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28 March
2006
Marlon Brando
Rebel Audition Unearthed
A
little-known audition by Marlon Brando for
the lead role in Rebel
Without a
Cause,
which later
went to James Dean, has come to
light.
Marlon
Brando did a screen test for the role of
teenager Jim Stark in 1947 for an unmade
version of the film, eight years before
Dean's version was released.
Biographers
are unsure why the actor, who did not make
his film debut until 1950, did not
progress with the role.
The test
is included in a new DVD of
A
Streetcar Named
Desire,
due out in May 2006.
Warner
Brothers, which is releasing the DVD, says
the audition came from an earlier attempt
to make Rebel Without a Cause.
After
several versions failed to get Rebel
Without a Cause off the ground, director
Nicholas Ray's version was released in
1955, with Dean in the lead
role.
The film
was released after James Dean died in a
car crash in September 1955.
The
actor made only two other films, but the
roles as angry outsiders ensured he remain
hugely popular cultural icon.
Brando's
stage career began in 1944, and three
years later, at the age of 23, he won the
role of Stanley Kowalski in the Broadway
production of A Streetcar Named
Desire.
The role
brought him great acclaim and the
attention of Hollywood, but Brando turned
down many film roles despite taking
auditions.
The
actor, who died in 2004, eventually made
his screen debut as a disabled war veteran
in The
Men.
Other
screen highlights in a career spanning
more than 40 films included
The
Wild One,
On
the
Waterfront
and Guys
and Dolls.
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