Marlon Brando as Jor-El: twelve shooting days that saved Superman
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Marlon Brando only shot twelve days on Superman, for a handful of scenes in a white robe on a crystal planet. He walked away with the most talked-about fee in Hollywood history, and the film walked away with its credibility. In this article you'll discover: why the producers paid so much, what Brando actually shot, his legendary working methods, the lawsuit that drove him off Superman II, his posthumous return in two 2006 films, and what his Jor-El gave the myth. By the end you'll know why those twelve days still matter.
The essentials
- Born: April 3, 1924 in Omaha, Nebraska
- Died: July 1, 2004 in Los Angeles, at 80
- His role: Jor-El, Superman's Kryptonian father
- His fee: 3.7 million dollars, plus a share of the receipts
- Shooting time: about twelve days
- Why he vanishes: a lawsuit against the producers over his share of the profits
📋 Contents
Before Krypton: the biggest star on earth
Marlon Brando is born on April 3, 1924 in Omaha, Nebraska. Trained in New York with the Actors Studio teachers, he imposes in the early 1950s a naturalistic style that lastingly changes the acting craft.
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) makes him known; On the Waterfront (1954) wins him the Oscar for Best Actor. Twenty years later, The Godfather (1972) gives him a second, which he publicly refuses: he sends actress Sacheen Littlefeather to decline it in his name, in protest at how the film industry treats Native Americans.
Next Last Tango in Paris (1972) and Apocalypse Now (1979). By the mid-1970s, Brando is both the most respected actor of his generation and one of the hardest to direct.
| Film | Year | What remains |
|---|---|---|
| A Streetcar Named Desire | 1951 | first Oscar nomination |
| On the Waterfront | 1954 | Best Actor Oscar |
| The Godfather | 1972 | second Oscar, publicly refused |
| Last Tango in Paris | 1972 | the most controversial film of his career |
| Superman | 1978 | Jor-El, twelve shooting days |
| Apocalypse Now | 1979 | final appearance, now mythical |
That's the mix the producers of Superman are after: a name that commands respect, and that you can put at the top of the poster.
The fee that caused a scandal
The numbers on the Brando deal
In 1977 that figure has no match. No actor had ever taken that kind of money for a supporting part, and the press seizes on it at once.
Richard Donner, the director, never hid his irritation: that money, he said, could have gone to the effects of a film that had, for the first time, to make a flying man believable. Our feature on Superman (1978) covers that technical bet.
The producers' calculation was still simple, and it proved right.
Why the producers paid
In 1977 nobody takes a superhero film seriously. The genre does not exist yet: earlier adaptations are children's serials or low-budget TV series.
The Salkinds therefore need a signal sent to distributors, the press and the audience: that film is not cheap entertainment. The name Marlon Brando — followed by that of Gene Hackman — does exactly that job.
The bet works. The film becomes one of the biggest hits of its time, as our ranking of Superman movies box office reminds us, and opens the way for everything that follows.
Put another way: Brando wasn't paid to play Jor-El, but so that Superman could exist.
Twelve shooting days
His scenes concentrate on Krypton, at the start of the film: Zod's trial, the warning to the Council, the building of the capsule, and the goodbye to his son. Add the Fortress of Solitude sequences, where Jor-El addresses a Clark who is now an adult.
The contrast between how short the shoot was and the impact of the scenes is striking. The line he gives his son — the idea that humans can become better and that they only lack the light to show them the way — still structures how the character is written today.
Our portrait of Jor-El traces the character's history in the comics, where until then he was a second-tier scientist.
Alongside Brando, Susannah York plays Lara, and Terence Stamp appears as Zod at the trial: our feature on Zod vs Superman goes back over that sequence.
His methods, between legend and fact
Three things people repeat about Brando
- Cue cards rather than the learned text. It's documented, and Brando owned it: he preferred to read his lines off cards placed off-camera, figuring that made the acting more spontaneous. On Superman, several accounts mention cards hidden in the set.
