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Obituaries

Movita Castaneda | Actress, Brando wife, 98

Movita Castaneda, a movie actress who married Marlon Brando in 1960 and had two children with him, has died in a Los Angeles rehabilitation center. She was believed to be 98.

File: Marlon Brando, his wife, Mexican actress Movita Castaneda, left, and actress Debbie Reynolds, right, arriving for the West Coast premiere of "Mutiny on the Bounty" at the Hollywood Egyptian Theater in Los Angeles in November 1962. Castaneda, the dark-haired actress who met Brando on a movie set and later married him and had two of his children died Thursday, Feb. 12, 2015 at a Los Angeles rehabilitation center after being treated for a neck injury. The Los Angeles Times says Castaneda was believed to be 98. (AP Photo/David F. Smith,File)
File: Marlon Brando, his wife, Mexican actress Movita Castaneda, left, and actress Debbie Reynolds, right, arriving for the West Coast premiere of "Mutiny on the Bounty" at the Hollywood Egyptian Theater in Los Angeles in November 1962. Castaneda, the dark-haired actress who met Brando on a movie set and later married him and had two of his children died Thursday, Feb. 12, 2015 at a Los Angeles rehabilitation center after being treated for a neck injury. The Los Angeles Times says Castaneda was believed to be 98. (AP Photo/David F. Smith,File)Read more
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Movita Castaneda, a movie actress who married Marlon Brando in 1960 and had two children with him, has died in a Los Angeles rehabilitation center. She was believed to be 98.

Her death Thursday came after hospitalization for a neck injury, said Barbara Sternig, a family friend.

One of Ms. Castaneda's first films, Mutiny on the Bounty, a 1935 classic with Clark Gable and Charles Laughton, came back to play a powerful role in her life decades later.

Ms. Castaneda, who was known as Movita, had a small role as a beautiful Tahitian maiden who married one of the mutineers.

The film was remade in 1962, with Brando, Movita's husband, playing the mutiny's leader, Fletcher Christian.

Nineteen-year-old Tarita Teri'ipaia played his Tahitian lover - and the two also became lovers off-screen.

After Movita and Brando split, Teri'ipaia became Brando's third wife. They were divorced in 1972.

- L.A. Times

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