9-10 传奇人物：马龙 白兰度（在线收听）

The Legend: Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando, the stage and screen actor whose performances in A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront and The Godfather earned him plaudits¹ as one of the greatest actors of all time, has died, his attorney said on 1st of July, 2004. He was 80.

Brando's agent, Jay Cantor, said the actor was admitted to UCLA Medical Center on Wednesday evening and that the cause of death was pulmonary fibrosis. Brando had suffered from congestive heart failure² and was overweight.

The actor was perhaps the most influential³ of his generation, noted Bob Thomas of The Associated Press.

Marlon Brando was born April 3, 1924, in Omaha, Nebraska. His mother was active in the local theater and encouraged two local actors, Henry Fonda and Dorothy McGuire, onto the stage.

Known as a rambunctious⁴ child, Brando was sent to military school as a teenager to curb⁵ his behavior. He was expelled.

At the age of 19, he moved to New York to live with his sister Frances. Another sister, Jocelyn, was studying acting with legendary coach Stella Adler; Brando soon joined her. Adler was quickly impressed.

“Within a year, Marlon Brando will be the best young actor in the American theater,” she said, according to the AP.

After a handful of roles, A Streetcar Named Desire -- which hit Broadway in 1947-- made him a star.

Brando's first film, The Men (1950), earned raves⁶, but it wasn't until the 1951 film version of Streetcar -- directed by Kazan -- that he became a major movie star. Three years later, Brando won his first Oscar for his performance as ex? boxer Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront, also directed by Kazan. One of his lines from the film, “I coulda been a contender,” has been widely imitated.

His roles in Streetcar, Waterfront and The Wild One (1953) established him as an icon of the 1950s.

He followed his early success with hits in Guys and Dolls (1955), The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956) and Sayonara (1957), but his career went into decline in the 1960s, particularly after his mannered⁷ performance as Fletcher Christian in 1962's big-budget flop Mutiny⁸ on the Bounty.

His career revived, however, with perhaps his most famous role, that of Don Corleone in The Godfather. Director Francis Ford Coppola had only Brando in mind for the role, a decision not favored by producers, who almost fired the director over the decision.

Coppola was rewarded when the film became a huge hit -- it was the highest? grossing movie of all time until Jaws (1975) came along -- and Brando's quietly regal⁹, brooding¹⁰ performance as a Mafia¹¹ kingpin¹² was the film's centerpiece.

He also played the mad Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now (1979), a Coppola film racked by dissent¹³ and difficulties but hailed by many as a classic about the Vietnam War.

His later films were a mixed bag. He earned a supporting actor Oscar nomination for A Dry White Season (1989), parodied¹⁴ his Godfather role in The Freshman (1990) and played a thoughtful therapist in Don Juan DeMarco (1995).

Over the course of his career, he was nominated for eight Oscars, winning two -- for Waterfront and The Godfather (1972).

The actor was as famous for his off-screen antics¹⁵ as his on-screen performances. Brando was married three times, to Anna Kashfi in 1957, the Mexican actress Movita in 1960 and a Tahitian named Tahita. He had nine children.

注释：

1. plaudit [5plC:dit] n. 喝彩，称赞，赞扬

2. congestive [kEn5dVestiv] a. 充血性的，充血的；～heart failure [医] 充血性心力衰竭

3. influential [7influ5enFEl] a. 有影响的

4. rambunctious [rAm5bQNkFEs] a. [主美口] 桀骜不驯的，难管束的

5. curb [kE:b] vt. 控制，约束

6. rave [reiv] n. [口]（对电影、戏剧等的）狂热褒评，赞扬，吹捧

7. mannered [5mAnEd] a. 矫饰的，不自然的

8. mutiny [5mju:tini] n.（水手、士兵等对上级的）反叛，叛乱，哗变

9. regal [5ri:^El] a. 帝王的，威严的

10. brooding [5bru:diN] a. 沉思的，忧思的

11. Mafia [5mAfiE] n. 黑手党

12. kingpin [5kiNpin] n. [口]（组织或事业中的）主要人物

13. dissent [di5sent] n. 意见的不一致，意见的分歧

14. parody [5pArEdi] vt. 通过模仿嘲弄

15. antic [5Antik] n. [常作～s]（旨在哗众取宠的）夸张的噱头，古怪的姿势

传奇人物：马龙·白兰度

舞台和银幕两栖演员马龙·白兰度凭借其在《欲望号街车》、《码头风云》和《教父》中的精彩表演被誉为有史以来最伟大的演员之一。2004年7 月1日，他的律师宣布白兰度与世长辞，享年80岁。

白兰度的经纪人杰伊·坎托说，白兰度是星期三晚间住进加州大学洛杉矶分校医疗中心的，死因是肺纤维化。白兰度长期以来饱受心脏病和超重的折磨。

美联社的鲍勃·托马斯评价说，马龙·白兰度也许是他那一代演员中最有影响的一位。

马龙·白兰度于1924年4月3日出生在内布拉斯加州奥马哈城。他的母亲曾活跃在当地的戏剧界，并鼓励亨利·方达和多萝西·麦圭尔走上了舞台。

青少年时代的白兰度桀骜不驯远近闻名，因此被送到军校去接受管教，结果以被开除而告终。

19岁时，白兰度搬到纽约与姐姐弗朗西丝同住。当时，他的另一个姐姐乔斯林正师从著名的斯特拉·阿德勒学习表演。白兰度不久也加入学习，他的表演很快就给阿德勒留下了深刻印象。

“一年之内，马龙·白兰度将成为美国戏剧界最优秀的年轻演员。”她曾经这样告诉美联社的记者。

马龙·白兰度饰演了若干个角色，其后，在1947年，《欲望号街车》这部轰动百老汇的戏使他一举成名。

虽然白兰度的第一部电影《男儿本色》(1950)也取得了极大的成功，但是直到1951年由卡赞执导的《街车》问世才使他最终成为一名大牌电影明星。3年之后，白兰度凭借他在卡赞执导的另一部电影《码头风云》中饰演的退役拳击手特里·马洛伊一角赢得了奥斯卡奖。他在电影中的一句台词“我本来可以奋力拼搏一回的”被广泛仿效。

他在《街车》、《码头风云》和《飞车党》(1953)中的表演使他成为20世纪50年代的一名偶像。

在获得最初的成功之后，白兰度又相继成功地出演了《红男绿女》(1955)、《秋月茶室》(1956)、《樱花恋》(1957)。但是他的事业在20世纪60年代走了下坡路，尤其是在他出演了《叛舰喋血记》(1962)中的弗莱彻·克雷斯蒂安一角之后。他在那部电影中的表演矫揉造作；《叛舰喋血记》这部大制作在票房上惨败。

然而，在扮演了《教父》中唐·科莱奥内之后，他的事业再现辉煌，这个角色可能是他最出名的一个了。导演弗朗西斯·福特·科波拉认定这个角色非白兰度莫属，但是制片人不同意，他们几乎因此炒掉了这位导演。

科波拉得到了回报，这部电影取得了巨大的成功，直到1975年《大白鲨》问世之前，它一直是票房冠军，白兰度饰演的具有帝王气质、沉思的黑手党首脑是这部电影的最大卖点。

他还在《现代启示录》(1979)中扮演了疯狂的库尔兹上校。这部科波拉的电影虽饱受争议，遇到了很多困难，但还是被许多人视为一部关于越战的经典影片。

白兰度的后期电影参差不齐。他在《白色干燥季节》(1989)中的表演为他赢得了奥斯卡最佳男配角的提名。在《新生》(1990)中他滑稽地模仿了他自己的教父角色。

1995年他在《唐璜·德马科》中扮演了一名体贴的临床医师。

在他的影视生涯中，他获得8次奥斯卡提名，凭借《码头风云》和《教父》两获奥斯卡奖。

马龙·白兰度在生活中的古怪行为和他在银幕上的表演一样出名。他结过3次婚。1957年他与安娜·卡士菲结婚，1960年他娶了墨西哥女演员莫维塔，随后又和一名叫做塔席塔的塔希提岛女子结婚。他有9个子女。