Oscar was offer that Brando could refuse
In 1972, Francis Ford Coppola left us with an image we’ll never forget – a severed horse’s head left on a bed as a warning.
It was, of course, the movie The Godfather that “treated” us to that sight.
The film was released on March 15, 1972
Based on the novel of the same name by Mario Puzo, the movie is the tale of the Corleones, a family you don’t want to be on the wrong side of.
After patriarch Don Vito Corleone is shot, his sons, Sonny and Michael, must help run the family business.
The success of the film was almost guaranteed after the novel stayed on the New York Times Best Seller list for 67 weeks, selling more than nine million copies in two years.
It’s hard to imagine The Godfather without Marlon Brando in the role of Don Vito Corleone, and yet he very nearly didn’t make the cut.
Director Coppola had told the head of Paramount, Charles Bluhdorn that, as far as he was concerned, Marlon Brando was Vito.
Paramount, however, were not impressed, saying the actor would “never appear in a Paramount picture”.
They wanted Laurence Olivier instead, but Coppola stuck to his guns.
Finally, the studio said they’d consider Brando if he did a screen test.
They did state, however, that even if he were to be successful, he would have to do the movie for free!
They changed their mind when they saw his test.
His performance, in fact, was so good that he was named as Best Actor at the 1973 Oscars.
However, while Don Vito had said: “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse,” an Oscar was something Brando could very much refuse, as he turned the honour down.
When Bond actor Roger Moore announced the Best Actor award was to go to Marlon Brando, a Native American woman, Sacheen Littlefeather, walked on stage and read a statement on behalf of the actor.
“I’m representing Marlon Brando this evening, and he has asked me to say that he cannot accept this very generous award . . . because of the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry,” she announced.
As much as Brando has gone down as one of cinema’s greats, he bemused his co-stars with his cue-card acting.
Preferring to have prompts secreted in various places on the Godfather set, he argued that it made his acting more spontaneous and avoided the risk of his delivery sounding over-rehearsed.
Still, he and the other actors in the cast turned in fine performances, and the movie broke box-office records to become the highest-grossing film of 1972.