Wilma Rudolph, 1940-1994: 'The Fastest Woman in the World'

Voice of America Special English
www.manythings.org/voa/people  www.voanews.com

I'm Steve Ember. And I'm Barbara Klein with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Wilma Rudolph, the first American woman to win three gold medals in one Olympics.

(MUSIC) 

They called her "the Black Pearl," "the Black Gazelle" and "the fastest woman in the world."  In nineteen sixty, Wilma Rudolph became the first American woman to win three gold medals in one Olympics. She was an extraordinary American athlete. She also did a lot to help young athletes succeed.

Wilma Rudolph was born in nineteen forty, in Saint Bethlehem, Tennessee. She was born too early and only weighed two kilograms. She had many illnesses when she was very young, including pneumonia and scarlet fever. She also had polio, which damaged her left leg. When she was six years old, she began to wear metal leg braces because she could not use that leg.

Wilma Rudolph was born into a very large, poor, African-American family. She was the twentieth of twenty-two children. Since she was sick most of the time, her brothers and sisters all helped to take care of her. They took turns rubbing her crippled leg every night. They also made sure she did not try to take off her leg braces.  Every week, Wilma's mother drove her to a special doctor eighty kilometers away. Here, she got physical treatments to help heal her leg.

She later said: "My doctors told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother."

Soon, her family's attention and care showed results. By the time she was nine years old, she no longer needed her leg braces. Wilma was very happy, because she could now run and play like other children. When she was eleven years old, her brothers set up a basketball hoop in the backyard. After that, she played basketball every day.

As a teenager, Wilma joined the girl's basketball team at Burt High School. C.C. Gray was the coach who supervised the team. He gave her the nickname "Skeeter." She did very well in high school basketball. She once scored forty-nine points in one game, which broke the Tennessee state record.

Many people noted that Wilma was a very good basketball player and a very good athlete. One of these people was Ed Temple, who coached the track team of runners at Tennessee State University. Ed Temple asked C.C. Gray to organize a girl's track team at the high school. He thought Wilma Rudolph would make a very good runner. She did very well on the new track team.

(MUSIC)

Wilma Rudolph went to her first Olympic Games when she was sixteen years old and still in high school. She competed in the nineteen fifty-six games in Melbourne, Australia. She was the youngest member of the United States team. She won a bronze medal, or third place, in the sprint relay event.

In nineteen fifty-seven, Wilma Rudolph started Tennessee State University, where she joined the track team. The coach, Ed Temple, worked very hard for the girls on the team. He drove them to track competitions and made improvements to the running track with his own money. However, he was not an easy coach. For example, he would make the members of the team run one extra time around the track for every minute they were late to practice.

Wilma Rudolph trained hard while in college. She did very well at her track competitions against teams from other colleges. In nineteen sixty, she set the world record for the fastest time in the two thousand meter event.  She said: "I ran and ran and ran every day, and I acquired this sense of determination, this sense of spirit that I would never, never give up, no matter what else happened."

That same year, Wilma Rudolph went to the Olympics again, this time in Rome, Italy. She won two gold medals -- first place -- in the one hundred meter and the two hundred meter races. She set a new Olympic record of twenty-three point two seconds for the two hundred meter dash.

Her team also won the gold medal in the four hundred meter sprint relay event, setting a world record of forty-four point five seconds. These three gold medals made her one of the most popular athletes at the Rome games. These victories made people call her the "world's fastest woman."

(SOUND)

Wilma Rudolph received a lot of attention from the press and the public, but she did not forget her teammates.  She said that her favorite event was the relay, because she could share the victory with her teammates Martha Hudson, Lucinda Williams and Barbara Jones. All four women were from Tennessee State University.

The Associated Press named Rudolph the U.S. Female Athlete of the year. She also appeared on television many times. Sports fans in the United States and all over the world loved and respected her.  She said: "The feeling of accomplishment welled up inside of me, three Olympic gold medals. I knew that was something nobody could ever take away from me, ever."

