Suing Brando

Attorney Tim O’Connor recalls suing the then down-on-his-luck actor, and offering some unsolicited advice about women by Brian Moore When an Oscar-winning actor strides into a Redondo Beach law firm to give a deposition, the atmosphere around the workplace tends to intensify. Ties are straightened, makeup is adjusted. “It was a big thing in the office,” recalled Tim O’Connor, a stalwart of the Redondo Beach legal community since the late 1950s. “The secretaries are running around, you know – ‘Marlon Brando’s coming today!’ “And my partner comes out and says, ‘Who the hell is Marvin Brando?’” O’Connor’s partner, Mark Wood, a future Superior Court Judge, was joking. But lawsuits are no laughing matter, particularly when the defendant is one of the most popular and honored stars in movie history. On a warm afternoon in his home office overlooking Redondo Beach, O’Connor sat down with the ‘Easy Reader’ to tell the tale of how he came to sue Marlon Brando in the late 1960s, and the glimpses it gave him into the special treatment afforded Hollywood stars, and about vague legal concepts like “an appearance of marriage.” The disagreement wasn’t over a busted movie deal or an unfulfilled…

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