The golden age of Hollywood was paved with gold yet stained with tears — and just when you think you’re all caught up on the scandals of that era, a new book comes out detailing how Marlon Brando didn’t exactly like everything about his Oscar-winning role in the legendary 1954 film On the Waterfront. 4i36y

Marlon Brando’s talent was oftentimes overshadowed by his equally troubled self-perception and self-sabotaging patterns. In the early 1950s, Brando had one of the most notable primes in the craft. He had the Midas touch — from A Streetcar Named Desire to Julius Caesar — as seemingly everything he starred in ended with an Oscar nomination or, at the very least, rave reviews. But, according to various Hollywood historians, Brando remained self-deprecating throughout the entire time. He infamously called his performance as Marc Antony “asinine,” a declaration most fans find frustratingly off the mark.

When Brando finally got his Oscar-winning role as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront, where he delivered his iconic “I could’ve been a contender” monologue, things weren’t as smooth as the subsequent celebration of the film might suggest. Although by Brando standards, this was actually his non-controversial Oscar, he still didn’t initially appreciate some of the post-production decisions made to ensure the film’s smooth release at its Italian premiere.

The film’s producers decided to show a dubbed version of the film and failed to alert Brando and his agent. Brando didn’t take kindly to the discovery — he reportedly stumbled to his assigned seat as if he’d just had a “heart attack,” as shared by Hank Kaufman and Gene Lerner in their memoir Hollywood on the Tiber (via The Guardian). Brando apparently even went ahead to give a succinct reason why he was so adamantly team “sub over dub.”

“I’m an actor, not a ventriloquist’s dummy, for Christ’s sake. Can you imagine what it’s like to hear somebody else’s voice come out of my mouth? You feel like a goddamn freak in a sideshow. Christ, why didn’t somebody prepare me? Didn’t you guys know?”

However, that wasn’t the end of it — Brando was seated next to the then 19-year-old Italian actress Sophia Loren, whom Brando just couldn’t stop checking out, getting lost in open-mouthed’ ‘double-takes.’ Apparently, throughout his presence at the premiere, Brando kept stealing glances at the young actress and gasping, but it wasn’t enough to make him stay.

But Lerner’s warning did the trick as he cautioned that Brando’s sudden exit would be detrimental to the film’s success as it would be misconstrued as him, the star of the story, disliking it. He then made a swift escape to a nearby bar and entered the theater a few minutes before the ending to make it seem he was there throughout the film.

This story, among many others, will appear in the t memoir of the American-born couple Hank Kaufman and Gene Lerner, who moved to Italy to work as agents during the final decades of Hollywood’s golden era: the 1950s and 1960s. The memoir was first published in Italian in 1982 but lacked an English-language publisher until now when Sticking Place Books picked it up. The publisher promises the book is like a non-fiction version of La Dolce Vita meshed with Call My Agent. The book will also include anecdotes about other stars of that era, including Ava Gardner and Sean Connery.

The star of the book is, however, undoubtedly still going to be Marlon Brando. Brando’s life is also set to be depicted in an biopic starring Billy Zane titled Waltzing with Brando, though its release date is yet to be announced. While Billy Zane has always kind of looked like the man in question — especially in that trailer — everyone is still holding onto their excitement, considering all that could still possibly go wrong (the story, the depiction, the portrayal — we have been burned wya too many times to not be cautious). But if Timothée Chalamet somehow made Bob Dylan work in A Complete Unknown, then maybe we can err on the side of optimism.

If you were to make a list of the greatest actors to have ever graced the silver screen, there’s an enormous chance Marlon Brando will be on that list. He embodies a certain energy when you talk about 1950s cinema, whether it’s from the riotous A Streetcar Named Desire, or his later Oscar-winning work in The Godfather.

Now we’re getting a movie about a specific island-buying period of his life, and it stars a practically unrecognizable Billy Zane along with, for some reason, Jon Heder – the man who danced his way into the zeitgeist in the 2004 classic Napoleon Dynamite. That movie is called Waltzing With Brando, and we just got a first trailer. It’s gonna be something, alright:

Part of Brando’s legend is his eccentricity. He would refuse to learn his lines and made his fellow actors wear cue cards. He loved pranks, too. He would put cockroaches in fake bagels and regularly employed a fart machine with his co-stars. Sadly, he ed away in 2004 at the age of 80, ironically the same year that Napoleon Dynamite came out.