(MUSIC)

Wilma Rudolph was a fine example for many people inside and outside the world of sports. She supported the civil rights movement -- the struggle for equality between white and black people. When she came home from the Olympics, she told the governor of Tennessee that she would not attend a celebration where white and black people were separated. As a result, her homecoming parade and dinner were the first events in her hometown of Clarksville that white people and black people were able to attend together.

After she retired from sports, Wilma Rudolph completed her education at Tennessee State University. She got her bachelor's degree in elementary education and became a teacher. She returned to coach the track team at Burt High School. She also worked as a commentator for women's track competitions on national television. In nineteen sixty-three she married her high school boyfriend Robert Eldridge.  They had four children, but later ended their marriage.

Wilma Rudolph won many important athletic awards. She was voted into the Black Athlete's Hall of Fame and the United States Olympic Hall of Fame. She was also voted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame.  In nineteen seventy-seven, she wrote a book about her life called "Wilma."  She wrote about her childhood problems and her athletic successes. NBC later made the book into a movie for television.

Rudolph said her greatest success was creating the Wilma Rudolph Foundation in nineteen eighty-one. This organization helped children in local communities to become athletes. She always wanted to help young athletes recognize how much they could succeed in their lives.

She said: "The triumph can't be had without the struggle. And I know what struggle is. I have spent a lifetime trying to share what it has meant to be a woman first in the world of sports so that other young women have a chance to reach their dreams."

Rudolph also influenced many athletes. One of them was another African American runner, Florence Griffith Joyner. In nineteen eighty-eight, Griffith Joyner became the second American woman to win three gold medals in one Olympics.  She went on to win a total of six Olympic medals. Wilma Rudolph was very happy to see other African American female athletes succeed. She said: "I thought I'd never get to see that. Florence Griffith Joyner – every time she ran, I ran."

(MUSIC)

Wilma Rudolph died of brain cancer in nineteen ninety-four in Nashville, Tennessee. She was fifty-four years old. She influenced athletes, African Americans and women around the world. She was an important example of how anyone can overcome barriers and make their dreams come true.  Her nineteen sixty Olympics teammate, Bill Mulliken, said: "She was beautiful; she was nice, and she was the best."

(MUSIC)

This program was written by Erin Braswell and produced by Lawan Davis.  I'm Barbara Klein. And I'm Steve Ember. You can learn more about famous Americans at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com.  Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.

Brotherly love

BROTHERLY LOVE


Source: www.speakup.com.br
Language level: Advanced
Speaker: Justin Ratcliffe

Brother Anselm is a brother in more ways than one. On the one hand he is a brother in the Benedictine Order. Although an Englishman by birth, he lives in Ireland and is the head chef at Glenstal Abbey in County Limerick. And such are his culinary skills that he has even published a recipe book. Brother Anselm’s Glenstal Cookery Book.

And he is also a brother in the sense that he is the older brother of the famous English actor, John Hurt, who wrote the foreword to his book. Brother Anselm, who was born “Michael Hurt,” actually left the monastic life in the early 1970s ad married and had children, but he later returned.

When he met with Speak Up, we asked him what role the liturgy played in the food he prepared at Glenstal Abbey.

Brother Anselm

(Standard British accent)

Well, not much, except that, of course, it gives you special occasions for a special meal, if it’s a feast, then, as far as I’m concerned, if it’s sufficiently important anyway, it becomes a gastronomic feast as well. So, obviously, for things like Christmas or Easter or so on, you do a gala meal, but we do it a bit more often than that. St. Patrick’s Day of course, and but there’s…lots of days which are solemnities, which we would celebrate, so I put on a special meal for that. And I would think in terms of a good starter, which might be sort of melon and smoked salmon and a nice dessert.

