Though his acting talents were never in doubt, much of Marlon Brando’s breakout appeal arguably came through what he represented to young audiences who first encountered his work in the 1950s. Following his breakout performance in “A Streetcar Named Desire” — for which Brando was nominated for an Academy Award–– and his performance in 1952’s “Viva Zapata!,” a movie based on the life of the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, Brando took the leading role of Johnny Strabler in “The Wild One,” the 1953 classic that depicted one of mid-20th century America’s most sensationalized fascinations: outlaw motorcycle gangs. The movie caused a scandal, and was banned in Britain until 1968 (per Britannica).
As Strabler, Brando came to personify an attitude that would influence generations of performers across the arts, and lead countless young people from America and beyond to embrace non-conformism or, as the movie’s critics would put it, nihilism. As the American film critic Pauline Kael wrote in The Atlantic back in 1966: “He was our angry young man — the delinquent, the tough, the rebel — who stood at the center of our common experience.” Just a decade and a half into his career, those who knew his work were already beginning to measure his impact.
Superficially, this attitude was heralded by a look that would influence the world’s biggest musicians, including Elvis Presley, and Brando’s rebellious style still resonates today. Los Angeles Magazine once claimed: “Brando was rock and roll before anybody knew what rock and roll was” (via British Pathé).
