Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel

Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel, written by Burt Kearns and published on 2 April 2024 by Applause Theatre & Cinema Books, is a nonfiction book that reveals the continuing cultural influence of the actor and activist Marlon Brando.

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The book, released the day before Marlon Brando's centenary (and twenty years after his death), shows “how the greatest actor of the twentieth century helped lead the world into the twenty-first,” and continues to have an influence on popular culture that goes beyond acting to include activism, environmentalism, the civil rights movement, music, fashion, art, rock 'n' roll culture, youth culture, gay culture, "biker flicks," sexuality, and psychotherapy, as well as on cultural figures including Paul Newman, James Dean, Johnny Depp, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Kenneth Anger, Tom of Finland, Andy Warhol, Robert Mapplethorpe, and the Ramones.

Donald Liebenson wrote in The Saturday Evening Post that "Kearns is usually drawn to cultural figures who fly under the radar (his last book was Lawrence Tierney: Hollywood’s Real Life Tough Guy). That’s not Brando, about whom much has been written. But Kearns is also drawn to cultural outliers, and Brando profoundly changed the art of acting (even if he was dismissive in interviews about his own profession). The challenge, Kearns told The Saturday Evening Post, was to find a fresh angle on this much chronicled artist enshrined in myth and legend. Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel is not another biography, but more an examination of Brando’s enduring influence 100 years after his birth and 20 years after his death.”

Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Chris Vognar called the book “a worthy addition to the Brando bookshelf, largely because the author picks an idea and never loses sight of it, even as he fans across multiple disciplines to explore the idea. This is a book about how one facet of one man captured in one image from one film can send ripples through the world.” Library Journal called the book “an entertaining and enlightening study of Brando’s impressive influence.”