The new movie is based on a book by Bernard Judge covering the time period from 1969 to 1974. Brando was preparing to film what would be two of his signature movies: The Godfather and Last Tango in Paris. He was in the process of filming Mutiny on the Bounty and had just bought an island in Tahiti. Dynamite’s Heder plays Judge, the planner and architect for a vacation resort meant to occupy a space with no electricity or running water. In the trailer, we see his cautious character worrying about how to practically build something that requires that level of infrastructure.

No power? Why not syphon it from electric eels? No water? What if we made some from urine? These are the types of shenanigans these two actors get into to make this whole thing happen. Interestingly, Brando was a bit ahead of his time when it comes to environmental awareness, and he envisioned a truly sustainable retreat.

Fun fact: the resort itself actually still exists! It’s appropriately named The Brando and it has a really spiffy website. A night stay will run you anywhere from $2,500 to $14,000.

Zane, 58, captures Brando perhaps a little too well, at least in the trailer. “I won an island nearby,” he says. “It’s more beautiful than words can describe and cinematography can capture, and I want to move there.” Heder seems to be playing against type in a rare role as the movie’s straight man. “To live out there with even a moderate amount of convenience would be a monumental undertaking,” Heder’s character replies.

Much of the lore discussed in the film is actually based on truth, which is wild. Take the eels, for example. Brando had thousands of them and one time he put them in a swimming pool for storage while he cleaned out their tanks. Unfortunately, his son’s girlfriend wanted to take a dip and received the shock of a lifetime, both literally and figuratively. Other notable actors appearing in the film include Tia Carrere, Richard Dreyfuss, Alaina Huffman, and Rob Corddry. There’s no release date for the film just yet, but it’s expected sometime in 2025.

Very few Hollywood stars will ever reach the same level of fame as Marlon Brando — you might have heard of him a few times in your lifetime. As an icon and a cinematic staple, particularly of the 1950s through the 1970s, Brando inspired a generation of actors who could only hope to match part of his talent and prestige in a lifetime.

In fact, Brando almost created a small generation of his own — quite literally. Besides being the face of The Godfather and the epitome of old Hollywood chic, Brando followed a common trend of the time: the fathering of many children. The term 1950s term “baby boom” might as well have been coined for Brando himself — what a trendsetter.

To put it in modern pop : Brando was the old Hollywood equivalent of Nick Cannon, only with far more talent, but equally as controversial. With that image in mind, let’s take a look at all of Brando’s known heirs.

How many children did Marlon Brando have? 4n6370

As far as we know, Marlon Brando had 11 children between 1958 and 1994 — some born through his three marriages, others through adoption or extramarital affairs. The actor’s oldest son, Christian Brando, was born in 1958 while Brando was still married to Indian-Welsh actress Anna Kashfi, whom he divorced a year later. Christian ed away from pneumonia after living a tumultuous and criminally-ridden life.

In 1960, Brando married Mexican-American actress Movita Castaneda, with whom he had two children: their son Miko in 1961, and their daughter Rebecca in 1966. Although the couple divorced in 1962, they appeared to have reunited at times, resulting in the birth of Rebecca Brando. Both Rebecca, now a clinical psychologist, and Miko, an actor, are thriving in their respective fields.

Also in 1962, Brando married for the third and final time, to French Polynesian actress Tarita Teriipaia — the only one of Brando’s three wives who is still alive. Together, they had two children: Teihotu, born in 1963, and their late daughter Cheyenne, born in 1970. The couple separated in 1972, but Brando adopted two of Tarita’s relatives: her daughter Maimiti, born in 1977 from another relationship, and Tarita’s niece Raiatua, born in 1982. Of the aforementioned names, Cheyenne is the only one who did not survive to see her father’s final days, having ed away by suicide in 1995.

When Brando and Tarita separated, the actor also adopted Petra Brando, who was born in 1972. She is the daughter of his longtime assistant, Caroline Barrett. According to some reports, Barrett and Brando were romantically and physically involved for several years during her more than 20 years of employment with him. Petra has continued much of Brando’s humanitarian work by founding the Brando Fischer Foundation, which helps children in need.