A very handy one, if you want just to quickly sort of smarten up a menu for a day, is a Baked Alaska because it’s got a sort of something about it, you know, but we do other desserts, of course, special desserts, like chocolate mousse, and cheese and biscuits put into the meal as well, and, of course, there’s always good meal. There has to be good meal!

CAMPING TRIPS

We then talked about his famous younger brother, John Hurt. As Brother Anselm says, they often cooked together during their youth. They would go on hiking holidays around the beauty spots of England and Scotland.

Brother Anselm

As like as not, you’d pass a butcher’s during the day. And if you did, you picked up a couple of steaks, you see, which we would then cook on a stick over the fire in the evening. And with…you’d get that nice sort of wood smell! We had instant mashed potato. I was very basic, certainly no special cooking skills, really. Instant mashed potato…and we had this Spotted Dick for pudding it’s a suet pudding, full of raising and whatnot. So that when you got into camp, the first thing you did, you’d light the fire, get the water boiling and get the pudding on, ‘cause that needed cooking for about an hour and a half. And if we couldn’t get a steak during the day, we’d always have a few tins of stew.

BROTHER ANSELM’S RECIPE

O’FLAHERTY’S DELIGHT

This is a delicious dish though perhaps it is not for those who are worried about cholesterol! The garlic butter can be made by boiling garlic cloves for 10 minutes and then mashing them into the butter. Who was O’Flaherty? Well, he must have lived in the west of Ireland, where salmon and potatoes were plentiful! Quantities are left open.

Ingredients:

Smoked salmon, sliced

Potatoes, parboiled and sliced

Grated cheese

Garlic butter

Cream

1.   Rub the inside of the dish with the garlic butter

2.   Put a layer of potatoes in the bottom.

3.   A layer of smoked salmon on top.

4.   Sprinkle cheese and pour cream over.

5.   Repeat steps 2-4, ending with a layer of potatoes cheese and cream.

6.   Bake at 180 degrees until potatoes are fully cooked and brown on top.

From Brother Alsem’s Glenstal Abbey Cookbook, Columba Press, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, 2009. 

Listening: Song by Bonnie Tyler I Need A Hero

Listening: Song by Bonnie Tyler

I Need A Hero

Source: http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=137

Author: Judith Jékel

 

 

Watch the video and do the following exercises.

Tick the words that you can hear.

Where have all good  men  man gone

And where are all the  goods  gods?

Where’s the sweet  street-wise Hercules

To fight  light  the rising odds?

Isn’t there a white  knight  night upon a fiery steed?

Late at night I   toss   loss  and turn and     deem   dream of what I need

Unscramble the lines of the Chorus

  He’s gotta be strong

  I need a hero

  And he’s gotta be fresh from the fight

  I’m holding out for a hero ‘til the end of the night

  And he’s gotta be larger than life

  And it’s gotta be soon

  I need a hero

  I’m holding out for a hero ‘til the morning light

 And he’s gotta be fast

  He’s gotta be sure

Choose the words that you can hear.

 

Somewhere offeroftenafterlaughter midnight

In my mildestwildestrightestFar East fantasy

Somewhere just beyond my reachbleachrichwhich 

TheirsThereTheirThere's someone reaching blackbackbakelack for me

Unscramble the weather words in brackets.

 

Racing on the  (ntheudr) and rising with the  (eath)

It’s gonna take a superman to sweep me off my feet

Chorus

Up where the mountains meet the heavens above

Out where the  (gngiinlht) splits the sea

I would swear that there’s someone somewhere

Watching me

Through the  (dwin) and the  (lichl) and the  (inar)

And the  (rtoms) and the   (lofod)

I can feel his approach

Like a fire in my blood

Chorus

American History: Roosevelt Wins in 1936

Source: www.voanews.com Thank you for those who support VOA Special English and following up the campaign for promoting this useful site for friends, also many thanks for your help in advance for promoting my blog for friends, gratitude, dear friends.

 

Strikers in New York City around 1937. Laws proposed by the Roosevelt administration helped strengthen the labor movement.

