Donald Brandon | Doctor to the famous, 84

Donald Brandon, 84, a World War II combat veteran and longtime Manhattan internist whose patients included Marlon Brando, Tennessee Williams, and many foreign correspondents, died Wednesday of heart failure in Bronxville, N.Y.

Dr. Brandon was medical director to the Associated Press for many years, and his son remembered many mealtimes interrupted by phone calls from reporters abroad. "If one of the people at AP were to call from some remote outpost and have some exotic tropical disease, my father would stay on the phone for hours and make sure he was getting the right treatment," Richard Brandon said.

He was also an official physician to the United Nations, his son said, and counted Secretary-General U Thant among his patients and close friends.

Dr. Brandon was born in Memphis, the son of touring vaudevillians. He attended more than a dozen schools before starting college. His education was interrupted by the war, and he served with the Army in the South Pacific. Afterward, he graduated from the University of Denver and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. He established his New York practice and worked until 2008.

- AP