The last of Brando’s children came from his relationship with his housekeeper, Maria Cristina Ruiz. Together, they had three children: daughter Ninna Priscilla Brando, born in 1989; son Myles Jonathan Brando, born in 1992, who later became a model; and his youngest son, Timothy Gahan Brando, born in 1994. He became a grandfather to over 30 grandchildren — some of whom were left out of his will, but that’s a different conversation.

Curiously enough, despite the number of children — three of whom were adopted — and numerous romantic relationships, Brando wasn’t just a womanizer. The actor was known for being sexually ambiguous, often dating both men and women — he was likely what we would today call bisexual, though the term was not widely used at the time. It seems he simply had a lot of love to give, I guess.

Marlon Brando — the man, the myth, the actor who loved to hear people speculate about which actors he’s slept with  — often feels larger than life. But even though he was one of the biggest actors during Hollywood’s golden age, he was also a real human being (and occasionally a jerk if Christopher Reeves has anything to say about it).

Born on April 3, 1924 in Omaha, Nebraska, Brando demonstrated acting talent from a young age and began his career on Broadway. He ascended to stardom following his role in A Streetcar Named Desire and would go on to star in films like Julius Caesar and On the Waterfront. While his career is prolific, Millennial and Gen Z audiences will primarily recognize him for playing Vito Corleone in the 1972 classic The Godfather and for the time he refused to accept the Oscar for Best Actor for that same role.

Speaking of The Godfather, Brando’s Italian, right? Right">the Irish Independent.

On paper, Marlon Brando and Billy Dee Williams had a lot in common.

They could both rock a pencil mustache without looking like John Waters, which is a rare gift. Brando was born in Omaha, Nebraska, while Williams was born in New York City, which is very much to the state of New York what Omaha is to Nebraska. They both decided not to be in Superman III – Brando because they couldn’t afford him, Williams because he wasn’t invited.

With so much for the pair to talk about and connect on, it seems crazy that they never got together. You have to assume that they just never crossed paths. Then along comes Billy Dee Williams and an interview with People during the press tour for his memoir, What Do We Have Here?, and he throws a wrench in the whole dialogue. Not only did he and Brando meet, but Brando – so Williams claims – hit on Williams. Is it true? Is it not">walking it back as a Jungian thought experiment instead of gender fluidity. On the other hand, he’s also Billy Dee Williams, a man so famously attractive that Han Solo had to get defensive about his girl around him. There are harder things to believe than “Marlon Brando wanted to kiss him.”

Whether it’s a true story or not, one person who would have loved to hear about it was Brando himself. Openly open to new experiences and unashamed of having had intimate relationships with men, he expressed delight at the prospect of the media speculating on whether or not he’d slept with other Hollywood actors. “I have never paid much attention to what people think about me,” he lied in a 1976 interview. “But if there is someone who is convinced that Jack Nicholson and I are lovers, may they continue to do so. I find it amusing.”

Whatever the case, the fact that Williams shot Brando down (he recalled telling the Hollywood legend that he “preferred women”) robbed the world of a way better story about Lando and Doctor Moreau’s contentious celebrity breakup. We’ll never forgive you for that, Billy.

Actor extraordinaire Jack Nicholson, whose best movie performance is almost impossible to determine thanks to so many outstanding ones, turned down a role in The Godfather and now, in a viral video, his explanation is being seen by millions.

The viral 1982 video clip documents Nicholson being interviewed by Ian Johnstone for BBC television. Johnstone asks him why he turned down both The Godfather and The Sting, to which Nicholson initially responds by explaining that while he knew that both films were going to be successful, he chose two others over them, saying, “I happened to think that Last Detail and Chinatown to me were the more interesting of the films.”

For clarity, Nicholson was offered the role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather. However, Nicholson adds a detail that may be a surprise to many; that he wanted to work with Marlon Brando.

Nicholson claimed about the role of Michael Corleone, “I always wanted to work with Marlon and I was asked to play the lead in it and A) I felt it should be an Italian person and B) I didn’t have any scenes with Marlon in the script I read.”

It seems almost impossible that Michael Corleone — ultimately played by Al Pacino, who was born to Sicilian Italian-American parents — not to have any scenes with the Godfather himself. This was obviously changed, or perhaps it was initially slightly misunderstood in the original script. It’s worth noting that Marlon Brando had no Italian ancestry.