MARIO RITTER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English.

Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal policies during the nineteen thirties changed the face of American government. The new president and the Congress passed legislation that helped farmers, strengthened the banking system and supplied jobs for millions of workers.

One of the results of Roosevelt's policies was a stronger movement of organized labor in America.

This week in our series, Sarah Long and Doug Johnson continue the story of the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

SARAH LONG: Labor leaders had little success in organizing workers in the United States during the nineteen twenties. Three Republican presidents and a national wave of conservatism prevented them from gaining many members or increasing their negotiating power. In nineteen twenty-nine, organized labor fell even further with the beginning of the great economic depression.

By nineteen thirty-three, America's labor unions had less than three million members. But by the end of the nineteen thirties, more than ten-and-a-half million American workers belonged to unions.

DOUG JOHNSON: New laws proposed by the Roosevelt administration made the labor growth possible. The National Industrial Recovery Act of nineteen thirty-three gave labor leaders the right to organize and represent workers. The Supreme Court ruled that the law was illegal. But another law, the Wagner Labor Relations Act of Nineteen Thirty-Five, helped labor unions to increase their power.

Most of the leaders of America's traditional labor unions were slow to understand their new power. They were conservative men. They represented workers with certain skills, such as wood workers or metal workers. They did little to organize workers with other kinds of skills.

But a new group of labor leaders used the new laws to organize unions by industries, not by skills. They believed that workers would have much more power if they joined forces with other workers in the same factory to make common demands. These new leaders began to organize unions for the automobile industry, the steel industry, and other major industries.

SARAH LONG:The leader of the new movement was the head of the mine workers, John L. Lewis. Lewis was a powerful leader with a strong body and strong opinions. He had begun to work in the coal mines at the age of twelve.

Lewis rose to become a powerful and successful leader of the mine workers. But he was concerned about workers in other industries as well. And he believed that most of the leaders in the American Federation of Labor were doing little to help them.

For this reason, Lewis and the heads of several other unions formed their own group to organize unions by industry, not by skills. They called their group the Congress of Industrial Organizations, the CIO. And they tried immediately to gain members.

fdrlibrary.marist.edu

Members of the Unemployed Union march in Camden, New Jersey, in 1935

DOUG JOHNSON: The CIO successfully organized the workers in several major industries. But it succeeded only by hard work and struggle. The CIO's first big battle was against the giant automobile company, General Motors. Late in nineteen thirty-five, workers at several General Motors factories began a "sit-down" strike at their machines to demand better pay and working conditions.

After forty-four days, General Motors surrendered. It recognized that the automobile workers' union had the right to represent GM workers. And it agreed to negotiate a new work agreement.

SARAH LONG: The struggle at the Ford Motor Company was more bitter. Ford company guards beat union organizers and workers. But the Ford company finally agreed to negotiate with the new union.

The same story was true in the steel industry. But the new labor leaders succeeded in becoming the official representatives of steel workers throughout the country.

By nineteen thirty-eight, the C.I.O. had won its battle to organize major industries. In later years, it would join with the more traditional American Federation of Labor to form the organization that remains the most important labor group in America today, the AFL-CIO.

DOUG JOHNSON: President Roosevelt was not always an active supporter of organized labor. But neither was he a constant supporter of big business, like the three Republican presidents before him. In fact, Roosevelt spoke out often against the dangers of big business in a democracy.

These speeches caused great concern among many of the traditional business and conservative leaders of the nation. And Roosevelt's increasingly progressive policies in nineteen thirty-five made many richer Americans fear that the president was a socialist, a dictator or a madman.

Former president Herbert Hoover, for example, denounced Roosevelt's New Deal policies as an attack "on the whole idea of individual freedoms." The family of business leader JP Morgan told visitors not to say Roosevelt's name in front of Morgan. They said it would make his blood pressure go up.

