And LIFE magazine photographers were there. Gjon Mili, such a wonderful documenter of the arts, is responsible for a great many pictures here, but Gordon Parks, George Silk, Bill Ray and many others all took their swings. Their pictures capture artists at work—including actors who would later become familiar faces on television, such as Jerry Orbach (Law & Order). Angela Lansbury (Murder, She Wrote) , Barbara Bel Geddes (Dallas) and Julie Newmar (Batman).

The thrill of theater is, of course, being there. This photos are the next best thing.

Nineteen-year-old Barbra Streisand played Miss Marmelstein in the 1962 Broadway play “I Can Get It For You Wholesale.”

George Silk The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Barbra Streisand, 1962.

George Silk The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando and Kim Hunter in “A Streetcar Named Desire,” 1947.

Eliot Elisofon / The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jessica Tandy as Blanche Dubois in Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire,” 1947.

Eliot Elisofon /The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A 1943 production of “Oklahoma!”

Gjon Mili/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Pearl Bailey during a curtain call for the Broadway production of Hello, Dolly! in 1967.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shuttertstock

Jerry Orbach (left) and an unidentified actress in a scene from the off-Broadway production of ‘Scuba Duba,’ October 1967.

Ralph Morse/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Angela Lansbury opened on Broadway in “Mame” to a standing ovation, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A 1953 production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, featuring Madeline Sherwood (rear, second from left), Arthur Kennedy (right) and Walter Hampden (second from right).

Gjon Mili/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Paul Newman (left) and Geraldine Page in the Tennessee Williams play Sweet Bird of Youth, 1959.

Gordon Parks/Life PIcture Collection/Shutterstock

Sidney Poitier on the set of Porgy and Bess, 1959.

Gjon Mili Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Sidney Poitier in a scene from “Porgy and Bess,” 1959.

Gjon Mili The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

Gjon Mili The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

ason Robards Jr. (L) and Farrell Pelly (R) in a scene from the Eugene O’Neill play “The Iceman Cometh,” 1956.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mary Martin and her fellow cast members soared in the 1954 Broadway production of the musical Peter Pan.

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from “All My Sons,” 1947, starring Karl Malden.

Eileen Darby The LIFE Images Collection/Shutterstock

Julie Newmar, right, with Claudette Colbert in a scene from the Broadway play “The Marriage-Go-Round,” 1958.

Photo by Ralph Morse/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Barbara Bel Geddes in the Tennessee Williams play “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”

Gjon Mili/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from Death of a Salesman, 1949, with Lee. J. Cobb as Willy Loman.

W. Eugene Smith The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Patrick O’Neal (right) and Margaret Leighton in the play ‘The Night of the Iguana’ by Tennessee Williams, 1962.

Leonard McCombe/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Hair, the original Broadway cast, 1968

Ralph Morse The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

In Jesus Christ Superstar, Jeff Fenholt, as Jesus, was elevated with angels while Judas, played by Ben Vereen, was on a wing-shaped set platform.

John Olson/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

The post LIFE’s Images of Classic Broadway appeared first on LIFE.

But for all those successes, Brando had not yet made the cover of LIFE — a magazine that prided itself on capturing and reflecting the nations’ obsessions and interests, week after week after week. In 1952, that oversight was remedied, as legendary photographer Margaret Bourke-White shot a portrait session with Brando, capturing the 28-year-old star in a casual, playful mood.

For reasons lost to time, Bourke-White’s photos — discovered in LIFE’s archives and marked with the sole descriptive phrase, “cover tries” — were never published in the magazine. (Though Bourke-White’s portraits never saw the light of day, Brando ultimately did grace the cover of LIFE, making his first appearance in character as Antony from Julius Caesar in the April 20, 1953, issue. He’d appear on the cover three more times.)

It is difficult to look at the face of the young Brando without feeling the influence of his most iconic performances, from On the Waterfront to The Godfather. Here, meet the young Brando at his most charismatic and mysterious, seen through the lens of one of LIFE’s greatest photographers, in a series of photos that never ran in the magazine.

Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.

Marlon Brando, 1952

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando, 1952

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando, 1952

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando, 1952

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando, 1952

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando, 1952

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando, 1952

Margaret Bourke-White Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando, 1952

Margaret Bourke-White Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando: First LIFE Cover

Margaret Bourke-White Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The post Marlon Brando: Portraits of a Charismatic Young Star, 1952 appeared first on LIFE.

Natalie Wood and her silver poodle Morningstar, at home in Beverly Hills in 1960.

Photo by Allan Grant/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation.

Gertrude Stein, right, and Alice B. Toklas walked their poodle, Baskets, in the French village of Culoz after the end of German occupation, 1945.

Photo by Carl Mydans/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation.

