Did playing “Godfather” mess up Marlon Brando’s biomechanics?

After all he wore an appliance to give him the 'bulldog" look that may have changed his occlusion.

The Godfather came out in 1972 and was the type of film you don’t forget.

Many people watch it over and over again. It’s just that good.

And when putting together a list of the best films of all time… it is almost always in the top three.

And Marlon Brando’s outstanding performance was a big part of that.

But could that role have been the reason for his demise? A few people have asked me that question because he was using an appliance to give him that ‘bulldog’ look that he has in the film.

And so I decided to investigate that question in this article.

Who was Marlon Brando?

Marlon Brando was one of Hollywood’s most revolutionary actors, born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1924.

He fundamentally changed the art of film acting through his naturalistic “Method” approach, bringing a raw authenticity to the screen that had never really been seen before.

His breakthrough came with A Streetcar Named Desire in 1951, followed by the iconic On the Waterfront in 1954, which earned him his first Academy Award for Best Actor.

His career spanned five decades and included legendary performances in The Wild One, Julius Caesar, Apocalypse Now, and of course, The Godfather in 1972, which won him his second Oscar.

Brando became known not just for his acting prowess but also for his rebellious spirit and willingness to challenge Hollywood conventions. He was a political activist, a complex personality, and someone who valued artistic integrity over commercial success.

He was a great looking guy when he was young

In his prime, Marlon Brando was considered one of the most handsome men ever to appear on screen.

His combination of rugged masculinity, intense eyes, and brooding presence made him the embodiment of mid-century masculine beauty.

In A Streetcar Named Desire, he had a lean, athletic physique that became instantly iconic.

Critics and fans alike described him as devastatingly attractive, with one reviewer noting he was “as beautiful as anyone had been on screen.” And this all cemented his status as a heartthrob.

His structural facial features were a looksmaxxer’s dream—strong jawline, prominent cheekbones, and excellent overall proportions.

He should have naturally aged extremely well.

But he fell apart quite young

The transformation was dramatic and disturbing. By the mid-1970s, just a few years after The Godfather, Brando began gaining massive amounts of weight. What started as fluctuations of 20-30 pounds eventually ballooned into something far more serious.

By 1976’s Missouri Breaks, he appeared to have gained nearly 100 pounds from his Last Tango in Paris physique just four years earlier.

His health issues multiplied as the weight accumulated. He developed diabetes, heart problems, high blood pressure, and severe mobility issues.

At his peak weight, Brando reached somewhere between 300-350 pounds, becoming what medical professionals described as “morbidly obese.”

He struggled with binge eating, reportedly consuming two steaks, two apple pies, and a quart of milk for a single dinner. His eating habits became legendary and bizarre—eating 51 eggs at a party, disguising himself to buy six hot dogs at a time on Los Angeles streets.

But this wasn’t just simple weight gain—it was biomechanical collapse.

Look at photos from his later years and you can see the telltale signs: his neck shortened dramatically, his profile completely changed, his entire skeletal structure appeared to twist and compress.

His face lost all its previous angularity and definition. The balloon had deflated.

Could playing “Godfather” have been the culprit?

To play Don Vito Corleone, Brando wore a custom dental appliance designed by legendary makeup artist Dick Smith and fabricated by a New York dentist named Henry Dwork.

Initially, Brando stuffed cotton balls in his mouth during the screen test to achieve the character’s signature “bulldog” look with sagging jowls.

For the actual filming, this was replaced with the steel and resin dental prosthetic that you see above, pushing his cheeks outward.

Also Brando’s timeline fits the pattern seemingly well. The Godfather was filmed in 1971-1972. By 1973 Brando’s weight started spiraling.

But when you look at the model of his lower teeth you get some other very powerful clues.

His teeth were already quite worn down. And so his structure was already in pretty rapid decline when he did The Godfather.

Then I think it was the 1980’s that really sealed the deal. Apparently:

• he had multiple extractions and was missing numerous molars

• he started having periodontal (gum) disease

• he started wearing partial dentures

Then by the 1990’s during The Freshman (1990) and Don Juan DeMarco (1995), observers (including makeup team members) noted that Brando:

• sometimes removed his dentures between takes

• wore partial plates for aesthetics on camera

• had lost several front teeth and had widespread gum recession

And by the early 2000’s he had very few natural teeth left.

Marlon Brando died on July 1, 2004 at the age of 80. His official cause of death was respiratory failure caused by Pulmonary fibrosis (scarring and stiffening of the lungs).

But he also had congestive heart failure, Type 2 diabetes, and liver issues.

In other words… the collapse was complete.

Closing thoughts

So to put it simply… I don’t think we can directly blame a dentist for the collapse of Marlon Brando.

As in it wasn’t some sales pitch to give him the “Hollywood smile” because Brando was not the type of guy that would have given into that type of sales pitch. He was too ‘authentic’.

But you don’t need to say yes to aesthetic dentistry for dentistry to still get the best of you.

Eventually he had teeth extracted and dentures made… and that stuff also massively accelerates the collapse process.

When in fact all a dentist should have done was put a bunch of flat composite on his two back lower teeth and all of this collapse would have almost definitely reversed.

Simple physics turned one of Hollywood’s most beautiful male actors of all time into one of it’s ugliest by the time he passed.

Simple physics could have also prevented all of that.

If only dental biomechanics had been understood back then.