The following excerpt has been taken from Roger Ebert's website.
Q. I couldn't let Marlon Brando's passing go by without telling this story. Over 20 years ago when I was just starting out as a teacher in Chicago, I had a student who loved Brando. As a writing assignment, I'd promised to find addresses for the stars the kids liked, so they could write to them and see who answered.
The kid was overjoyed. She told Brando they shared a birthday, and that she wanted to become a writer, but couldn't convince her parents she had the goods. The Brando fan received a hand-written letter -- one of the sweetest, most encouraging letters a teen could ever receive -- about dreams and what really matters in life. And a year later, she received, on her birthday, a hand-signed card, asking her if she was still writing, and for a sample of something she'd written. I've never forgotten it. Brando was and will always be one of my idols, too, and that's how I'll remember him: As I saw him in the eyes of that teenage girl, so many years ago.
Cynthia Dagnal Myron,Tucson, Ariz.
A. One of the reasons Brando was a great star was that he never followed the form book, but lived his life spontaneously, personally and sincerely.