- The set anecdotes. Richard Donner said the actor had proposed playing Jor-El without appearing on screen. These stories come from the director and his circle: they are plausible, often repeated, but they remain shoot memories.
- The myth of “he didn't care”. His scenes say the opposite. The acting is precise, the pace controlled, and the father-son bond carried with total seriousness. Professionalism was never the problem.
What you can say without risk is the result on screen. The opening sequence of Superman works because an actor of that level takes a crystal planet and a baby in a capsule seriously.
Without that opening gravity, the film would have tipped into pastiche. Christopher Reeve often underlined that debt: the first fifteen minutes set the seriousness, then the rest can afford humor. Our portrait of Christopher Reeve goes back over his own work.
The lawsuit that keeps him out of Superman II
Brando had shot scenes meant for Superman II, the two films having been produced in parallel. They would not come out in 1980.
The reason is financial: the actor sues Ilya Salkind, saying he did not get the profit share in the contract. The dispute makes using his footage expensive, and the production simply pulls it from the second film. The Fortress sequences are reshot with Susannah York as Lara.
This dispute stacks onto the conflict with Richard Donner, removed in March 1979: two separate decisions, the same effect on the film. Our analysis of Superman II covers that period.
Marlon Brando was therefore paid for a role he only half played, in a saga he never saw finished.
The posthumous return of 2006
Marlon Brando dies on July 1, 2004 in Los Angeles, at 80. Two years later he still comes back on screen, twice.
First in Superman Returns : Bryan Singer gets the rights holders' OK to use archive footage, and has Jor-El speak again in the Fortress of Solitude. It is an explicit homage to the 1978 film.
Then in the Donner Cut of Superman II, released in November 2006: the scenes shot in 1977 and never shown are finally cut in, which gives the film back its father-son bond.
Twenty-nine years after the shoot, an actor gone for two years thus found his role again in two films the same year.
What his Jor-El brought
Before 1978, Jor-El was a comics scientist who dies on page two. Since Brando, he is a father who speaks to his son beyond death, and whose voice stays with the hero all his life. Every later adaptation, from Smallville to Man of Steel, rest on this invention.
The idea of the recorded message, left for a child who will hear it years later, has become a required beat. Smallville makes it the engine of several seasons; Man of Steel gives it a central place.
The second legacy is commercial. By taking this role, Brando legitimized a whole genre: after him, no major actor could claim a superhero film was beneath him.
To measure this film's place in the mythology, our complete Superman history traces the character's whole path.
FAQ — Frequently asked questions
How much was Marlon Brando paid for Superman?
3.7 million dollars as a flat fee, plus a share of the receipts, for about twelve shooting days. Estimates of his total take sit around 14 million dollars.
What role does he play?
Jor-El, Superman's Kryptonian father. He appears in the Krypton sequences at the start of the film, then in the Fortress of Solitude, where he addresses his grown son.
Why isn't he in Superman II?
Because he sued producer Ilya Salkind over his profit share. His scenes, already shot, were pulled from the 1980 film and replaced with sequences starring Susannah York as Lara.
Is it true he read his lines off cue cards?
Yes, that was his open method on most of his later films: he felt reading the text as he said it made the acting more spontaneous.
When were his scenes restored?
In 2006, two years after his death: first via archive footage in Superman Returns, then in the Donner Cut of Superman II, released that November.
What are his most famous films?
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), On the Waterfront (1954, Oscar), The Godfather (1972, refused Oscar), Last Tango in Paris (1972) and Apocalypse Now (1979).
Conclusion
Marlon Brando spent twelve days on the set of Superman and redefined the central character without ever wearing the cape. His Jor-El turned a second-tier scientist into a father figure who haunts the whole mythology.
The cut that restored his scenes is covered in our feature on the Donner Cut, and his on-screen opponent in our portrait of Terence Stamp.
The fee caused a scandal, the lawsuit cost him his place in the sequel, and it took until 2006 to see all of his work. What remains is the core: without him, the first great superhero film would likely not have been taken seriously.
To go further, our portrait of Jor-El covers the character, and our analysis of Superman (1978) goes back to the film that started it all.