Marlon Brando's son dies
2008-01-28 11:38
Los Angeles - Christian Brando, the
troubled eldest son of Hollywood icon Marlon Brando, has died
at the age of 49, media reports said on Saturday.
The New York Post and People magazine both reported on
their websites that Brando, son of the late screen star and
and Welsh actress Anna Kashfi, had died of complications from
pneumonia.
"His body was totally compromised," Brando's ex-wife,
Deborah, told People. "He'd lived so hard ... this is just so
sad."
Representatives for Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Centre,
where Brando was admitted on January 11, declined comment.
Friends
of the family could not immediately be reached for comment by
Reuters.
People reported that he had been in a coma and on a
ventilator.
Brando made worldwide headlines in 1990 when he pleaded
guilty to voluntary manslaughter after shooting to death his
half-sister Cheyenne's boyfriend, Dag Drollet, a crime for
which he served five years in prison.
Murder trial
Cheyenne committed suicide in 1995 at the age of 25.
Brando also figured in the murder trial of actor Robert
Blake, who was acquitted in the shooting death of his wife,
Bonny Lee Bakley, in 2001.
Christian Brando had dated Bakley, and defence attorneys
suggested that he could have been the killer.
Brando was called as a witness during Blake's subsequent
civil trial but refused to testify and was ordered held in
contempt of court.
In 2005, he pleaded guilty to spousal abuse charges
involving his then-wife, Deborah, and was placed on probation.
Marlon Brando, considered one of the greatest actors of his
generation, won Academy Awards for his acclaimed roles in On
the Waterfront and The Godfather.
He died in 2004 at the age of 80.
- Reuters