Baseball star Willie Mays walked with his poodle at the San Francisco airport, after his Giants left New York and moved west in 1958.

Photo by Nat Farbman/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation.

In 1956, Jayne Mansfield pondered the eternal question: why not just play with your dog?

Photo by Peter Stackpole/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation.

Alfred Hitchcock, at home with his Sealyham terrier Mr. Jenkins in 1939, offered a title for this photo: “A Dislike of American Fireplaces.”

Photo by Peter Stackpole/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation.

Steve McQueen was woken by his malamute during a hunting trip in the Sierra Madre Mountains, 1963.

Photo by John Dominis/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Frank Sinatra checked in on Ringo in Palm Springs, 1965.

Photo by John Dominis/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Jimmy Stewart once read a poem about his dog on The Tonight Show.

Photo by Rex Hardy/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Actress Bette Davis and her dog were wheeled about in her Beverly Hills backyard, 1939.

Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

On this journey on a less-traveled road, poet Robert Frost chose not to walk alone.

Photo by Eric Schaal/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

The post Celebrities’ Best Friends appeared first on LIFE.

Directed by Elia Kazan and starring Brando, Jessica Tandy, Kim Hunter and Karl Malden, the 1947 production remains a touchstone in American drama, winning both the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle award for the year’s best play, as well as a Best Actress Tony for Tandy for her seminal performance as the unstable, alcoholic, melodramatic Southern belle, Blanche DuBois. Despite all the accolades it earned, however, the 24-year Brando’s galvanizing turn as Stanley Kowalski — in both the play and in Kazan’s 1951 film adaptation — was what really seared the production into the pop-culture consciousness.

Gritty, sensual, violent and bleak, Williams’ great play remains one of a handful of utterly indispensable 20th-century American dramatic works, while the sensual ferocity of Brando’s Stanley can still shock, seven decades after he first unleashed the character on a rapt theatergoing public.

A Streetcar Named Desire 1947

Kim Hunter (left), Marlon Brando, Karl Malden and others in rehearsal for the original production of ‘A Streetcar Named Desire.’ (Eliot Elisofon / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Jessica Tandy as Blanche Dubois in Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire,” 1947.

Eliot Elisofon /The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando and Kim Hunter in “A Streetcar Named Desire,” 1947.

Eliot Elisofon / The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A Streetcar Named Desire 1947

Eliot Elisofon The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A Streetcar Named Desire 1947

Eliot Elisofon The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A Streetcar Named Desire 1947

Eliot Elisofon The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A Streetcar Named Desire 1947

Eliot Elisofon The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A Streetcar Named Desire 1947

Eliot Elisofon The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Tennessee Williams on the set of Streetcar Named Desire

Eliot Elisofon The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post Brando Takes Broadway: LIFE on the Set of ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ in 1947 appeared first on LIFE.

Photographer Ed Clark captured Brando’s explosive arrival in California, chronicling the actor as he submerged himself in “The Method” e.g., taking to a wheelchair and struggling with leg braces while living among paraplegics at a VA hospital in Van Nuys. But Clark also came away with surprising glimpses into the more personal, private Brando.

Here, LIFE.com presents a number of Clark’s photos most of which were never published in LIFE at a time when the actor was just beginning to forge his own Hollywood legend.

Accompanying Ed Clark’s images in LIFE’s archives were meticulous notes about Brando written by Theodore Strauss, who would ultimately write the magazine’s 1950 profile that coincided with the release of The Men. Strauss details the actor’s every eccentricity: what he wore, how he ate, what he read, how he shunned any sort of red carpet that might have been laid out for him when he came to town.

“Stanley Kramer, producer of The Men, had intended on putting Brando in a good hotel, but Brando would have none of it,” Strauss wrote. “First of all he insisted on living with the paraplegics in Birmingham Veterans Hospital during the four weeks before production began. This, he felt, was necessary to giving a completely knowledgeable and valid performance in his role. He was given a bed in a 32-bed ward, where he was treated almost like any other patient.”

The actor’s reputation as a bad boy had preceded him, stories of his nose-picking, shabby dress, foul language and grumbling interviews having traveled all the way from New York to Los Angeles. But, LIFE wrote, “however infantile or irresponsible Brando may be in his personal life, he is a totally conscientious artist in his work. Unlike some of Hollywood’s pretty people, he was never late on the set, never indulged in a tantrum, never required endless retakes.”

He was also far more of an introvert, in some ways, than his reputation suggested. Brando, wrote Strauss, “reads everything, absolutely omnivorous from Krishnamurti to recent novels.” For the actor, it was all about the craft nothing else, even life’s essentials, seemed to matter. From LIFE’s profile: “His salary, for the soundest of reasons, has been sent to his father, Marlon Brando Sr., who invests the money in cattle on a Midwestern ranch called Penny Poke. Each week Brando receives a living allowance of $150. Because he rarely looks at money and sometimes pays for a package of cigarets with a $20 bill, he usually is penniless by the second day.”

