Lost Brando Scenes Suggest Alternative To Dean’s ‘Rebel’
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Lost pictures of Marlon Brando auditioning in 1947 for Nicholas Ray’s “Rebel Without a Cause” have emerged from the Warner Bros. archive, the BBC reported.
The role was given eight years later to James Dean, whose performance as the troubled teenager Jim Stark was seen posthumously after the actor died in a car crash in September 1955. The role cemented Dean’s reputation as a brooding, vulnerable, anguished, ever youthful screen presence.
It is not known whether Brando’s audition failed to impress Ray, who abandoned making the film for five years until he found then cast Dean in the lead role, or whether Brando turned down the part. He sometimes took part in auditions before turning down a role.
The lost scenes of Brando auditioning for the role of Stark have been added to a new DVD re-release of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” which will on sale in May, the BBC reported.