Nicholson did actually eventually work with Brando in the film The Missouri Breaks, which is a Western released to lukewarm reception in 1976. Since the experience of working together, Nicholson referred to Brando as a perfectionist.

The clip of the interview was ed by Historic Vids on X and already has over 3 million views. However, the full BBC interview is available to watch on YouTube, and can be seen below.

The funniest part of the full interview is near the end, when the phone rings. Apparently, the interview was conducted in Nicholson’s home. He quickly turns around and answers the phone with his sly voice, “Hello? Hi, darling,” almost in a Joker-like style, perhaps foretelling his future role, and then the cameras keep rolling as he and his then long-time partner Anjelica Huston finalize dinner plans. Perhaps the humor is in the fact that this was kept in the airing of the interview.

It’s difficult to envision Nicholson as Michael Corleone, but clearly all involved made the right choices —for themselves, and for their respective films.

Superman has taken down a lot of villains, including his own father, apparently.

A recent social media post of Christopher Reeve on the Late Show with David Letterman has rapidly grown in popularity, hitting nearly two million views thanks to what the Superman actor says about the Godfather actor Marlon Brando.

In the Superman film from 1978, Reeve’s first of four films in the iconic titular role, Marlon Brando played the role of Superman’s father, Jor-El. The role was brief, with Brando seen on film for less than 20 minutes while being paid better than any of his fellow cast mates.

In 1982, Reeve was on Letterman’s show to promote his new movie Deathtrap. By then, Reeve had already starred in two Superman films and it was always a hot topic since he is so connected to the role. He even expressed how he is proud to be known for it.

Thus, Letterman naturally asked Reeve what it was like to work with the legendary Marlon Brando, initially posing the question, “Anything interesting come of that relationship?”

Reeve hesitated but surprisingly replied, “I don’t say this to be vicious but I don’t worship at the altar of Marlon Brando.”

Reeve immediately explains that the press loved him “whether he was good, bad, or indifferent,” and says Brando “copped out” because he’s not a leader for young actors and doesn’t care anymore. Letterman seemed surprised by Reeve’s honesty, and even joked that Brando was there to discuss things, which received quite the laughter.

Perhaps funnier was Letterman offering a chance to give Reeve a positive thing to say about Brando and Reeve refusing. Letterman asked, “Was it exciting to work with him?”

Reeve simply answered, “Not really. No.”

It’s worth noting that Brando being extremely strange, if not difficult, on the set of Superman is no big secret. Director Richard Donner had to put Brando’s lines on the other actor’s chests during his scenes because Brando didn’t want to memorize any lines out of fear they wouldn’t come out genuine, something he had done in other films as well. So, he would read the lines on the respective actor who stood before him for that moment. That wasn’t the only oddity of Brando’s work on the film, who earned — I use that word loosely — as much as $3.7 million for his 13 days on set, reported by Variety.

So, Reeve’s statements are understandable because Marlon Brando made it all about him. Though one can say that Brando is not obligated to try and help other actors in their craft either.

Reeve did note that Brando is a brilliant actor but that he is also no longer motivated. He added one more opinion as a follow-up to saying working with Brando was not exciting. “I had a wonderful time,” Reeve explained, “but the man didn’t care — I’m sorry — he just, you know, he took the $2 million and ran.”

The replies to the social media post have mostly been favorable to Reeve, with many pointing out how absurd Brando became in the latter part of his career.

Both Reeve and Brando ed away in 2004. Brando was 80. Reeve was just 52.

Legends of cinema normally retire long before they expire but we tend to consider their acting career over when their life is over. That used to be a reasonable expectation, but not anymore with the advancements of CGI that can bring anyone back from the dead and insert them into a scene. In the case of Gladiator, the resurrection was out of necessity, and now the technology is just gaining speed with the latest cameos in The Flash.

Is everyone on board with bringing the dearly departed back to star in movies again? Absolutely not. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Robin Williams wrote into a trust that he left in case of his death that his likeness could not be digitally inserted into a movie until 2039. So, that’s not entirely against the idea but it shows the magnitude of the issue.

After hearing about plans to CGI James Dean into Finding Jack, a film that has yet to be completed, Chris Evans tweeted in 2019, “This is awful. Maybe we can get a computer to paint us a new Picasso. Or write a couple new John Lennon tunes.”

