Christian Brando, the troubled son of legendary actor Marlon Brando, who made headlines in 1990 when he was arrested in the shooting death of his half-sister's boyfriend, died early Saturday. He was 49.
Brando died from complications of pneumonia at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles, said David J. Seeley, an attorney for Marlon Brando's estate.
The legal proceedings against Brando in the killing of Dag Drollet, 26, caused a firestorm of media attention. His father used his estate near Coldwater Canyon to post the $2-million bond for his son and later offered rambling and emotional testimony pleading for leniency for the oldest of his nine children.
Christian Brando, then 32, eventually pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the death of Drollet, Cheyenne Brando's lover and the father of her unborn child. Brando was sentenced to 10 years in prison but ended up serving nearly five years at the California Men's Colony at San Luis Obispo. He also was placed on three years' probation.
Years later, Brando would be called to court in another high-profile legal case, the civil trial of actor Robert Blake in the slaying of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley.
Christian Brando was born May 11, 1958, in Los Angeles. His mother was Marlon Brando's first wife, Calcutta-born actress Anna Kashfi. Christian was still a toddler when the couple separated and divorced. A protracted custody battle ensued.
Kashfi was initially awarded custody of her son, but that order was removed five years later when a judge declared that her "reliance on drugs and alcohol" contributed to an uncontrollable temper. The court ordered that Christian, then 6, live with the actor's older sister. By 1972, Marlon Brando -- who had married twice more and had three more children -- was granted custody of Christian, who was raised by nannies and sent to boarding school in Ojai.
While the actor was out of the country filming "Last Tango in Paris," Kashfi allegedly kidnapped Christian and took him to Baja California. The boy was later found living in a tent and ill with bronchitis.
Kashfi continued to press for custody but gave up her struggle in 1974 when her ex-husband pledged that she would get reasonable visitation rights with her son.
Christian dropped out of school in 11th grade and began drinking and using LSD. He tried a variety of jobs, including welder and tree trimmer, and lived for a time in Alaska, piloting a barge for a fish processor during the summers. He tried his hand at acting but mostly lived for years with his father in Brando's hilltop estate.