Of his relationship with the real paraplegics and quadriplegics from whom he was learning for his role, Strauss noted that “Brando’s orientation and adjustment as a paraplegic was so complete that he participated in their sometimes gruesome horseplay with complete freedom one of the reasons why he was so completely accepted. [Pranks] include pillow fights and using hypodermic syringes for water pistols.”

From Strauss’ notes about Hollywood’s reaction to Brando: “Thus far no one has accused him of posing; everyone to whom we’ve spoken has a sort of confused respect for a man who, up to now, has managed to live as he feels, without caring a hoot what anyone thinks.”

In his personal style, meanwhile, the actor was unfussy and unpretentious, almost to a fault: “When Brando first arrived in Hollywood his only luggage was a battered, imitation-leather suitcase the size of a woman’s overnight bag,” Strauss observed. “He was wearing a blue worsted suit which had seen much wear and weather there were holes and tears in the jacket, and a part of Brando was visible through the seat of the pants.”

Once official production on The Men began, Brando moved out of the veterans hospital and into a small bungalow owned by his aunt, Betty Lindemeyer, in Eagle Rock, Calif. During this period Brando’s maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Myers, was also a house guest.

“She [his grandmother] was quite abashed because Ed Clark took pictures of Marlon in a bathrobe, which happens to be hers,” reported a production assistant in notes found in LIFE’s archives. Grandma Myers was also apologetic about the barbaric way her grandson ate: “Bud doesn’t bring the food to his face,” she told LIFE, using Brando’s nickname. “He brings his face to the food.”

“I do hope that Bud comes through all this without too much scandal,” she confided to LIFE at one point. “I love him more than anything on this earth, but I never know when I’m going to hear from him in San Quentin.”

Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizabethRonk.

Marlon Brando took a break while training for his role in The Men, 1949.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando chatted with a production manager for ‘The Men,’ 1949.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando trained for his role in The Men, at the Birmingham Veterans Administration Hospital, Van Nuys, Calif., 1949.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando rehearsed his role in The Men, Birmingham Veterans Administration Hospital, Van Nuys, Calif., 1949.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

As his real-life inspirations played cards in the background, Marlon Brando took a break from rehearsing for The Men, Birmingham Veterans Administration Hospital, Van Nuys, Calif., 1949.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando, Birmingham Veterans Administration Hospital, Van Nuys, Calif., 1949.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando took a spill while training for his role in The Men, on the grounds of the Birmingham Veterans Administration Hospital, Van Nuys, Calif., 1949.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando while training for his role in The Men, 1949.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando while training for his role in The Men, 1949.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando while training for his role in The Men, 1949.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando while training for his role in The Men, 1949.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando attempted to tip and balance his wheelchair on the set of The Men, 1949.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando, 1949.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando, 1949.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando kissed his grandmother as he headed to the studio for a day of filming The Men, 1949.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando, 1949.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando and his grandmother, 1949.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando at his aunt’s house in California during filming of The Men, 1949.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando went for a stroll with his grandmother and her dog, 1949.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando, 1949.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post Brando: Early Photos of a Legend in the Making appeared first on LIFE.

“I threw myself, one hundred percent, into every shoot,” Ray said. “And I loved it.”

For this Photographer Spotlight, however, LIFE.com focussed on one aspect of Ray’s varied portfolio: celebrity portraits.

Even a partial roll call of the stars Bill Ray photographed for LIFE reads like a Who’s Who of Sixties pop culture: Marilyn Monroe, Sinatra, the Beatles, Natalie Wood, Elizabeth Taylor, Elvis, Steve McQueen, Jackie Kennedy and on and on and on. What’s truly remarkable is that he managed to capture something utterly distinctive about each one.

It’s difficult to imagine one photographer capable of showing us something elemental about personalities as wildly disparate as, say, Brigitte Bardot, Sonny Liston and Woody Allen, but Bill Ray did just that, again and again.

Some photo captions in this gallery include Ray’s memories of what it was like to photograph these people. But we’ve also included, below, a few of the longer and often hilarious stories Bill Ray told about documenting the lives and careers of the 20th century’s most famous public figures.

[Buy Bill Ray’s My LIFE in Photography, from which some of these memories, slightly edited, are taken.]

Marilyn Monroe Sings “Happy Birthday” to JFK, May 19, 1962:

I was on assignment for LIFE at the old Madison Square Garden that night one of many photographers down in front of the stage. The police, with directions from the Secret Service, were forcing the press into a tight group behind a rope. I knew that all the “rope-a-dopes” would get the same shot, and that would not work for LIFE. I squeezed between the cops and took off looking for a better place.

