Anna Kashfi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Kashfi

Anna Kashfi (born September 30, 1934) is a former film actress, who had a brief Hollywood career in the 1950s and is best known for having been married to Marlon Brando.

Early life and origins

Johanna O'Callaghan was born in Darjeeling and raised in Calcutta, India and, later, Cardiff, Wales, where the family moved in 1947. William P. O'Callaghan was a London-born steel worker of Irish descent, who had been a traffic superintendent on the Indian State railways; his wife was English and told the press "there is no Indian blood in my family or my husband's family". In her book, Brando for Breakfast, published in 1979, however, Kashfi claimed that she really is half-Indian and that the press incorrectly believed that William O'Callaghan was her real father when he was, she stated, her stepfather. Kashfi wrote that her biological father was Indian and that she was the result of an "unregistered alliance" between her parents. Film director Edward Dmytryk, who directed the actress in her first film, stated that he knew her real surname was Irish but he said he assumed that she was half-Indian.

Career

She worked as a waitress in Cardiff and in a butcher shop before moving to London, where she became a model

The actress made her debut screen appearance using the stage name Anna Kashfi as a Hindu girl in The Mountain (1956) for Paramount with Spencer Tracy and Robert Wagner. In her next film she co-starred with Rock Hudson as a Korean girl in Battle Hymn (1957). This was followed by Cowboy (1958) with Glenn Ford and Jack Lemmon in which she played a Mexican. Her next and last film during this period was Night of the Quarter Moon (1959). She made a few appearances on television, including the series Adventures in Paradise, though drug and alcohol problems reportedly contributed to the premature end of her acting career.

Personal life

Kashfi married Marlon Brando on October 11, 1957, and they were divorced on April 22, 1959. According to The New York Times (October 14, 1957), though Kashfi's parents had been identified as the O'Callaghans, she did not identify them as her parents on her marriage license, instead stating that her father was Devi Kashfi and her mother was Selma Ghose; a friend of the bride stated that Kashfi's purported Indian father had died six weeks before the Brandos' wedding. The O'Callaghans' were adamant that Kashfi was their child, and William O'Callaghan was quoted in Time magazine as saying, "That's our daughter, and both me and missus were born in London." The magazine further stated that "MGM, which likes Johanna-Anna in her off-shoulder sari, first hedged, then admitted her identity."

The Brandos had a son, Christian Devi Brando, (1958–2008), and fought bitterly over custody of the boy, with Brando eventually obtaining custody. Kashfi married James Hannaford, a salesman, in 1974. His death ended the marriage.[when?] In the 1990s, her son, Christian, whom she called "Devi", was tried for killing his half-sister Cheyenne Brando's boyfriend Dag Drollet. Christian Brando died of pneumonia in Los Angeles in 2008, aged 49.

Books

• Anna K. Brando and E. P. Stein, Brando for Breakfast, Berkley Pub Group, 1980, ISBN 0425046982.

Filmography

• The Mountain (1956)
• Battle Hymn (1957)
• Cowboy (1958)
• Night of the Quarter Moon (1959)

Television appearances

• Adventures In Paradise (1959)
• The Deputy (1960)
• Bronco (1960)

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From The Spokane Daily Chronicle, of Saturday, Oct. 12, 1957:

Brando's New Bride Isn't Exactly Indian

Cardiff, Wales, Oct. 12 (UP) - Factory worker William Patrick O'Callaghan said today Marlon Brando's "Indian" bride was no Indian at all, but his daughter, a former butcher's assistant and waitress.

In fact, O'Callaghan said, the film actress named Anna Kashfi whom Brando married in Hollywood yesterday is as English as he is.

"Indian?" O'Callaghan grinned, "well, I suppose she is if you consider she was born in Calcutta. But she's our daughter, and both the missus and me were born in London."

"That's our Joan," residents of the O'Callaghan neighborhood exclaimed when they saw pictures of Brando's bride in the morning papers.

O'Callaghan said Joan lived in India until she was 13 while he was a traffic superintendent with Indian railways.

Then she moved to Wales with the family, he said, and worked as a butcher's assistant and later as a waitress.

Joan went to art school and then became a model, her father said. A talent scout in London spotted her and got her a Hollywood contract.

"News of the wedding came as a great shock to us," the father said. "She never mentioned Mr. Brando in her letters, but we haven't heard from her in three months."

"We knew they had given her another name in Hollywood, but that's only publicity I suppose," O'Callaghan said.

The living room of the modest O'Callaghan home was filled with photographs of his daughter.

The factory workers looked at the photographs and at the newspaper pictures of Mrs. Anna Kashfi Brando.

"That's our Joan," he said proudly.

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From The (Eugene OR) Register-Guard, of Monday, Oct. 14, 1957:

Actor's Bride Causes Stir in Hollywood

Hollywood (UP) - The question of whether Marlon Brando's bride was Anna Kashfi, Indian actress, or Johanna O'Callaghan of Cardiff, Wales, still has Hollywood buzzing Monday.

It appears possible that she was both: that is, that Joan O'Callaghan, actually born in India, took an Indian name and atmosphere for her theatrical career.

On the other hand, she told Hollywood friends that she was Indian and on her marriage license, she listed her birthplace as Darjeeling, India, and her father as Devi Kashfi.

Nevertheless, William Patrick O'Callaghan of Cardiff, a Welsh factory worker and former railroad man in India, says that Anna Kashfi is his daughter, Joan, born in India while he was employed there. And MGM studio says her paychecks were issued in the name of Johanna O'Callaghan.

Whether she is Anna or Joan, the 23-year-old beauty is now Mrs. Marlon Brando, and has been since she and the 33-year-old actor were married in nearby Eagle Rock, Friday.

Newsmen and studio people have been unable to locate the honeymooning couple since to ask about O'Callaghan's parental claim. When the bridal couple left by automobile, Brando said he didn't know, himself, just where they were going.

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From The (Bowling Green KY) Park City Daily News, of Monday, Oct. 21, 1957:

Hollywood Today: Movies-TV-Radio, by Erskine Johnson, NEA Staff Correspondent

Hollywood - (NEA) - Hollywoodites are talking about: Marlon Brando's exotically named bride, Anna Kashfi, turning out to be Johanna O'Callaghan, the daughter of an English-born factory worker from Cardiff, Wales. She denies it, but if it's true, she's a better actress than Hollywood suspected.

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