In a wide ranging interview, Hollywood legend Harry Dean Stanton discusses his rich film career and reveals details about his close relationships with Jack Nicholson and Marlon Brando.
At one point, he also perform a moving rendition of the Mexican folk song Cancion Mixteca, accompanied by host Harper Simon!
Harry recalled being roommates with Jack Nicholson in the ‘60s. “I think it was in 1967… we lived together two-and-a-half years on a little street called Utica Drive.” Harry served as best man at Nicholson’s wedding to his one and only wife, Sandra Knight – all before Nicholson was famous.
He said he first met Marlon Brando on the 1976 film The Missouri Breaks.
“We did a scene together where he kills me with a spike to my eye, which he invented. He was dressed as a woman and in one of the scenes and I tore all his clothes off. Arthur Penn was the director, and he said ‘What the hell is he doing there’ – wardrobe is there trying to put his clothes back on.” Harry said Brando asked him, “Why did you tear my clothes off, I got a gun here. I said ‘Yeah, but you weren’t looking.’”
He said that after that on-set encounter, they didn’t see each other for years. “But the last three years of his life, Marlon and I were very close – we talked on the phone for hours. He taught me Shakespearean monologues from The Tempest and Macbeth… I was very honored and blessed to know Marlon… He was awesome, he was great.”
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