An influential, eccentric stage and screen actor--perhaps the most influential and respected of his generation--Marlon Brando first made his name as an exponent of 'The Method', an acting style based on the teachings of Constantin Stanislavsky. Method acting rejected the traditional techniques of stagecraft in favor of an emotional expressiveness ideally suited to the angst-ridden atmosphere of postwar American society. Brando studied the Stanislavsky technique in the 1940s, first at the New School and later at the Actors Studio.

The Nebraska native made his Broadway debut in the sentimental