In his 1950 film debut, Marlon Brando played an embittered paraplegic in Stanley Kramer's The Men. He was nominated for Best Actor Academy Awards in four successive years for performances in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Viva Zapata! (1952), Julius Caesar (1953) and On the Waterfront and also received the New York Film Critics Award and the Cannes Film Festival prize.

Throughout the 1950s, Brando's charisma, both on and off screen, made him an artistic and social force. Young audiences acclaimed him as the rebellious, nonconforming prototype of the Beat generation; older audiences often saw him as an anti-social menace, unkempt and unrestrained, but audiences and critics agreed that he was one of the most original and compelling personalities to appear on the screen in a long time.

The early 1970s brought superb performances in two extremely diverse roles. His powerful portrayal in the title role of Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather brought him a second Oscar, which he refused to accept in protest of the plight of Native Americans. He won another Oscar nomination as well as unanimous acclaim for his study of middle-age sexuality in Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris. After a long absence, Brando returned to the screen in 1989, promptly garnering yet another Oscar nomination for A Dry White Season.

He was also nominated for seven British Film Academy Awards, with three wins for Viva Zapata! Julius Caesar and On the Waterfront. Brando's other film credits include The Wild One, Sayonara, The Young Lions, Mutiny on the Bounty, Burn! (Quemada!), The Ugly American, The Chase, The Missouri Breaks, Superman, Apocalypse Now, The Freshman, Don Juan DeMarco, The Brave and The Score.