Before There Was A “Sexiest Man Alive”

Margaret Bourke-White shot Marlon Brando for LIFE magazine in 1952, at a time when the 28-year-old actor had already given memorable, star performances in The Men, A Streetcar Named Desire and Viva Zapata. But despite his growing fame on stage and screen, these photos remained unseen, and were recently rediscovered in LIFE’s archives, labeled “cover tries.” 

The Bourke-White images are a delight. Brando was at his physical prime: the supple, well-muscled Stanley Kowalski, exuding more animal magnetism than any wife-beater could restrain, with smooth skin, a sensuous scowl and the hypnotic grace that counter-balances yet also prefigures the later madness of Kurtz in Apocalypse Now, the stuffed jowls of Don Corleone in The Godfather, and the compelling bloat of Paul in Last Tango in Paris. It’s like pitting Early Elvis against Late Elvis, and on a visceral level, the primal, unbridled, hip-swinging swagger of the Stella-hollering youth wins hands down. Brando, like Early Elvis, was beautiful.

Brando’s first of four LIFE covers was dated April 20, 1953 — a moody, stagey movie still featuring the actor as Antony in the film version of Julius Caesar.

Click here to see more of the rediscovered Brando portraits by Bourke-White.