--- description: Meet the young Marlon Brando at his most charismatic and mysterious, seen through the lens of one of LIFE's greatest photographers. title: Marlon Brando: Portraits of a Charismatic Young Star, 1952 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d77f2969507be46/6987f04255a8592b6ca8a27e/000893664.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Marlon Brando: Portraits of a Charismatic Young Star, 1952 by [Ben Cosgrove](/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 15, 2013 5:00 PM CUT  Not published in LIFE. Marlon Brando, 1952. Not published in LIFE. Marlon Brando, 1952.Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 15, 2013 5:00 PM CUT By 1952, Marlon Brando was well on his way in Hollywood, with three remarkable roles under his belt: his big-screen debut as a paraplegic war vet in _The Men_; a searing on-screen reprisal of his Broadway turn as the iconic brute Stanley Kowalski in director Elia Kazan’s _A Streetcar Named Desire_; and the title role in the biopic, _Viva Zapata!,_ about the Mexican revolutionary hero. 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.) 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_](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk "undefined")_._  Not published in LIFE. Marlon Brando, 1952. Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Marlon Brando, 1952. Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Marlon Brando, 1952. Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Marlon Brando, 1952. Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Marlon Brando, 1952. Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Marlon Brando, 1952. Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Marlon Brando, 1952. Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Marlon Brando, 1952. Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Marlon Brando, 1953. Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3877668/marlon-brando-rare-photos-by-margaret-bourke-white-1952/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3877668/marlon-brando-rare-photos-by-margaret-bourke-white-1952/"},"headline":"Marlon Brando: Portraits of a Charismatic Young Star, 1952","datePublished":"2013-07-15T17:00:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:03:51.420Z","description":"Photos of a young Brando at his most charismatic and mysterious, seen through the lens of one of LIFE's greatest photographers: Margaret Bourke-White.","url":"https://time.com/3877668/marlon-brando-rare-photos-by-margaret-bourke-white-1952/","keywords":["movies","broadway","photography","Actors","Actor","Icons","black and white photography","margaret bourke-white","1952"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d77f2969507be46/6987f04255a8592b6ca8a27e/000893664.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ben Cosgrove","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d77f2969507be46/6987f04255a8592b6ca8a27e/000893664.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Marlon Brando, 1952","caption":"Marlon Brando, 1952","creditText":"Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3877668/marlon-brando-rare-photos-by-margaret-bourke-white-1952/","name":"Marlon Brando: Portraits of a Charismatic Young Star, 1952"}}]}] ```