SARAH LONG:This conservative opposition to Roosevelt grew steadily throughout nineteen thirty-five and thirty-six. Many Americans were honestly worried that Roosevelt's expansion of government was the first step to dictatorship.

They feared that Roosevelt and the Democrats were trying to gain power as the Nazis did in Germany, the Fascists in Italy or the Communists in Russia.

loc.gov

Alfred Landon

DOUG JOHNSON: The Republican Party held its presidential convention in the summer of nineteen thirty-six. The party delegates chose Alfred Landon to oppose Roosevelt for president.

Mr. Landon was the governor of the farm state of Kansas. He was a successful oil producer with conservative business views. But he was open to some of the social reforms of Roosevelt's New Deal. Republicans hoped he would appeal to average Americans who supported mild reforms, but feared Roosevelt's social policies.

The Democrats nominated Roosevelt and Vice President John Garner to serve a second term.

SARAH LONG: The main issue in the presidential campaign of nineteen thirty-six was Franklin Roosevelt himself. Roosevelt campaigned across the country like a man sure that he would win. He laughed with the cheering crowds and told them that the New Deal had helped improve their lives.

AP

President Franklin Roosevelt accepts his renomination at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on June 23, 1936

In New York, Roosevelt made a major speech promising to continue the work of his administration if he was re-elected.

FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT: "Of course we will continue to seek to improve working conditions for the workers of America.

“Of course we will continue to work for cheaper electricity in the homes and on the farms of America, for better and cheaper transportation, for low interest rates, for sounder home financing, for better banking, for the regulation of security issues, for reciprocal trade among nations …

“And, my friends, for all these we have only just begun to fight.”

DOUG JOHNSON: The Republican candidate, Alfred Landon, began his campaign by saying that many of Roosevelt's New Deal programs were good. But he said that a Republican administration could do them better and for less money. However, Landon's words became much stronger as the campaign continued. He attacked many of Roosevelt's programs.

The campaign became increasingly bitter. Roosevelt said his opponents cared only about their money, not about other Americans. "I welcome their hatred," he said. Landon's supporters accused Roosevelt of destroying the nation's economic traditions and threatening democracy.

SARAH LONG: The nation had not seen such a fierce campaign in forty years. But when it was over, the nation also saw a victory greater than any in its history.

Franklin Roosevelt defeated Alfred Landon in the election of nineteen thirty-six by one of the largest votes in the nation's history. Roosevelt won every state except Maine and Vermont.

The huge election victory marked the high point of Roosevelt's popularity. In our next program, we will look at the many problems he faced in his second administration.

(MUSIC)

MARIO RITTER: Our program was written by David Jarmul. The narrators were Sarah Long and Doug Johnson. You can find our series online with pictures, transcripts, MP3s and podcasts at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- an American history series in VOA Special English.

___

This is program #18
2

Around the World in 80 Days Chapter 3/6

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BWNBBSCMs0&feature=related

I don't wanna miss a thing

        

 Author: Judith Jékel

Source: http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=673

Language Level: Intermediate

Well, a short description about Teacher Judith Jékel, she is an ESL teacher in Hungary in a secondary shool, for more info follow up this link http://www.eslprintables.com/buscador/author.asp?user=57991#thetop 

 

Watch the video and do the following exercises.

Choose the verbs that you can hear.

I could standstaysaystray awake just to hear youbeatingbearingbreathinggreeting

Watch you smilesmallmileslime while you are screamingslappingsleepingslipping
Far away and dreamingtrimmingdealingmeaning
I could sendspendspanspin my life in this sweet surrender
I could stay lostleastlastlest in this moment forever
Every moment spent with you
Is a moment I measurelecturetreasurefracture

 

Unscramble the lines of the Chorus

'Cause I'd miss you, babe

The sweetest dream will never do

 

'Cause even when I dream of you

I don't wanna fall asleep

I don't wanna close my eyes

I'd still miss you, babe

And I don't wanna miss a thing

And I don't wanna miss a thing

Write in the missing words. The images may help.

