After a career slump in the early 1950s, by 1955 Frank Sinatra was back on the top of his game. Plus, at the same time, a raft of new stars—all trained in the new school of Method Acting—were beginning to make their mark in Hollywood too, led by future two-time Oscar-winner Marlon Brando.
The two leading men could scarcely have been more different. Sinatra was chiefly a singer and entertainer, not an actor, and as a person was flamboyant, wise-cracking, and breezily outgoing.
Brando was gruffer, quieter, very studious and introverted, and—like all graduates of the Method school—was utterly dedicated to bringing gritty integrity and truth to every one of his performances. Sinatra liked to capture his scenes in a single take and was rarely interested in rehearsals.
For Brando, rehearsals were paramount, allowing actors the time to build their characters up into fully rounded, realistic people.
Given all of their differences, needless to say when both stars found themselves cast together in 1955’s Guys and Dolls things weren’t exactly harmonious.
The production reportedly got off to a bad start even before the pair got to set, with Sinatra reacting furiously to Brando being cast as the lead, Sky Masterson, and receiving top billing on the poster.
From then on, Sinatra insisted on referring to his notoriously reserved (and frequently incoherent) co-star as “Mumbles.” Sinatra’s unwillingness to rehearse, meanwhile, riled Brando, who let his feelings, be known in one of Hollywood’s most infamously bitchy quotes: “Frank’s the kind of guy, when he dies; he’s going to go to heaven and give God a bad time for making him bald.”
Eventually, the pair’s uncomfortable working relationship came to a head in the most bizarre of situations—a scene in which Sinatra’s character, Nathan Detroit, is having a conversation with Sky while eating a plate of cheesecake. With the cameras rolling, all of Brando’s professionalism seemed to suddenly leave him, and he began repeatedly fluffing his lines, time and time again.
And every time the scene was restarted, Sinatra was served yet another slice of cheesecake.
Eventually, by the ninth take, Sinatra had had enough both of the dessert and of his co-star. “These f—king New York actors!” He reportedly exploded. “How much cheesecake do you think I can eat?!” Was Brando deliberately ruining the takes to get his own back on Sinatra? Who knows…?