famous for his Oscar-winning performances as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront (1954) and Vito Corleone in The Godfather (1972), as well as influential performances in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Viva Zapata! (1952), Julius Caesar (1953), The Wild One (1953), Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967), Last Tango in Paris (1972) and Apocalypse Now (1979). Brando was also an activist, supporting many issues, notably the African-American Civil Rights Movement and various American Indian Movements.
Brando was ranked by the American Film Institute as the fourth greatest screen legend among male movie stars whose screen debuts occurred in or before 1950. Considered to be one of the most important actors in American cinema, Brando was one of only three professional actors, along with Charlie Chaplin and Marilyn Monroe, named by Time magazine as one of its 100 Persons of the Century in 1999. He died on July 1, 2004 of respiratory failure at 80.