The advice Marlon Brando gave Harry Dean Stanton
The late, great Harry Dean Stanton was a true icon of American independent cinema. A distinguished character actor who appeared in over 200 films, he usually played supporting roles but sometimes headlined movies, including what turned out to be his final feature film role, 2017’s Lucky.
Although the film industry is undeniably ageist, it was actually in middle age that Stanton became increasingly well-known. His role in 1979’s legendary Alien, by which time he was into his 50s, was something of a turning point for the actor (even though he doesn’t actually say an awful lot in the movie), and a few years after, he really broke out with his leading role in 1984’s Palme D’Or winner Paris, Texas.
Over the course of his fantastic career, Stanton collaborated with a number of extraordinary creatives. Perhaps most famously, he worked with David Lynch on several occasions, and one of his last screen roles before his passing in 2017 was a supporting role in five episodes of Lynch’s televisual masterpiece Twin Peaks: The Return.
Another important relationship for Stanton, however, was the man he considered to be the greatest actor of all time: Marlon Brando.
Brando was notorious for being a very, very difficult man to work with, but that wasn’t the case for Stanton, who performed alongside Brando in the film The Missouri Breaks. The pair were close friends and often spent a lot of time chatting on the phone or at each other’s houses – especially in the last three years of Brando’s life before his death in 2004.
Stanton spoke fondly of Brando, calling him an “amazing man”, and once recalled a moment when Brando asked Stanton what he thought of him, replying, “I think you’re nothing”, which greatly amused the Oscar winner best known for Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather.
When speaking to Uncut about the best slice of advice the actor gave him, Stanton recalled: “He told me Shakespearean soliloquies over the phone. ‘Our revels now are ending…’ What was that one from? The Tempest? He taught me a couple of them, and I would do them over the phone, and he would direct me over the phone. He was an amazing man, a great sense of humour, tremendous depth, unpredictable”.
He concluded: “He’s the greatest actor of all time, in my opinion…Marlon’s reminiscent of Dylan. Both very eccentric, complex characters”.
Although not direct advice from the man behind Don Vito Corleone, it’s clear that Brando and Stanton had a remarkable effect on each others’ lives.