It seemed that I climbed forever. When I found a pipe railing to rest the lens on (exposure was strictly by guess), I could see JFK through the telephoto. When the moment came, the Garden went black. Total silence.

One spotlight snapped on, and there was Marilyn, in that dress, crystals sparkling and flashing. She was smiling, with everyone on the edge of their seats. Then, in her breathy, sexy, unique voice, looking the entire time right at JFK, she sang.

In two-and-a-half months, Marilyn would be dead. In eighteen months, Kennedy would be assassinated; Vietnam would turn into our worst nightmare; Camelot would be gone. But that night, Marilyn’s brief song stopped the world.

 

Brigitte Bardot Throws a Tantrum on the Set of Shalako, Spain, 1968:

I rode with Bardot to the set many times in her white Rolls-Royce. On one of those mornings, B.B. saw a stray, starving dog and ordered her driver to stop. It was love at first sight. The starving mutt loved B.B. and the Rolls, and B.B. loved the mutt. B.B. put all her retainers on the case. She would make a perfect life for this “adorable” dog.

Her hairdresser bathed the dog. Her chauffeur tore off in the Rolls for filet mignon. The dog never left her side until the fourth day when he keeled over dead from too much of the good life.

B.B. started to cry and worked herself up to uncontrollable wailing. She locked her dressing room door. Cast and crew [including co-star Sean Connery] were standing by. Lunch time came and went. The wailing went on and on. The whole day was lost; mucho dinero.

 

Woody Allen in Vegas, 1966:

It was a pivotal year for Woody. He published stories in the New Yorker, wrote and directed his first film, What’s Up Tiger Lily? and had a Broadway hit, Don’t Drink the Water. He was on fire, and LIFE wanted to celebrate him with a cover story. I was given the job of shooting Woody in Las Vegas, along with any other photos I could get of his other activities.

The Woody I met at Caesars Palace was one of the quietest, most cooperative people I’ve ever worked with. The only problem was that he didn’t do anything except stay in his room, write, and practice his clarinet until it was time for his standup routine. Then I remembered the kitschy nude Roman statues in front of Caesars. With trepidation, I asked Woody if he would pose with one of the nudes. He thought it was a funny idea and said “sure.” That was a relief and I pressed my luck, asking him if he would wear a red sweater that I happened to have with me.

“Is it cashmere?” he asked. It wasn’t; it was wool.

Woody said he was allergic to wool, but after some pleading, he agreed to wear it.

I needed the contrast with the white statue, and a bit of red never hurt for a cover shoot. The statue seemed to inspire Woody, and he really came to life. He hugged and vamped and swung around. It was tremendous fun.

Phone calls and telexes from New York assured me the shots were great and would run with the story.

But LIFE was a weekly and would use a news cover whenever they could. Unfortunately for me, some damn thing happened that week and LIFE scrapped the Woody Allen cover. It was heartbreaking but I still had the great thrill of working with one on the comic geniuses of my time.

Pvt. Elvis Presley in Brooklyn, 1958, before leaving the States to serve in Germany.

Bill RayThe LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Gina Lollobrigida signed autographs in front of New York’s old Metropolitan Opera House, 1958.

Bill Ray

Frank Sinatra on the set of the movie, “Can-Can,” 1959.

Bill Ray

Elizabeth Taylor 1959

Bill Ray

John Wayne, Toots Shor, 1959

Bill Ray

Jackie Kennedy 1960

Bill Ray

Ella Fitzgerald 1962

Bill Ray

Marilyn Monroe 1962

Bill Ray

Sonny Liston, Floyd Patterson, 1963

Bill Ray

Natalie Wood 1963

Bill Ray

Jill St. John 1963

Bill Ray

Marlon Brando and Paul Newman 1963

Bill Ray

Senta Berger 1964

Bill Ray Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The Beatles 1964

Bill Ray Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Woody Allen 1966

Bill Ray

Michael Caine 1966

Bill Ray Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Ray Charles performed at Carnegie Hall, 1966.

Bill Ray/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Nancy Sinatra 1966

Bill Ray Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Faye Dunaway and Steve McQueen 1967

Bill Ray Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Lew Alcindor 1967

Bill Ray Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Brigitte Bardot 1968

Bill Ray

Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski 1968

Bill Ray Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Jane Fonda and daughter 1971

Bill Ray Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

George Harrison and Bob Dylan at the Concert for Bangladesh in New York, 1971.

Bill Ray/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Ann Margaret 1972

Bill Ray

Diahann Carroll and David Frost

Bill Ray Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The post Photographer Spotlight: Bill Ray’s Classic Celebrity Portraits appeared first on LIFE.