The tragic end of an icon: Marlon Brando’s heartbreaking final words
As perhaps the single most influential actor in Hollywood history and undoubtedly the most transformative, the legend of Marlon Brando had been secured decades before he passed away in July 2004 at the age of 80.
Exploding onto the scene in the early 1950s, his breakthrough performances in A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront were much more than simply the announcement that a generation talent had arrived, with his naturalistic and method-inspired work completely altering the face of screen acting.
The brightest stars tend to burn for the shortest amount of time, though, with Brando’s career experiencing its fair share of ups and downs. He was being written off as early as the 1960s before The Godfather gave him a new lease of life – and a second Academy Award for ‘Best Actor’ – a decade later, but the latter years of his career saw his off-camera antics eclipse his on-camera efforts.
His final feature film appearance in 2001’s The Score was indicative of Brando’s complicated legacy, with the star making an instant enemy out of director Frank Oz and living up to his troublesome billing. It wasn’t his final contribution to the world of acting, though, even if his last few credits encapsulated his complex and often difficult nature.
He was supposed to shoot a cameo in comedy sequel Scary Movie 2 but dropped out after one day of filming, he recorded a voice performance in animated feature Big Bug Man that was never released, and he reprised Vito Corleone in The Godfather video game but his health was in such a poor condition that he only managed to record one solitary line of dialogue before an impersonator did the rest.
In the months before his death, Brando was a regular visitor to friend Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch, but it wasn’t the ‘King of Pop’ he called in what turned out to be his final conversation. Instead, it was an even older and closer friend and fellow acting legend, with the icon’s final words tinged with tragedy.
Having co-starred together in A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, and One-Eyed Jacks, Brando and Karl Malden had been thick as thieves for decades. With the former suffering from heart problems, diabetes, and liver cancer and requiring an oxygen mask to breathe as his health and body continued to fail him, there was a sense of the inevitable when Malden picked up the phone.
As Malden recalled, he received a call from Brando, who told him that he kept falling over. Understandably concerned for one of his nearest and dearest friends, the Oscar-winning veteran suggested that he head over to provide him with some company.
The only response Brando could muster was a solemn “It’s no use” in instructing Malden not to come and visit, and that would be the last time anyone outside of the medical team assigned to provide him with care and assistance would ever hear from him. Three weeks later, he died of respiratory failure from pulmonary fibrosis.
He seemed to know the end was nigh, with Brando reportedly refusing oxygen tubes to be inserted into his lungs despite being informed by medical personnel that it would prolong his life, instead opting to spend his remaining days in isolation accompanied only by a maid and his faithful dog.
