Claim: Critics consider Vito Corleone to be Marlon Brando's greatest role ever.

Marlon Brando , Jr. -LRB- April 3 , 1924 -- July 1 , 2004 -RRB- was an American actor , film director and political activist . He is credited with bringing realism to film acting . He helped to popularize the Stanislavski system of acting , studying with Stella Adler in the 1940s . Brando is widely known for his Academy Award-winning performances as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront -LRB- 1954 -RRB- and Vito Corleone in The Godfather -LRB- 1972 -RRB- , as well as his performances in A Streetcar Named Desire -LRB- 1951 -RRB- , Viva Zapata ! -LRB- 1952 -RRB- , Julius Caesar -LRB- 1953 -RRB- , The Wild One -LRB- 1953 -RRB- , Guys and Dolls -LRB- 1955 -RRB- , Sayonara -LRB- 1957 -RRB- , Reflections in a Golden Eye -LRB- 1967 -RRB- , Last Tango in Paris -LRB- 1972 -RRB- , and Apocalypse Now -LRB- 1979 -RRB- . Brando was also an activist for many causes , notably the Civil Rights Movement and various Native American movements .   He initially gained acclaim and an Academy Award nomination for reprising the role of Stanley Kowalski in the 1951 film adaptation of Tennessee Williams ' play A Streetcar Named Desire , a role that he had originated successfully on Broadway . He received further praise for his performance as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront , and his portrayal of the rebel motorcycle gang leader Johnny Strabler in The Wild One proved to be a lasting image in popular culture . Brando received Academy Award nominations for playing Emiliano Zapata in Viva Zapata ! ; Mark Antony in Joseph L. Mankiewicz 's 1953 film adaptation of Shakespeare 's Julius Caesar ; and Air Force Major Lloyd Gruver in Sayonara -LRB- 1957 -RRB- , an adaption of James Michener 's 1954 novel . Brando was included in a list of Top Ten Money Making Stars three times in the 1950s , coming in at number 10 in 1954 , number 6 in 1955 , and number 4 in 1958 .   The 1960s proved to be a fallow decade for Brando . He directed and starred in the cult western film One-Eyed Jacks , a critical and commercial flop , after which he delivered a series of box-office failures , beginning with the 1962 film adaptation of the novel Mutiny on the Bounty . After 10 years , during which he did not appear in a successful film , he won his second Academy Award for playing Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola 's The Godfather , a role critics consider among his greatest . The Godfather was then one of the most commercially successful films of all time . With that and his Oscar-nominated performance in Last Tango in Paris , Brando re-established himself in the ranks of top box-office stars , placing sixth and tenth in the Money Making Stars poll in 1972 and 1973 , respectively . Brando took a four-year hiatus before appearing in The Missouri Breaks -LRB- 1976 -RRB- . After this , he was content with being a highly paid character actor in cameo roles , such as in Superman -LRB- 1978 -RRB- and The Formula -LRB- 1980 -RRB- , before taking a nine-year break from motion pictures . According to the Guinness Book of World Records , Brando was paid a record $ 3.7 million -LRB- $ million in inflation-adjusted dollars -RRB- and 11.75 % of the gross profits for 13 days ' work on Superman . He finished out the 1970s with his controversial performance as Colonel Kurtz in another Coppola film , Apocalypse Now , a box-office hit for which he was highly paid and which helped finance his career layoff during the 1980s .   Brando was ranked by the American Film Institute as the fourth-greatest movie star among male movie stars whose screen debuts occurred in or before 1950 . He was one of only three professional actors , along with Charlie Chaplin and Marilyn Monroe , named in 1999 by Time magazine as one of its 100 Most Important People of the Century . He died of respiratory failure on July 1 , 2004 , at age 80 .