April 3 - Marlon Brando

Actor Marlon Brando, Jr., was born on April 3, 1924, in Omaha, but grew up largely in Libertyville, Illinois, near Chicago. He was held back a year in high school and later was expelled for riding his motorcycle through the corridors; later he dropped out of a military academy. He was a natural mimic from an early age, and his mother, a former actress, encouraged his acting career. In New York he attended the Actors Studio but subscribed to the Stanislavski System, a set of techniques for actors to bring believable emotions to their performances. After a series of successes on the Broadway stage, Brando attained stardom as Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams's play, “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1947). He had sought an audition for the role by tracking down Williams, who was summering in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Williams recalled that he knew he had found his Stanley Kowalski the moment he saw Brando.