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Reply to "RIP, VIP - Chapter 2 (3/5/04++)"

How choked up I got when I heard that Marlon Brando had died today. I felt an era coming to a close. He became such an eccentric and fodder for the tabloid mills, but he helped revolutionize screen acting in his time, marched with Martin Luther King at the March on Washington in 1963 (along with Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward and others), protested the screen misrepresentation of Native Americans, and was a pure counterculturist. And Lex, I'll second that sentiment about him having been a hottie. He was downright steamy.

Some of my favorite films he was in: On the Waterfront; Streetcar Named Desire; and the Wild One.

Two songs that mention him keep running through my mind today: "China Girl" by David Bowie; and even more movingly: "Pocahontas" by Neil Young.

He was the first real rebel who broke from the old mold, exploring an entirely new inner landscape that perhaps had a larger effect than we yet realize on our collective psyche.
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