
I just read a news story about the death of Christian Brando. If your first question was "Who?", you probably aren't alone. If your second question was, "Any relation to Marlon?", the answer is yes, his eldest son. Sadly, his father's distingued legacy pales Christian's existance into wan mediocrity.
He had a troubled history that encompassed violence and prison rather than Oscars and the red carpet. I followed his trial back in the day, when I was working at my very first phone job, at a place that thrived on tabloids in the breakroom. I studied the pictures in the pages of the Enquirer and People, and I thought he was hot...(Yes, I have a bit of a 'thing' for bad boys---preferably from a distance.).
He was duly sentenced to a five year sentence, and dropped out of sight after his release. There were a few mentions of minor misdeeds, some "he said, she said" with an ex, but nothing noteworthy. If he had talents of any scope, he never made a name with them.
Now, Christian Brando has died in his forty-ninth year. He was only a couple years older than I am, and unlike his father, he leaves no glorious body of film to remember him by, just a scandal that time will fade, as time fades them all.
So why, then, am I mourning him? Because he had a sad life. Because bad boys need fangirls, too. Because, back in the day, he was hot.