Marlon Brando - Personal Life - Relationships and Family

Relationships and Family

Brando's children
  • By Anna Kashfi
    • Christian Brando (1958–2008)
  • By Movita Castaneda
    • Miko Brando (born 1961)
    • Rebecca Brando (born 1966)
  • By Tarita Teriipia
    • Simon Teihotu Brando (born 1963)
    • Tarita Cheyenne Brando (1970–1995)
  • By Maria Christina Ruiz
    • Ninna Priscilla Brando (born 1989)
    • Myles Jonathan Brando (born 1992)
    • Timothy Gahan Brando (born 1994)
  • By unidentified women:
    • Stephen Blackehart (born 1967)
    • Michael Gilman (born 1967)
    • Dylan Brando (1968–1988)
    • Angelique Brando (unknown)
  • Through adoption:
    • Petra Brando-Corval (born 1972)
    • Maimiti Brando (born 1977)
    • Raiatua Brando (born 1982)

In Songs My Mother Taught Me, Brando claimed he met Marilyn Monroe at a party where she played piano, unnoticed by anybody else there, and they had an affair and maintained an intermittent relationship for many years, receiving a telephone call from her several days before she died. He also claimed numerous other romances, although he did not discuss his marriages, his wives, or his children in his autobiography.

Brando married actress Anna Kashfi in 1957. Kashfi was born in Calcutta and moved to Wales from India in 1947. She is said to have been the daughter of a Welsh steel worker of Irish descent, William O'Callaghan, who had been superintendent on the Indian State railways. However, in her book, Brando for Breakfast, she claimed that she really is half Indian and that the press incorrectly thought that her stepfather, O'Callaghan, was her real father. She said her real father was Indian and that she was the result of an "unregistered alliance" between her parents. Brando and Kashfi had a son, Christian Brando, on May 11, 1958; they divorced in 1959.

In 1960, Brando married Movita Castaneda, a Mexican-American actress seven years his senior; they were divorced in 1962. Castaneda had appeared in the first Mutiny on the Bounty film in 1935, some 27 years before the 1962 remake with Brando as Fletcher Christian. They had two children together: Miko Castaneda Brando (born 1961) and Rebecca Brando (born 1966).

Tahitian actress Tarita Teriipia, who played his love interest in Mutiny on the Bounty, became Brando's third wife on August 10, 1962. She was 20 years old, 18 years younger than Brando, who was reportedly delighted by her naiveté. Because Teriipia was a native French speaker, Brando became fluent in the language and gave numerous interviews in French. Teriipia became the mother of two of his children: Simon Teihotu Brando (born 1963) and Tarita Cheyenne Brando. Brando also adopted Teriipia's daughters, Maimiti Brando (born 1977) and Raiatua Brando (born 1982). Brando and Teriipia divorced in July 1972.

Brando had a long-term relationship with his housekeeper Maria Christina Ruiz, by whom he had three children: Ninna Priscilla Brando (born May 13, 1989), Myles Jonathan Brando (born January 16, 1992), and Timothy Gahan Brando (born January 6, 1994). He had four more children by unidentified women: Stephen Blackehart (born 1967), Michael Gilman (born 1967), who was adopted by Brando's longtime friend Sam Gilman, Dylan Brando (born 1968), and Angelique Brando. Brando also adopted Petra Brando-Corval (born 1972), the daughter of his assistant Caroline Barrett and novelist James Clavell.

Brando's grandson Tuki Brando (born 1990), son of Cheyenne Brando, is a successful fashion model. His numerous grandchildren also include Michael Brando (born 1988), son of Christian Brando, Prudence Brando and Shane Brando, children of Miko C. Brando, the three children of Teihotu Brando and the children of Michael Gilman, among others.

Death of Dag Drollet

In May 1990, Dag Drollet, the Tahitian lover of Brando's daughter Cheyenne, died of a gunshot wound after a confrontation with Cheyenne's half-brother Christian at the family's hilltop home above Beverly Hills. Christian, then 31 years old, claimed he was drunk and the shooting was accidental. After heavily publicized pre-trial proceedings, Christian pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and use of a gun. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Before the sentence, Brando delivered an hour of testimony, in which he said he and his former wife had failed Christian. He commented softly to members of the Drollet family: "I'm sorry... If I could trade places with Dag, I would. I'm prepared for the consequences." Afterward, Drollet's father, Jacques, said he thought Brando was acting and his son was "getting away with murder." The tragedy was compounded in 1995, when Cheyenne, suffering from lingering effects of a serious car accident and said to still be depressed over Drollet's death, committed suicide by hanging herself in Tahiti. Christian Brando died of pneumonia at age 49 on January 26, 2008.

Read more about this topic:  Marlon Brando, Personal Life

Famous quotes containing the word family:

    A family with the wrong members in control—that, perhaps, is as near as one can come to describing England in a phrase.
    George Orwell (1903–1950)