Marlon Brando's First Screen Test

28-03-2006 10:10

Marlon Brando's first screen test has been discovered - showing the legendary actor as the original Rebel Without A Cause, eight years before James Dean made the role his own.

Movie producers offered the role of Jim Stark to Brando in 1947, but the now-deceased actor refused for reasons still unknown.

Darwin Porter, biographical author of Brando Unzipped, was "mesmerised" by the footage of the-then-23-year-old Brando's performance.

He says, "Screen tests preserved of the great stars are usually pretty awful.

This one had me mesmerised. I would have done everything to hire him.

"From the moment Brando enters the room in the test, he is lightning on legs.

There is a magnetic appeal to him, as he is at the peak of his physical beauty and virile power - both as a man and an actor."