Marlon Brando Ended His Career With A Flop Instead Of A Bang

It's difficult, when simply hearing the name Marlon Brando, to not immediately picture him as Vito Corleone. That role in "The Godfather" become his most iconic. But it was just one of the many incredibly well-known parts he played over his impressive career, essentially giving more than enough reason for the industry to carve his face in the cliffside, next to the Hollywood sign. And despite starring in classics like "Apocalypse Now," and "A Streetcar Named Desire," the legendary actor finished his career with an underachieving flop.

As surprising as it may be, Brando's breakout role as Stanley, in "A Streetcar Named Desire," almost derailed his young career. This issue, however, came from the actor himself, rather than from the critics. For Brando, he once wrote that nothing mattered more to him than the quality of his performance, and he believed that his character's sex symbol status took away from that. In fact, he thought that Stanley, along with the other characters, were "inarticulate, aggressive animals who go through life responding to nothing but their urges and never doubting them." Well, aside from the harsh self-critique, Hollywood embraced the budding star, leading to him feature in some of the most iconic films in history. However, before his death, Brando's last film was unfortunately considered a flop.

For many years leading up to his death in 2004 from pulmonary fibrosis (via IMDb), Marlon Brando's tumultuous relationship with costars and directors, on set, was as fascinating as the countless off set stories about him. Between his own personal clashes with industry peers in combination with his rocky personal life, Brando's career was surely a roller coaster. Shirley MacLaine has mentioned that she regrets never working with him simply because he could've added to her own personal list of bizarre Hollywood stories, knowing that Brando's created as much drama off screen as he did on. In fact, the tension between him and director Frank Oz may have contributed to why his last film, "The Score," flopped.

Brando's last feature film was "The Score," where he starred alongside Edward Norton and Robert De Niro. The film centered around De Niro's character, Nick, an aging professional thief who gets offered one last heist before retirement. Brando plays the character of Max, Nick's fence in the scheme. The on set relationship between Brando and Director Oz (via The Guardian), was far from copacetic. Throughout the production, Brando referred to Oz as "Miss Piggy," referencing his years of work on "The Muppets." It was reported that, at times, Brando refused to be directed by Oz in scenes altogether, with Oz sending instructions via an assistant. This was most likely part of the reason the film barely broke even domestically at the box office.