Marlboro Man
The Marlboro Man is a figure used in tobacco advertising campaigns for Marlboro cigarettes. In the United States, where the campaign originated, it was used from 1954 to 1999. The Marlboro Man was first conceived by Leo Burnett in 1954. The images initially featured rugged men portrayed in a variety of roles but later primarily featured a rugged cowboy or cowboys, in picturesque wild terrain. The advertisements were originally conceived as a way to popularize filtered cigarettes, which at the time were considered feminine.
Marlon Brando
Brando used his Stanislavski System skills for his first summer stock roles in Sayville, New York, on Long Island. Brando established a pattern of erratic, insubordinate behavior in the few shows he had been in. His behavior had him kicked out of the cast of the New School's production in Sayville, but he was soon afterwards discovered in a locally produced play there. Then, in 1944, he made it to Broadway in the bittersweet drama "I Remember Mama", playing the son of Mady Christians. The Lunts wanted Brando to play the role of Alfred Lunt's son in "O Mistress Mine", and Lunt even coached him for his audition, but Brando's reading during the audition was so desultory that they couldn't hire him. New York Drama Critics voted him "Most Promising Young Actor" for his role as an anguished veteran in "Truckline Café", although the play was a commercial failure. In 1946, he appeared on Broadway as the young hero in the political drama "A Flag is Born", refusing to accept wages above the Actors' Equity rate. In that same year, Brando played the role of Marchbanks alongside Katharine Cornell in her production's revival of "Candida", one of her signature roles. Cornell also cast him as the Messenger in her production of Jean Anouilh's "Antigone" that same year. He was also offered the opportunity to portray one of the principal characters in the Broadway premiere of Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh", but turned the part down after falling asleep while trying to read the massive script and pronouncing the play "ineptly written and poorly constructed".