Elija Wood had the same reaction with fewer words when he tweeted, “NOPE. this shouldn’t be a thing.”

Despite the fact that there are celebrities and fans against it, Hollywood has moved forward and is having a lot of fun with it. It was said earlier that the use of CGI in Gladiator was out of necessity, so let’s begin there.

Oliver Reed in Gladiator 1o3e5l

Oliver Reed played the role of Proximo in 2000’s Gladiator, a former gladiator himself who was granted his freedom by Marcus Aurelius and turned around and bought General Maximus Decimus Meridius. Unfortunately, the great actor ed away on May 2, 1999 – before filming of the movie was complete. His remaining scenes were finished with the use of a body double with a superimposed computer-generated mapping of Reed’s face.

Laurence Olivier in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow 4l386p

Laurence Olivier doesn’t have a huge role in 2004’s Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law actually take up most of the screen time, Law being Sky Captain and all. However, having ed away in 1989, Olivier was brought back to life using archival footage of him that they digitally manipulated to serve the scene.

Marlon Brando in Superman Returns 4171n

Superman Returns was released in 2006, two years after the death of Marlon Brando, who played Jor-El in the original version of Superman in 1978. In the same way that they brought Laurence Olivier back to life with archival footage, they dug back into the original Superman for footage they could use of Brando to digitally manipulate for the 2006 film.

Paul Walker in Furious 7 r3g6e

Paul Walker hits a little differently on this list. He was the face of the Fast and Furious franchise that Vin Diesel has carried the rest of the way. His death came as a shock when fans learned about the car crash in 2013. Furious 7 was released in 2015 and Paul Walker was still the star. His brothers Caleb and Cody were brought on as stand-ins and Walker’s face was superimposed over their bodies. Some archival footage was also repurposed for certain takes. There was not a dry eye in the house when the curtain dropped.

Peter Cushing in Rogue One 22dn

With an absolutely legendary acting career that began in 1939, Peter Cushing eventually became an icon of the Star Wars franchise when he was cast to play Grand Moff Tarkin in the original 1977 Star Wars. Having ed away in 1994, his character was brought back to life in 2016 for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Guy Henry served as the body double that would be superimposed with Peter Cushing’s likeness like a digital body mask wrapped around the actor, who provides the movement and voice work.

Carrie Fisher in Rise of Skywalker 3h6r11

Carrie Fisher was one of the most iconic legends in the Star Wars franchise as she kept reprising her role as Princess Leia. Her death in 2016 came as a shock to the family and fans of the Lucasfilm empire. When The Rise of Skywalker was being filmed, her brother — director and producer Todd Fisher — was determined to keep General Leia in the 2019 film. They accomplished it using archival footage and even though they had difficulty, which resulted in a reduced screen time, they made it work.

Harold Ramis in Ghostbusters: Afterlife 2w3i1q

Harold Ramis was a staple of the Ghostbusters franchise since its inception in 1984. When he ed in 2014, that didn’t stop anyone from making sure he was still in Ghostbusters: Afterlife in 2021. The project — that actually started in the early ’90s when Dan Aykroyd wrote the first script — finally made it to the big screen with Ramis posthumously added using archival clips and photos from the original film.

Adam West in The Flash 534d2q

Of course, there has been plenty of buzz on the internet about the cameo appearances in The Flash, which was just released on June 16, 2023. So, don’t expect any spoilers here but Adam West did make it into the film as DC’s attempt to show off their impressive reach of historical footage.

Christopher Reeve in The Flash k1u2m

Some of the cameos in The Flash weren’t received very well. There were quite a few tweets on Twitter that called out how sloppy the CGI was and how bringing a beloved part of the DC team such as Christopher Reeve needed to be handled with reverence, which many fans felt the movie fell way short on.

George Reeves in The Flash 596w67

Another icon that drew ire from ionate filmgoers in their fanbase, George Reeves’ cameo hit completely different. He was Superman in the ’50s and after the show ended, he had a hard time finding other work because everyone thought of him as Superman, a role he just couldn’t shed. He ended up taking his life because of it and ironically, The Flash was released on the anniversary of his death. That was not a good decision whether they thought of that or not.

