Marlon Brando
American actor and landowner · 1924–2004
Who is Marlon Brando?
Marlon Brando was an American actor widely regarded as one of the most influential film performers of the 20th century, known for roles in A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, and The Godfather. While filming Mutiny on the Bounty on location in Tahiti in 1960-1961, he first saw the nearby atoll of Tetiaroa and fell in love with its isolation and natural beauty. He married his Tahitian co-star Tarita Teriipaia, with whom he had two children, and in 1966 he purchased Tetiaroa outright, eventually owning all thirteen of its motu (islets). Brando spent much of the rest of his life dividing his time between the United States and the Pacific, and he devoted considerable thought to Tetiaroa's future, envisioning it as an ecological research site and low-impact retreat rather than a conventional resort. He wrote about his impressions of the atoll's lagoon in his 1994 autobiography, Songs My Mother Taught Me. His vision was posthumously realized in 2014 when The Brando, a solar- and coconut-oil-powered luxury eco-resort, opened on the atoll.
Sources: Wikipedia, "Marlon Brando" and "Tetiaroa" (biographical and location summaries) · Marlon Brando, with Robert Lindsey, Songs My Mother Taught Me (Random House, 1994) · Forbes, "An Island You Can't Refuse: Marlon Brando's Tahitian Paradise" (2014)