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10/10/2019 12:01 AMWhen author-historian William Mann decided to put the spotlight on his next Hollywood subject—Marlon Brando, who many consider to be the greatest American actor—he wanted to take a deeper dive into actor-activist’s complicated and controversial life.
It’s familiar turf for Mann, who authored revealing biographies on Barbra Streisand, Katharine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, director John Schlesinger, and, in his first foray into celebs with Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines, a box office sensation of the ‘20s and early ‘30s who was Hollywood’s first “out” gay star. Mann’s last Hollywood book was the darkly disturbing movie capital crime saga, Tinseltown, which hit the best-sellers list in 2014 and is currently optioned for a television adaptation.
But the subject of Brando proved to be a challenge for Mann, who now splits his time among Milford, New York City, and Provincetown.
Mann received cooperation from the Brando estate “without any strings” and that included access to hours of tapes that Brando made in preparation for his own memoir, most of which was never used or heard until Mann started doing his research.
The result is a rollercoaster of highs and lows of the actor’s career, life and times in The Contender: the Story of Marlon Brando (HarperCollins; $35), which goes on sale Oct. 15.
The book in great detail examines Brando’s sad and difficult childhood and adolescence. Mann also—through sources such as Brando’s close friends Elaine Stritch, Kaye Ballard, and Janis Paige and intimate soulmate Ellen Adler—reveals what he was like at the very early stages of his career and celebrity.
The book also chronicles the behind-the-scenes stories of Brando’s stage and screen triumphs, including masterworks such as A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, The Godfather, Last Tango in Paris, and Apocalypse Now as well as his screen disappointments and failures, too. The book also details his many romances, affairs, and marriages. And it sheds light on Brando’s sincere and committed political activism, which was sometimes dismissed or mocked.
In early reviews, Kirkus Review called The Contender “meticulously researched” and “a complex, intimate, and illuminating inquiry into and defense of Brando.”
Publishers Weekly called it “an insightful and well-researched portrait” and “a thoughtfully considered study of a supremely talented, observant, and imaginative man who became a reluctant cultural icon.”
And this from Booklist’s review: “Mann is at his best when he digs into Brando’s tortured relationship with acting itself...A compelling biography, rich in complexity and irony.”
Mann, 58, who was raised in Middletown, received his undergraduate degree in 1984 at Central Connecticut State University, where he now teaches American history, and an ‘88 grad degree at Wesleyan University, spent five years researching and writing the book, one of his biggest at more than 600 pages.
Mann sympathetically portrays Brando, who died in 2004 at the age of 80, as a person who was continually examining and challenging himself, others, and the world around him.
But he was a deeply wounded man, too, says Mann. A survivor of childhood trauma, both of his parents were alcoholics. His father was abusive and his mother was distant and neglectful, through Brando adored her.
“Like I did when I wrote the book on Kate Hepburn,” says Mann, “I tried to see him, Brando, in a different way, underneath the image and the stereotype and go, ‘Hey, here’s a more fascinating way to see him.’”
Mann acknowledges that readers may find themselves exasperated by the actor’s behavior and choices over the decades.
“But I hope there are also moments of compassion, too. Hopefully there’s enough empathy for him because he had a lot of problems, but unlike so many people, he tried to find a way to make it work. That’s what was different about Brando. He was always trying to be a better person and make a better life. He didn’t really succeed. Two of his kids were utterly destroyed. He wasn’t ever able to have a successful relationship with a woman. He had all these demons [from his youth]. He was never completely successful in eliminating them. His success was in the trying.”
William Mann will be “in conversation” with me as part of the A Little Harmless Fun series at Hartford’s Mark Twain House, 353 Farmington Avenue, on Tuesday, Oct. 22 at 7 p.m. Mann will also be available for a book signing following the talk and question and answer period. For more information, visit www.marktwainhouse.org.