Lying close to you
Feeling your  beating
And I wonder what you're 
Wondering if it's me you're seeing
Then I  your eyes and thank  we're together
And I just wanna stay with you
In this  forever, forever and ever

Chorus

 

Unscramble the words in brackets.

I don't wanna miss one  (ielms)
I don't wanna miss one  (kssi)
Well, I just  (annaw) be with you
 (igtrh) here with you, just like this
I just wanna (dlho) you close
I feel your heart so close to (mnei)
And just stay here in this moment
For all the  (rset) of time

Chorus (2x)


Don't wanna close my eyes
I don't wanna fall asleep, yeah
I don't wanna miss a thing

 

Marlon Brando, 1924-2004: One of the Greatest Actors of All Time

Marlon Brando, 1924-2004: One of the Greatest Actors of All Time

Source: www.manythings.org/voa/people originally posted by  www.voanews.com

I'm Faith Lapidus.

And, I'm Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about actor Marlon Brando. Many critics say he was the greatest actor of all time. And many actors say he influenced them more than any other person in the film industry.

(MUSIC)

There was no public service to honor Marlon Brando when he died in two thousand four at the age of eighty. The actor's sister, Jocelyn Brando, said he would have hated such an event. The family held a small private ceremony instead.

Brando did not seek public attention when he was alive. He protected his private life. But he was a huge star. This, combined with his personal tragedies and his politics, made him a special target of the press.

Marlon Brando was born in Omaha, Nebraska in nineteen twenty-four. He was named after his father, a salesman, but his family called him Bud. His mother, Dorothy, was an actress in the local theater. He had two older sisters.

Marlon Brando's childhood was not happy. His parents drank too much alcohol and argued often. Dorothy Brando blamed her husband for the failure of her acting career. The older Marlon Brando did not have a good relationship with his son. In a book about his life, the actor wrote that his father never had anything good to say about his son.

The Brandos moved many times when Marlon was young. His parents separated when he was eleven, but they re-united after two years. Young Marlon was always getting into trouble at school. His father decided to send him to a military school in Minnesota. Marlon did not do well in classes there. But he did find support for his interest in theater. A drama teacher urged him to begin acting in plays there and he did. But he was expelled from the school for getting into trouble.

Marlon Brando moved to New York City when he was nineteen years old in nineteen forty-three. He took acting classes at the New School for Social Research. One of his teachers was Stella Adler, who taught the "Method" style of realistic acting. The Method teaches actors how to use their own memories and emotions to identify with the characters they are playing.

Marlon Brando learned the Method style quickly and easily. Critics say he was probably the greatest Method actor ever. One famous actress commented on his natural ability for it. She said teaching Marlon Brando the Method was like sending a tiger to jungle school.

Marlon Brando appeared in several plays. He got his first major part in a Broadway play in nineteen forty-seven, at the age of twenty-three. He received great praise for his powerful performance as Stanley Kowalski in the Tennessee Williams play, "A Streetcar Named Desire."

His fame grew when he acted the same part in the movie version, released in nineteen fifty-one. Brando plays an angry working-class man. His wife's sister, Blanche, comes to visit them in New Orleans, Louisiana. Blanche's family used to be rich landowners but they lost all their property. Now she is mentally unstable. Stanley treats Blanche unkindly and insults her. Here, he tells Blanche what he thinks about women.

STANLEY: "I don't go in for that stuff."

BLANCHE: "What stuff?"

STANLEY: "Compliments to women about their looks. I never met a dame yet didn't know if she was good-lookin' or not without bein' told. And there's some of them that give themselves credit for more than they've got. I once went out with a dame who told me, 'I'm the glamorous type'…she says 'I am the glamorous type.' I says 'so what?'"

BLANCHE: "And what did she say then?"

STANLEY: "She didn't say nothin'. I shut her up like a clam."

