Brando Unzipped

He was America's greatest actor, a Method-trained
dynamo who was as exasperating as he was inspirational.
Before his death in July of 2004, he changed forever the
way Broadway and Hollywood depicted their
interpretations of The American Hero, obliterating postwar
preconceptions about sex and rebellion in the American
male.

Women wanted him, and certain men wanted him, and
Marlon Brando was ready, willing, and able to share his
charms with a string of lovers whose hangouts ranged
from the A-list boudoirs of America's entertainment
industry to the back alleys of a string of cities that
included New York, Los Angeles, Paris, and the slums of
the South Pacific.

The greatest film actor of the 20th century lives again in
these pages, each meticulously researched over a period
of more than 40 years. The combative, moody,
iconoclastic, polarizing, and enigmatic figure of Marlon
Brando appears as a flesh-and-blood creation in this
revelation-studded, hard-hitting biography by the
reknowned celebrity chronicler, Darwin Porter.

It’s all here: The Rebel Without a Cause who made
rebellion hip. The suicide attempts of former girlfriends,
startling stories about “Sleeping with the Enemy” (bedding
a stalker who turned out to be a cannibal in disguise). His
involvement with the Black Panthers. His ill-fated
marriages, bitter divorces, and child-custody battles. His
efforts to "spin" the implications associated with his son's
murder rap. Jealous actors who wanted to seduce Brando
and then “become Brando” on screen.

Each of the people that author Darwin Porter interviewed,
including many of Brando’s lovers—both male and female--
had a different story to tell. Many of them contradicted
previously published accounts of how those encounters
evolved. Hostile witness or loving friend, each subject
added a piece to the mosaic.

The result is a fully rounded view of a revolutionary actor
who, like “lightning on legs,” electrified the world in plays
that included Streetcar Named Desire, where he played
Stanley Kowalski in the Broadway version of 1947, and
again in the film version of 1951. The book also describes
the backlot intrigue associated with his Oscar-winning turn
as Terry Malloy, the boxer who could have been a heavy-
hitting boxing contender in On the Waterfront in 1954,
and his electrifying comeback as Vito Corleone in The
Godfather in 1972.

With candor, the author unveils the details of that ongoing disaster that Brando called “my life.” The charismatic
personality of The Wild One is recaptured in all its brooding power that seemed forever ready to explode at any moment.

The same animalistic intensity that Brando brought to the role of Stanley Kowalski lives again within the pages of this
bio. From sex symbol of the 1950s to a swollen, overweight slob who became a tabloid scandal in the 90s, Brando was
one of filmdom’s true originals.

More than the story of Brando himself, the biography chronicles the loves of his life, most of which were of short
duration but played out with the same kind of intensity he brought to the screen. Regardless of their origins, his affairs
invariably crossed the American plains to land on the opposite coast. His lovers were as mercurial as his own
personality. They included Doris Duke, the richest woman in the world, and Burt Lancaster, the actor originally targeted
for the role of Stanley in Streetcar. The true story of his explosive relationships with Elizabeth Taylor and Frank Sinatra
is printed for the first time, as is an array of friendships and/or feuds with such unlikely figures as Richard Burton, Charlie
Chaplin, and (believe it or not),
Michael Jackson.

The roles Brando lived off-screen were even more provocative and intriguing than those he created on screen. He
paraded through the bedrooms of such luminaries as an aging Marlene Dietrich, and enjoyed one-night stands with
both Grace Kelly and Jacqueline Kennedy.

His tortured relationships and love affairs with James Dean and Montgomery Clift are explored in depth, as is the
passion of Tennessee Williams, who met Brando on the beach one summer night in Provincetown, long before the role
of Stanley Kowalski existed.

Revealed for the first time are details about his neurotic, always troubling, but enduring love affair with the doomed
Marilyn Monroe, to whom he was both confidant and lover.

At Brando’s peak, his list of lovers included members of the world’s pop and cultural elite: Bob Dylan, Gore Vidal,
Leonard Bernstein, Joan Collins, Faye Dunaway, Bianca Jagger, Kim Stanley (then queen of Broadway), Rita Moreno,
Shelley Winters, Tyrone Power, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Jean Peters (his co-star in Viva Zapata! and the unhappy mistress
of
Howard Hughes).

His secret meetings with Hollywood legends Greta Garbo and Cary Grant are told with sexual frankness, as are his so-
called “mercy f***s” with some of the biggest stars of stage and screen, including Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, and John
Gielgud.
Less stellar seductions include “almost every Japanese woman associated with the film Sayonara.”

One of the most poignant episodes concerns his brief but evocative affair with the psychologically troubled Vivien Leigh
during their filming of Streetcar Named Desire.

Also explored are intimate details associated with the pursuit of Brando by stage and screen stars who included Anna
Magnani and Tallulah Bankhead.

Even more moving are details about the long-enduring affair between Brando and Wally Cox. The TV star of Mr.
Peepers posed for a controversial fellatio photograph snapped in 1952 when the two men were roommates. This
intimate snapshot, the subject of massive debate and speculation around the world, is published for the first time, in all
its XXX-rated glory, in BRANDO UNZIPPED!

The biography’s most controversial chapter spins around Brando’s incestuous relationship with his teenaged daughter,
Cheyenne. Brando later acknowledged his transgression with Cheyenne, blaming himself after she committed suicide,
by hanging, in 1995.

BRANDO UNZIPPED will be available in uncorrected page proofs in early September of 2005, and in final book form by
October, 2005. Look for a serialized version of this in advance in the UK!!