Marlon Brando’s ‘lost’ 1969 interview with Roderick Mann is featured in the February 2025 issue of UK nostalgia magazine Yours Retro (#84), with the actor reflecting on Marilyn’s death and the downside of fame.
“There’s no security in talent. I know any number of talented people who are insecure as hell, who are riddled with a pervading sense of emptiness. Not to be a success is a sin in the US, but most successful people in Hollywood are failures as human beings. Perhaps because they can’t accept a pinch of success and leave it at that.
And insecurity lies all around. Marilyn Monroe’s death – that stopped everyone, just for a moment. They thought: Oh God, here’s a successful actress who had everything; money, beauty, adulation and a happy future, everything contained in the American Dream – and she fell. What hope is there for us?”
Elsewhere, an article about Hollywood costumer Edith Head includes a story about the off-shoulder dress she created for Bette Davis in All About Eve. The film’s other costumes, including Marilyn’s, were made by Charles LeMaire, with whom Ms. Head shared the 1951 Academy Award for Best Costume Design in a black-and-white picture.
Also featured are Tommy Rettig – the child actor whom, aged 11, played Robert Mitchum’s son in River of No Return – and one of Hollywood’s most prolific character actors, Walter Brennan, who appeared in two early Monroe films, Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! and A Ticket to Tomahawk.
And finally, some ‘wise words’ from one of Marilyn’s youthful idols, Ginger Rogers. They appeared separately in We’re Not Married! (1952), and had a memorable ‘fight scene’ in Monkey Business, released later that year.
The Marilyn Report 