Christian Brando

On January 28, 1981, Christian Brando married Mary McKenna, whom he met when both were ten years old. The marriage ended in a divorce in 1987.

Possibly in 1999, he met actress Deborah Presley, who claimed to be the illegitimate daughter of Elvis Presley and married her on October 16, 2004. In January 2005, Deborah brought a charge of spousal abuse against him, to which he pleaded ‘no contest’. They had their divorce in June 2005.

Because Christian pleaded no contest, he was ordered to drug and alcohol rehabilitation and placed on three year probation. Although their marriage was annulled they remained in contact.

Christian Devi Brando was born on May 11, 1958 in Los Angeles, California. His father, Marlon Brando Jr. was a noted actor and director, known for his roles in many Academy Award winning films like ‘On the Waterfront’ and ‘Godfather’.

His mother, Anna Kashfi, was an actress with a brief Hollywood career. While it was believed that she was an Indian-American, it later turned out that she was actually an India-born Welsh and her original name was Joan O'Callaghan.

While Christian was his parents’ only child, he was also the eldest of Marlon Brando’s eleven children. His half-siblings were Ninna Priscilla Brando; Myles Jonathan Brando; Timothy Gahan Brando; Miko Castaneda Brando; Rebecca Brando; Cheyenne Brando and Simon Teihotu Brando, Maimiti Brando, Raiatua Brando and Lisa Brando.

Conceived two months before his parents’ marriage, Christian had a miserable childhood. Soon after their marriage, his parents began to fight, becoming increasingly hostile and abusive to each other, disagreeing on every little aspect. While Marlon named his son after his friend, French actor Christian Marquand, Anna called him Devi.

In April 1959, his parents divorced and began to fight over his custody. Initially, Christian shuttled between his parents; but as Anna became addicted to barbiturate and lost her mental stability, Marlon won his temporary custody. But he too failed to give Christian the stability he yearned for.

When Christian finally returned to Los Angeles, he began living mostly in his father’s home. He also had his own home, which was bought for him by his father. However, he rarely used it, going there only to sleep, mostly letting his drug addict friends and homeless people use it.

Although Christian mostly lived in his father’s house, the relationship between the two men was never cordial. Christian seemed to be weighed down and shrink into a shell when he was near his more famous father.

In his early twenties, he once again tried his hand in acting, appearing as Aaron in ‘The Day Christ Died’, a television film directed by James Cellan Jones (1980). It was followed by a small role in ‘Yentl’, a romantic drama film (1983) and ‘AD’, a television miniseries (1985).

In between acting, he took up various jobs; but could not stick to any, soon becoming more famous for bar brawling. For a period, he even lived in Alaska, where he piloted a barge for a fish processor.

In 1988, as he turned thirty, he inherited $100,000 and an annual allowance from a trust fund set up by his father. Concurrently, he continued acting, enacting small roles in films like ‘La posta in gioco' (1988) and 'Unmasked Part 25' (1989).

On 19 May 1990, while Christian was having dinner with his half-sister, Cheyenne, at Musso & Frank Grill, she told him that Dag Drollet, her boyfriend of four years, was physically very abusive, often slapping her around. Christian did not realize that she was lying just to grab his attention.

At that time, Cheyenne was eight months pregnant with Drollet’s child. She used to live in Tahiti and had come to Los Angeles only for a visit, putting up at their father’s home in Beverly Hills. Drollet, who came to see her, also put up in the same house.

On their return home at around 11 o’clock, a drunk Christian confronted Drollet, trying to scare him with a gun. According to him, he had no intention of killing him; but the gun went off accidentally and hit Drollet on the face, killing him instantly.

Marlon Brando tried to revive him; but his effort failed and Christian was charged with murder. Cheyenne, who was said to be suffering from schizophrenia and had severe mental problem since her teens, later admitted that Drollet had not hit her or harm her.

Fearing that Cheyenne might jeopardize Christian’s defense, Marlon had her removed first to Tahiti and then to France, where she was admitted into a mental hospital. It was a strategic move and absence of the key witness limited the prosecution’s ability to prove that the murder was premeditated.