Somebody The Reckless Life and Remarkable Career of Marlon Brando

Stefan Kanfer, acclaimed biographer of Lucille Ball and Groucho Marx, now gives us the definitive life of Marlon Brando, seamlessly intertwining the man and the work to give us a stunning and illuminating appraisal. Beginning with Brando's turbulent childhood, Kanfer follows him to New York where he made his star-making Broadway debut as Stanley Kowalski inA Streetcar Named Desireat age twenty-three. Brando then decamped for Hollywood, and Kanfer looks at each of Brando's films over the yearsfromThe Menin 1950 toThe Scorein 2001offering deft and insightful analysis of his sometimes brilliant, sometimes baffling performances. And, finally, Kanfer brings into focus Brando's self-destructiveness, ambivalence toward his craft, and the tragedies that shadowed his last years.

Stefan Kanfer’s books include The Eighth Sin, A Summer World, The Last Empire, Serious Business, Groucho, Ball of Fire, and Stardust Lost. He was a writer and editor at Time for more than twenty years and was its first bylined film critic, a post he held between 1967 and 1972. He is also the primary interviewer in the Academy Award–nominated documentary The Line King and editor of an anthology of Groucho Marx’s comedy, The Essential Groucho. He is a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library and recipient of numerous writing awards. He lives in New York and on Cape Cod.


From the Hardcover edition.