When critically acclaimed Hollywood star Marlon Brando was hired on to do his first musical
film, the method actor was incredibly nervous!
In order to quell his fears, he turned to costar Frank Sinatra for guidance.
However, Frank Sinatra held a grudge against Marlon because the younger actor had beaten
him out for the picture’s lead role.
Frank left Marlon hanging, kicking off a bitter feud between the two on the set of the film
that culminated in Frank Sinatra apparently having Marlon Brando kidnapped.
Join Facts Verse as we explore how Frank Sinatra hated Marlon Brando enough to kill him.
When Marlon Brando was cast in the 1955 Hollywood adaptation of the Broadway musical Guys and
Dolls, many people in the industry were taken by surprise.
Marlon was cast in the lead role of Sky Masterson, even though the newly established method actor
had absolutely no experience performing in musicals.
One person who was surprised by the decision was Marlon's costar in the film, established
crooner Frank Sinatra.
In fact, Frank had campaigned from the role himself, instead of having his talents relegated
to the role of second lead Nathan Detroit.
Frank Sinatra had pleaded with the higher-ups at studio MGM to get the role of Sky Masterson
in the Hollywood adaptation of Guys and Dolls.
However, the studio heads didn’t feel that the crooner was right for the role.
Before deciding on Marlon Brando, other actors that were approached to possibly play the
lead role in the film adaptation include Gene Kelly, Kirk Douglas, and Cary Grant.
Marlon initially turned down the role after first being offered but was reportedly talked
into accepting at the behest of a phone call from Cary.
Apparently, Cary called Marlon up and told him to take the role in order to piss off
Frank Sinatra.
The studio and creative team behind Guys and Dolls were certainly interested in having
Marlon Brando take on the lead role, despite his lack of musical experience.
Marlon was the new hot thing in Hollywood, and MGM was sure that they could make magic
by casting him in a musical.
When Marlon expressed his hesitance to take his role in the musical film, director Joseph
L. Mankiewicz shared that Marlon had no reason to be nervous, as the filmmaker had never
been involved in a musical, either.
Marlon Brando and Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s lack of experience filming musicals meant
that Frank Sinatra was one of the most experienced people on the set of Guys and Dolls.
However, the legendary crooner wasn’t willing to lend any advice to costar Marlon Brando.
Early on into the production, Marlon Brando turned to Frank Sinatra for support.
Angry about losing out on the lead role and hesitant about the much younger actor, Frank
Sinatra refused to give it.
Marlon apparently asked Frank Sinatra to help him rehearse the film’s musical numbers,
to which Frank retorted that he wasn’t interested in Marlon’s “method acting”.
Marlon had reluctantly signed on to play the lead in Guys and Dolls believing that his
singing voice was going to be dubbed over by a more talented singer in the final product.
However, this didn’t end up being the case.
Instead of dubbing over Marlon’s voice, MGM went all-out teaching the star how to
sing.
Still, Marlon ended up needing many takes for some scenes in the film as a result of
his inexperience.
In addition to Marlon’s lack of experience singing, his acting style also differed from
Frank’s.
Frank always preferred to get things done in one take, while Marlon preferred to do
a few.
Marlon’s need for extra takes during both his singing and talking scenes got on Frank’s
nerves.
Although Marlon Brando was apparently uncomfortable with his vocal performance, the production
team behind Guys and Dolls ended up getting enough footage of the actor that they were
able to cobble together a final product that made it look like the actor could sing.
Marlon’s lack of singing talent was just one of the reasons that Frank Sinatra was
mad that the younger actor had secured the lead role over him.
Near the start of Guys and Dolls’ production, Marlon Brando had won an Academy Award for
his performance in the film On the Waterfront.
Frank had campaigned for the very same role and had been beaten out by the younger actor.
When Marlon beat Frank yet again for the lead in Guys and Dolls, the legendary crooner was
fuming.
Despite the call from Cary Grant pleading for Marlon Brando to piss Frank Sinatra off
by taking the role of Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls, it doesn’t appear that Marlon
had any personal vendetta against Frank Sinatra when he took the role.
Instead, Marlon simply felt that the role of Sky Masterson was going to be a good way
to expand his horizons.