As the biggest night in film, the Oscars now have a long history of legendary off-script occurrences, for better or for worse. It might be hard to top the unexpected outburst by Will Smith against Chris Rock, following the comedian’s tasteless joke about Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith, but the snapshots below could come close.

Other horrible Oscars moments like Seth MacFarlane’s opening musical number “We Saw Your Boobs,” John Travolta’s complete butchering of Idina Menzel’s name, or the Snow White x Rob Lowe opener that got the Academy sued by Disney in 1989, weren’t shocking enough to make the cut, but still deserve honorable mentions.

Angelina Jolie and her brother 67671o

“I’m so in love with my brother right now,” is what Angelina Jolie decided to go with for her very first Oscar win for her performance in Girl, Interrupted. A harmless comment had the siblings not gone on to kiss on the mouth at the Vanity Fair Oscars after-party.

Of course, baseless rumors started flowing about the proximity between Jolie and her brother James Haven, which both of them quickly shut down. Maybe not enough to top Will Smith slapping Chris Rock on stage, but it would surely still get people talking if it happened today.

Adrien Brody kisses Halle Berry 1fp6a

This little nugget was hailed as one of the most iconic Oscar moments for years after it happened but we all know Adrien Brody kissing Halle Berry without consent on stage for all to see would never, ever, fly today. A year later, while receiving her Best Actress award, Charlize Theron kept the tradition going by kissing Brody, her presenter, on the mouth.

In 2017, Berry addressed the situation, saying that, at that moment, all she could think of was “what the f*ck is happening?.” Although her audience at Watch What Happens: Live laughed it off, Berry didn’t seem too fond of the memory.

Roman Polanski wins best director 2f3i1q

The Academy seems to pride itself on being a respectful event, but Smith squaring up with Rock is far from being the most disrespectful or classless moment in the Awards’ history. It doesn’t get more disgusting than a room full of stars giving a confessed child molester a standing ovation, but that’s exactly what happened when Roman Polanski won the statuette for Best Director for his film The Pianist.

At the time, and to this day, Polanski was a fugitive from the law, evading sentencing for rape and five other felonies committed in 1977. After all the strides Hollywood has made to stop predatory men from plaguing the industry in recent years, this win might seem insane, but it did happen. The Academy finally expelled Polanski in 2018, over four decades since he fled the country.

The Streaker h6658

Ah, the ’70s. A time of great cinema, and greater nakedness. And what is more ’70s than a man running across the Oscars stage in nothing but his birthday suit, throwing up peace signs? This brilliant example of Flower Power took place during the 1974 Academy Awards, while host David Niven was trying to introduce Elizabeth Taylor.

Now famously known as “The Streaker,” the man was later identified as Robert Opel, a photographer, art gallery owner, and activist based out of San Francisco. The way Opel managed to break through security so easily, and the quick wit of host Niven’s reaction and commentary on the scene led many to believe the whole thing was staged. At the time, streaking was a trend, in the same vein as planking, the Harlem Shake, or today’s TikTok dances. Very rowdy for the Academy.

The Moonlight/La La Land blunder 4o5t3s

The only major modern Oscars scandal that could possibly measure up to the Smith/Rock fiasco of 2022 was the 2017 Best Picture mix-up between the year’s two darlings: La La Land, and Moonlight. Bonnie and Clyde legends Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were given the wrong envelope — the one for Best Actress, with Emma Stone and La La Land written on it in big letters — consequently leading Beatty to do a double-take before handing Dunaway the card.

The actress read out “La La Land,” and only after the entire cast and crew in attendance had made their way to the stage did producer Jordan Horowitz correct the mistake. The whole room of stars had their jaws on the floor, and Taraji P. Henson didn’t hesitate to whip out her phone. Everyone was ultimately very gracious about it all, but the Oscars hadn’t been that entertaining in a minute.

Sacheen Littlefeather and Marlon Brando 5c5k64

Almost everyone knows about the time Marlon Brando declined his Best Actor Oscar for his now iconic performance in The Godfather, sending alleged Native American activist and President of the National Native American Affirmative Image Committee, Sacheen Littlefeather in his place.

Littlefeather refused the statuette from Roger Moore and delivered a speech bringing awareness to the treatment and depiction of Native American people in Hollywood cinema, and to the events of the Wounded Knee occupation which was taking place at the time. She was met with heckling and booing, with John Wayne reportedly having to be restrained from attacking the activist. Regardless of the doubts that have since surfaced about Littlefeather’s ancestry, her bravery at that moment, and the validity of the cause both she and Brando stood up for, can’t be questioned.

