Maria Luisa “Movita” Castaneda was an American actress who passed away on February 12, 2015. She was born on April 12, 1916, and survived until February 12, 2015. She is best known for being Marlon Brando’s second wife.
Movita was known for her roles in films such as “Flying Down to Rio” (1933) and “Mutiny on the Bounty,” in which she portrayed exotic musicians and ladies (1935). Rebecca Brando Kotlizky and Miko Castaneda Brando were both born to her. She was their mother; they were both born in 1961.(b. 1966).
Movita, an American citizen of Mexican descent, gave birth at Nogales, Arizona, aboard a train that traveled between Mexico and Arizona. Movita is a descendant of Mexican immigrants. Flying Down to Rio was the first film that the famous pair ever performed in together.
Movita made her acting debut in the film, and she did so by singing the Carioca to the couple’s first dance sequence (1933). Throughout the 1930s, she continued to play the roles of exotic females in films produced in the United States and Spain. She is perhaps most recognized for her performance as Tehanni, a Tahitian girl, in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), which also starred Franchot Tone and Clark Gable.
Movita played the role of an island girl in the 1937 film Paradise Isle and the 1939 film Girl from Rio, both of which starred Warren Hull. In the 1941 British suspense film Tower of Terror, which she co-starred in with Wilfrid Lawson and Michael Rennie.
Following a break, she acted opposite Tim Holt in two more westerns, The Mysterious Desperado (1949) and Saddle Legion, before making a cameo as Henry Fonda’s chef in Fort Apache. Fort Apache was released in 1949. (1948). (1951).
In 1939, Movita married Jack Doyle, an Irish boxer, singer, and performer, in Mexico. Jack Doyle was also a performer. The union did not stand the test of time. After appearing in a few more small western films and television parts, she met actor Marlon Brando in the late 1950s, shortly after his divorce from Anna Kashfi.
This was after she had already established herself in the industry. They have two children after getting married and living together in 1960. Brando performed the role of Fletcher Christian in the 1962 version of the film that was first released in 1935. Movita had portrayed a Tahitian girl named Tehanni in the earlier version.
The next year, in 1962, Brando tied the knot with his co-star Tarita Teriipaia. Castaneda’s marriage to Brando in 1968 was deemed invalid after it was discovered that her previous partnership with Doyle was still going strong. Castaneda had married Doyle in 1968. Movita made a brief cameo on television in 1977, but from October 1987 to May 1989, she portrayed Ana in the television show Knots Landing. The show aired 17 episodes.
Movita Castaneda children: Miko Castaneda Brando and Rebecca Brando
Miko C. Brando, son of Movita, was born on February 26, 1961, in the city of Los Angeles, in the state of California. The characters that he played in This Is It (1981), Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, and Inchon are the ones that have made him the most famous as an actor. (2009). Born on February 26th, 1961
Movita daughter, Rebecca Brando, is the proud mother of two amazing children who have reached adulthood. She is a licensed marriage and family therapist, and in her own practice, she makes frequent use of EMDR treatment.
Rebecca finds great fulfillment in her work with children and adolescents as well as in assisting residents of Los Angeles neighborhoods that are socially and economically disadvantaged with their mental health.
Antioch University is where Rebecca earned both her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in Clinical Psychology. The University of Arizona is where Rebecca earned her Bachelor of Arts degree.
In honor of her late father, she takes pleasure in spending time with her family, accumulating vintage books and jewelry, and discovering novel ways to forge connections with the natural world.