Hello. My name is Sacheen Littlefeather. I'm Apache and I am president of the National Native American Affirmative Image Committee. I'm representing Marlon Brando this evening, and he has asked me to tell you in a very long speech which I cannot share with you presently, because of time, but I will be glad to share with the press afterwards, that he very regretfully cannot accept this very generous award. And the reasons for this being are the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry—excuse me... [ booing and applause] and on television in movie re-runs, and also with recent happenings at Wounded Knee. I beg at this time that I have not intruded upon this evening, and that we will in the future, our hearts and our understandings will meet with love and generosity. Thank you on behalf of Marlon Brando. [ applause] [66] a b Strauss, Bob (April 7, 1991). "Native Daughter: Sacheen Littlefeather Helped Turn Things Around". Los Angeles Daily News. Archived from the original on June 14, 2018 . Retrieved April 8, 2018. a b c d Wilson, Earl (December 8, 1974). "Sacheen 'no militant, no politician' ". Independent Press-Telegram (Long Beach, California). p.57. Archived from the original on June 2, 2022 . Retrieved April 6, 2022. Because Littlefeather had been a prominent activist, these allegations caused mixed reactions. [7] Academic and journalist Dina Gilio-Whitaker, who studies Native Americans in the US, wrote that the truth about community leaders is "crucial", even if it means losing a "hero", and that the work Littlefeather did is still valuable, but there is a need to be honest about the harm done by pretendians, especially by those who manage to fool so many people that they become iconic, as Littlefeather did. [6] Gilio-Whitaker specified: [6]

Fisher, Austin; Walker, Johnny (2016). Grindhouse: Cultural Exchange on 42nd Street, and Beyond. Bloomsbury Publishing. p.209. ISBN 978-1-62892-749-8. Archived from the original on March 14, 2023 . Retrieved April 8, 2018. In interviews, Littlefeather said she had a difficult childhood. In a 1974 interview, she stated that her mother left her father when she was four and took her to live with her maternal grandparents. [30] In 1988, she stated that her parents lived next door to her maternal grandparents, Marie and Gerold "Barney" Barnitz, while she and her two younger sisters lived with those grandparents. [31] She characterized this as either being "adopted", [26] or in foster care. [32] During a 1976 television interview she described her father as abusive. [33] She said her mother and two sisters were subject to their father's rage and beatings. [34] Ex-Salinas Girl Speaks For Brando". The Californian. Salinas, California. March 8, 1973. pp.1–2. Archived from the original on May 23, 2022 . Retrieved April 4, 2022. Over the years, Littlefeather described her personal experiences with serious health issues, including internal bleeding, collapsed lungs, and cancer. [9] [32] She reported having tuberculosis at age four and received treatment in an oxygen tent while hospitalized. [59] [132] She stated that she was suicidal and hospitalized in a mental institution for a year. [62] In 1974, she stated that Marlon Brando sent her to a doctor when she was in a lot of pain and helped her recover, so she made the Oscar speech to repay him. [62]

10 wildest Marlon Brando stories

A 1974 article about a Littlefeather interview stated that she was working for a San Francisco radio station when she applied for work with Coppola and that he then referred her to Brando, "knowing Brando's interest in the Indian". At the time of the Oscars, she had known Brando for nearly a year. [28] Later accounts describe Coppola as Littlefeather's neighbor in San Francisco. [54] [55] Early in his career, Brando began using cue cards instead of memorizing his lines. Despite the objections of several of the film directors he worked with, Brando felt that this helped bring realism and spontaneity to his performances. He felt otherwise he would appear to be reciting a writer's speech. [22] [23] In the TV documentary The Making of Superman: The Movie, Brando explained: "If you don't know what the words are but you have a general idea of what they are, then you look at the cue card and it gives you the feeling to the viewer, hopefully, that the person is really searching for what he is going to say—that he doesn't know what to say". Some, however, thought Brando used the cards out of laziness or an inability to memorize his lines. Once, on the set of The Godfather, Brando was asked why he wanted his lines printed out. He responded: "Because I can read them that way." [24] Rise to fame: 1951–1954 Brando decided to follow his sisters to New York, studying at the American Theatre Wing Professional School, part of the Dramatic Workshop of the New School, with influential German director Erwin Piscator. In a 1988 documentary, Marlon Brando: The Wild One, Brando's sister Jocelyn remembered, "He was in a school play and enjoyed it... So he decided he would go to New York and study acting because that was the only thing he had enjoyed. That was when he was 18." In the A&E Biography episode on Brando, George Englund said Brando fell into acting in New York because "he was accepted there. He wasn't criticized. It was the first time in his life that he heard good things about himself." He spent his first few months in New York sleeping on friends' couches. For a time he lived with Roy Somlyo, who later became a four time Emmy winning Broadway producer. [8] After appearing as oil tycoon Adam Steiffel in 1980's The Formula, which was poorly received critically, Brando announced his retirement from acting. However, he returned in 1989 in A Dry White Season, based on André Brink's 1979 anti-apartheid novel. Brando agreed to do the film for free, but fell out with director Euzhan Palcy over how the film was edited; he even made a rare television appearance in an interview with Connie Chung to voice his disapproval. In his memoir, he maintained that Palcy "had cut the picture so poorly, I thought, that the inherent drama of this conflict was vague at best." Brando received praise for his performance, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and winning the Best Actor Award at the Tokyo Film Festival. [ citation needed]

White, Allen (May 24, 1990). "First Lady Joins Memorial by Allen White" (PDF). Bay Area Reporter. p.12 . Retrieved April 25, 2022.In 1947, Brando performed a screen test for an early Warner Brothers script for the novel Rebel Without a Cause (1944), which bore no relation to the film eventually produced in 1955. [20] The screen test is included as an extra in the 2006 DVD release of A Streetcar Named Desire. Brando's first screen role was a bitter paraplegic veteran in The Men (1950). He spent a month in bed at the Birmingham Army Hospital in Van Nuys to prepare for the role. The New York Times reviewer Bosley Crowther wrote that Brando as Ken "is so vividly real, dynamic and sensitive that his illusion is complete" and noted, "Out of stiff and frozen silences he can lash into a passionate rage with the tearful and flailing frenzy of a taut cable suddenly cut." [ citation needed] what was extraordinary about his performance, I feel, is the contrast of the tough-guy front and the extreme delicacy and gentle cast of his behavior. What other actor, when his brother draws a pistol to force him to do something shameful, would put his hand on the gun and push it away with the gentleness of a caress? Who else could read "Oh, Charlie!" in a tone of reproach that is so loving and so melancholy and suggests the terrific depth of pain?... If there is a better performance by a man in the history of film in America, I don't know what it is. [37] Abraham, Jeff (January 18, 2007). "Marty Pasetta Interview". Television Academy Foundation: The Interviews. Archived from the original on May 26, 2022 . Retrieved May 1, 2022. In 1969, the critic Roger Ebert wrote of him that “[Brando] demands the big salary, but producers have discovered in the last few years that his appeal is unpredictable.” His advice was simple. “My notion is that Brando should retrench. He should abandon attempts to resurrect the “old” Brando and begin a series of small pictures designed to exploit his acting ability.” Both Geroldine and Manuel were saddlemakers. Geroldine learned the craft from Leo Leonard, who owned Leonard Saddle Company in Santa Barbara, and Manuel learned to make saddles as a boy in San Francisco. By 1949, they had moved to Salinas and opened up their own business, Cruz Saddlery. [14] [12] Geroldine Cruz continued to operate the business after her husband's death in 1966. [10]