Brando’s first biography since his death is published

Stefan Kanfer, a former Time magazine writer whose Brando biography, “Somebody,” is the first to be published since Brando’s death.

“Brando has gotten larger instead of smaller as people realize what effect he’s had on acting. He’s one of those people who changed their art,” the author says. “There were wonderful actors like Spencer Tracy, who dominated film, but they were protecting themselves in their performances. Brando went out there naked.”

Kanfer says his central thesis is that Brando was mentally ill his whole life. Brando had a “wretched childhood,” pulling his “fall down drunk” mother out of bars as a teenager. He managed to get to New York from rural Illinois after being deemed unfit for the Army and, through his actress sister, Jocelyn, befriend acting teacher Stella Adler, who gave him a “political and aesthetic” education.

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