The actor Marlon Brando thought was a “threat”
Being an actor requires a certain amount of ego, with every performer desperate to prove themselves as the best in the business, although Marlon Brando did manage to make it look effortless.
From the second he first broke through in the early 1950s with A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront, there was no doubt in anybody’s mind that they were witnessing a generational talent. Not only that but his rugged good looks and adherence to method techniques also turned him into a superstar and inspired countless generations.
Virtually every leading man who rose to prominence in the 1960s and early 1970s was indebted to Brando in one way or another, whether it was Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Gene Hackman, or any of the other future icons who rose to prominence during that period.
The most decorated of all was Jack Nicholson, who became one of just three male actors to win a trio of Academy Awards and the male performer with the most nominations in history at 12. They may have been from different eras, but Brando nonetheless viewed the upstart as a threat to his position.
They never worked together, but they were familiar with each other away from the screen, even if Nicholson’s hellraising antics didn’t leave Brando particularly impressed.
“He had an antipathy toward talking about his acting. I always felt Marlon, in some elliptical way, was trying to educate me about mine,” Nicholson explained to The Bulletin. “At first he thought of me as a threat to his home – he was strictly against dope, and he thought I was a criminal.”
Fortunately, once he realised Nicholson was more than a pot-smoking wildman, the relationship between the two thawed. “Once he figured that was not my defining trait, we got friendly, and I learned he wasn’t nearly as reclusive or serious as people thought,” he continued, even if he stopped short of calling them friends in the truest sense of the word.
Describing Brando as “spellbinding” under the bright lights of a film set, Nicholson would nonetheless admit that “I still don’t feel comfortable calling him my friend”.
As for why, it was simple, given his lofty status. “Hell, he’s Brando,” the star exclaimed, not that it dissuaded them from spending years as neighbours when they lived on the same street.
Nicholson was just one of many aspiring actors inspired by Brando’s game-changing work on-camera, but once the latter had accepted the former was a phenomenally talented thespian when he wasn’t busy partying and getting high, it opened the doors to a long-lasting mutual appreciation and closeness that carried right through to Nicholson having Brando’s house demolished in the aftermath of The Godfather legend’s passing in 2004.