"Streetcar" was Brando's second film. He was nominated for an Academy Award for the performance. He was nominated for Oscars for his next two films as well. In nineteen fifty-two he played Mexican revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata in the movie "Viva Zapata." The following year he played Marc Antony in "Julius Caesar."

Marlon Brando did not win an Oscar for Best Actor until nineteen fifty-four for the movie "On the Waterfront." Many critics consider it his finest performance. The film's director, Elia Kazan, said it was the best performance by a male actor in the history of film.

Brando plays Terry Malloy, a failed boxer. He informs on organized crime leaders, including his brother, Charlie. His brother had made him lose fights on purpose so Charlie could make money gambling on the fights. But now, Terry expresses his regrets about losing the fights.

TERRY MALLOY: "You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody instead of a bum which is what I am. Let's face it."

Marlon Brando acted in about forty movies. He was nominated for a total of eight Academy Awards. In his movies, he played a Japanese translator, a German Nazi military officer and the father of Superman. He even sang in a movie musical called "Guys and Dolls."

His real life was as colorful as his many movie characters. His love life was especially active. He married actress Anna Kashfi in nineteen fifty-seven. The marriage had problems from the start. Their child, a son named Christian, was born a few months after they married. They separated the next year.

In nineteen sixty, Brando married Movita Castenada, a Mexican-American actress. They had two children before they separated in nineteen sixty-two. The same year, he married a Tahitian actress, Tarita. The two had met while filming the movie "Mutiny On the Bounty."

Brando's marriage to Tarita lasted ten years. But his love of Tahiti never ended. In nineteen sixty-six, he bought a small island near Tahiti. Brando divided his time between his island and his home in California for the rest of his life.

(MUSIC)

Critics say Marlon Brando began to suffer professionally during and after his work on "Mutiny on the Bounty." Hollywood directors and producers considered him difficult to work with. Some critics said the actor appeared to be tired of acting.

But that changed in nineteen seventy-two when Brando appeared in "The Godfather." At first, the film studio officials did not want Brando in the movie. But the director, Francis Ford Coppola, chose him for the part. The film was a major critical and financial success. Brando was praised for his performance as the Godfather, Vito Corleone, the powerful head of a criminal organization in New York City. He speaks to a man who wants the Godfather to have someone killed.

VITO CORLEONE: "If you'd come to me in friendship then this scum that ruined your daughter would be suffering this very day. And if by chance an honest man like yourself should make enemies, then they would become my enemies. And then they would fear you."

Marlon Brando won the Best Actor Oscar for "The Godfather." But he rejected it. He sent a woman named Sasheen Littlefeather to speak for him at the Academy Awards ceremony. She said that Brando could not accept the award because of the way the American film industry treated Native Americans. The people at the Academy Awards ceremony did not like the speech. But some experts think the action helped change the way American Indians were shown in movies.

Marlon Brando was also active in the civil rights movement. He spoke out against racism often and forcefully. He marched in demonstrations. And he gave money to civil rights groups.

(MUSIC)

Marlon Brando had two family tragedies. In nineteen ninety, his son, Christian, shot and killed a Tahitian man at the family's home in California. The victim, Dag Drollet, was the boyfriend of Brando's daughter, Cheyenne. Christian Brando said the killing was accidental. He was found guilty of responsibility in the death and served almost five years in prison.

During the trial, Marlon Brando told the court that he and Anna Kashfi had failed Christian as parents. He also apologized to the Drollet family and said he wished he could trade places with their son.

In nineteen ninety-five, Marlon Brando's daughter Cheyenne killed herself. She had struggled with mental problems and was still depressed about the killing of her boyfriend.

Marlon Brando never made public statements about the death of his daughter. But reports said he blamed himself. He did not attend his daughter's funeral in Tahiti.

In the following nine years, he made just four more movies. And the parts he played were small. But his influence on the American film industry was huge. When Marlon Brando died, many famous actors expressed regret. One of them said simply: "He was the best."

(MUSIC)

This program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.