Marlon tried to work amicably with Frank, but the crooner wasn’t having it.
When Marlon realized that Frank hated him, the younger actor slowly started to hate the
established Hollywood veteran.
This slowly led to the creation of the infamous feud that resulted in Marlon Brando getting
kidnapped.
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Not too long into the production of 1955’s Hollywood adaptation of Guys and Dolls, the
on-set feud between stars Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra made it so that the two refused
to talk to each other when the cameras weren’t rolling.
They communicated via third parties, and Frank took every opportunity to disparage his younger
costar.
Marlon’s method acting and need for extra take resulted in Frank Sinatra giving the
younger star the derogatory nickname “Mumbles”.
Marlon leaned into the criticism, going out of his way to require even more takes in order
to piss off Frank.
In a scene where Frank Sinatra was required to be eating a piece of cheesecake, Marlon
Brando purposefully messed up his lines so many times that Frank became nauseous from
consuming too much of the desert.
Many feared that things between Marlon and Frank were going to end up getting physical,
and it seems that they did in an unusual way.
The event that allegedly made things finally come to a head between Marlon and Frank was
Frank’s wife showing up on set one day and taking a romantic interest in the younger
actor.
At the time that he was filming Guys and Dolls, Frank Sinatra was towards the end of his marriage
to Ava Gardner.
The two were rampantly unfaithful towards each other, but that didn’t stop Frank Sinatra
from getting jealous and angry when Ava reportedly started showing some romantic interest in
Marlon Brando.
Marlon was the hot new thing in Hollywood, and it only made sense that Ava wanted to
get a piece.
Ava certainly got away with cheating on Frank many times, but her cheating on him with Marlon
Brando crossed the line.
Instead of taking his anger out on Ava, Frank took it out on his costar.
Soon after the incident involving Marlon Brando and Ava Gardner, Marlon was apparently abducted
one night while he was out driving around on his motorbike.
While Marlon was pulled over at a rest stop, three men allegedly came at him with guns
and forced him into the back of a black car.
Inside the car, the three men told Marlon that they were either going to kill him or
castrate him, a threat that the actor apparently took very seriously.
Marlon was so terrified that he was said to have pooped his pants.
Thankfully, the actor didn’t meet his end.
The three men dropped Marlon Brando off in the Hollywood Hills, where the actor frantically
flagged down a car and managed to get a ride back to his home.
When questioned about his injuries, Marlon claimed that he had gotten into a motorcycle
accident.
The three men had thankfully refrained from harming Marlon’s face, allowing the filming
of Guys and Dolls to continue.
From that moment on, Marlon Brando kept his distance from Frank Sinatra when the cameras
weren’t rolling, and he apparently even hired a new bodyguard to accompany him on
set.
Marlon never ended up pointing the finger at Frank Sinatra, though the actor’s lifelong
friend Carlo Fiore did.
According to Carlo, there’s no doubt that Frank Sinatra was behind the incident.
Carlo is the only person that Marlon ever revealed the truth about his supposed motorcycle
accident, and he would go on to share the story after Marlon and Frank’s deaths.
Despite the insane feud between the two stars, Guys and Dolls ended up being a major success
for everyone involved.
If Frank Sinatra had come into the production of Guys and Dolls with a more pleasant attitude,
he and Marlon Brando may have been friends!
Frank’s bitterness on the set of the film extended past his feud with Marlon and also
extended to his relationship with the film’s writer and director.
Frank reportedly defied the direction of filmmaker Joseph L. Mankiewicz numerous times during
the filming of the picture, and the crooner went on to pledge that he was never going
to work with the director again.
Marlon Brando’s bad time on the set of Guys and Dolls made it so that he didn’t want
to do much publicity for the picture, but MGM managed to convince the star otherwise
by purchasing him a brand new Thunderbird.
Though Marlon was incredibly happy about the Thunderbird, he still couldn’t make it through
all the film’s scheduled publicity due to the production’s bad blood.
Although Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando couldn’t get along on the set of the 1955 Hollywood
adaptation of Guys and Dolls, the film ended up being a huge hit with critics and audiences!
Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that Frank Sinatra allegedly had Marlon
Brando kidnapped during the filming of Guys and Dolls, or did you think that the two were
really great friends?
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