Michael Moore speaks out against the invasion of Iraq 2q101r

Political speeches are now the norm at the Oscars, from critiques of the on-screen representation of minorities with #OscarsSoWhite, to global warming, and the #MeToo movement, but that wasn’t always the case. Much like Littlefeather 30 full decades before him, famous documentarian Michael Moore was met with instant backlash from loud of the audience who rejected his condemnation of former U.S. president George W. Bush’s election and invasion of Iraq.

Moore was not intimidated however, going on to state that the Iraq war was based on “fictitious reasons,” and that “anytime you’ve got the Pope and The Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up.” The camera then panned to different of the audience, raging from an uncomfortable Adrien Brody to an apparently smiley Harrison Ford. The 2003 Oscars might just be the most eventful in history, garnering three entries on this list.

It was no surprise to anyone who saw The Godfather in 1972 that it made Al Pacino a star overnight. Marlon Brando’s performance as crime boss Don Vito Corleone dominated the film, Al Pacino became a breakout star in just his second film role. What did surprise audiences was Pacino’s refusal to show up for that year’s Academy Awards ceremony. 

While theories abounded, including that he felt insulted that he was nominated in the Best  ing  Actor category despite being one of the film’s stars, in a recent New York Times interview, he dispelled all the rumors and set the record straight:

“I was at that stage in my life where I was somewhat, more or less, rebellious. I did go back for others. But I didn’t go to them early on. It was the tradition. I don’t think Bob [De Niro] went to one of them.” In 1975, Robert DeNiro won Best ing Actor for his role in 1974’s The Godfather Part II. He was also a no-show, and director Francis Ford Coppola accepted in his place.

Pacino continued, “Look, Marlon gave back the Oscar. How about that? They were rebelling from the Hollywood thing. That kind of thing was in the air.” When Marlon Brando won Best ing Actor for his performance in The Godfather, he sent Sacheen Littlefeather, the president of the National Native American Affirmative Image Committee, to refuse the Oscar on his behalf in protest of Hollywood’s treatment of American Indians.

When asked if he also skipped the Oscar ceremony in protest, Pacino laughed that off. “I just was afraid to go. I was young, younger than even my years. I was young in of the newness of all this. It was the old shot-out-of-a-cannon syndrome.”

While he lost that year to Joel Grey for his performance as the MC in Cabaret, Pacino would get plenty more opportunities to attend. He would go on to be nominated for a further eight Academy Awards, winning in 1993 for Best Actor in Scent of a Woman.

There are so many iconic Star Trek villains. Think Ricardo Montalban in Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan and Benedict Cumberbatch as the same character in Star Trek: Into Darkness.

Turns out we could’ve had one of the most celebrated actors of all time in Star Trek: Generations – none other than the Godfather himself, Marlon Brando.

The writer of the 1996 movie Star Trek: First recently shared some details with Syfy about the almost legendary get.

“I [producer] Rick Berman saying: ‘I just heard from Paramount that there’s a chance that Marlon Brando might be interested in doing this,” Moore said. “Rick was like: ‘Wouldn’t that be amazing? That’d really be something.’ And I walked out of the room going that will never happen. Never, ever going to happen.”

The role eventually went to Malcolm McDowell. McDowell played Soran, the role that Brando would’ve played had he agreed. Soran was a bad guy who wanted to find an energy ribbon to help him forget the loss of his family.

“With movies like this, there are always lots of names on a wish-list,” Moore said. “Many, many names are thrown around for many, many reasons. But, you just knew that this one was just not going to happen.”

Brando wasn’t the only famous actor potentially considered for a big role in a Star Trek film. Tom Hanks was allegedly in the running for the part of Zefram Cochrane, the man who invented the warp drive in Star Trek: First .

That role ultimately went to James Cromwell. Moore said it was a possibility that Hanks might’ve gotten the part. “I’m sure Tom Hanks’ name was floated around, in some capacity, but it was never really on the table.”

The next Star Trek movie is currently in development. WandaVision director Matt Shakman was hired by Paramount to direct the film. It will be the first Star Trek movie written by female screenwriters Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet.