JoBlo
06-29-2004, 04:30 PM
How the fuck does shit like this happen???
From THE GUARDIAN UNLIMITED (http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,12589,1249809,00.html):
Brando 'nearly destitute', says biographer
Arguably the greatest film actor of the 20th century, Marlon Brando has been reduced to a life of poverty, according to a forthcoming biography by Patricia Ruiz. The Sunday Times reports that the book, Brando in Twilight, paints an abject picture of an American icon crippled by legal and familial battles.
It is claimed that Brando is now "nearly destitute", with debts amounting to $20m (£10.9m). Once the industry's most highly-paid actor, the 80-year-old reportedly now subsists on social security payments, a pension from the Screen Actors Guild and "small residuals". He lives alone in a one-bedroom bungalow, called Frangipani, on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles. For good measure, the book quotes a visitor describing the house as "claustrophobic", with beaded curtains and a pair of shabby couches.
Brando's fortune has been decimated by eccentric spending habits and a series of costly legal battles. Back in 1990 he reportedly spent millions in lawyer's fees for his son Christian, who was convicted of voluntary manslaughter after shooting his sister's boyfriend. More recently he was hit with a costly palimony suit brought by his former maid.
Only last week lawyers working for Brando agreed to settle another suit, this one relating to a disputed $185,000 (£101,500) "gift" that the actor had paid to his personal assistant Caroline Barrett and then later demanded back. Brando's attorneys had argued that the money was a loan. But Miss Barrett, who left Brando's employ in 2001, claimed that the sum was a gift to enable her to buy a London home for her and her daughter, who Brando had legally adopted.
The leading prononent of the Method style in American acting that flourished after the second world war, Brando electrified US cinema with roles in The Men and A Streetcar Named Desire before scooping the first of two Oscars for his turn in Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront. He famously refused his Oscar for The Godfather in protest at the government treatment of native Americans, and was active in the 60s civil rights struggle. His last role was opposite Ed Norton and Robert De Niro in 2001's The Score.
From THE GUARDIAN UNLIMITED (http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,12589,1249809,00.html):
Brando 'nearly destitute', says biographer
Arguably the greatest film actor of the 20th century, Marlon Brando has been reduced to a life of poverty, according to a forthcoming biography by Patricia Ruiz. The Sunday Times reports that the book, Brando in Twilight, paints an abject picture of an American icon crippled by legal and familial battles.
It is claimed that Brando is now "nearly destitute", with debts amounting to $20m (£10.9m). Once the industry's most highly-paid actor, the 80-year-old reportedly now subsists on social security payments, a pension from the Screen Actors Guild and "small residuals". He lives alone in a one-bedroom bungalow, called Frangipani, on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles. For good measure, the book quotes a visitor describing the house as "claustrophobic", with beaded curtains and a pair of shabby couches.
Brando's fortune has been decimated by eccentric spending habits and a series of costly legal battles. Back in 1990 he reportedly spent millions in lawyer's fees for his son Christian, who was convicted of voluntary manslaughter after shooting his sister's boyfriend. More recently he was hit with a costly palimony suit brought by his former maid.
Only last week lawyers working for Brando agreed to settle another suit, this one relating to a disputed $185,000 (£101,500) "gift" that the actor had paid to his personal assistant Caroline Barrett and then later demanded back. Brando's attorneys had argued that the money was a loan. But Miss Barrett, who left Brando's employ in 2001, claimed that the sum was a gift to enable her to buy a London home for her and her daughter, who Brando had legally adopted.
The leading prononent of the Method style in American acting that flourished after the second world war, Brando electrified US cinema with roles in The Men and A Streetcar Named Desire before scooping the first of two Oscars for his turn in Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront. He famously refused his Oscar for The Godfather in protest at the government treatment of native Americans, and was active in the 60s civil rights struggle. His last role was opposite Ed Norton and Robert De Niro in 2001's The Score.