Marlon Brando a friend of founder Bobby Seale. Brando ended his financial support for the group over his perception of its increasing radicalization, specifically a passage in a Panther pamphlet put out by Eldridge Cleaver advocating indiscriminate violence, "for the Revolution." At the 1973 Academy Awards ceremony, Brando refused to accept the Oscar for his performance in "The Godfather". Sacheen Littlefeather represented him at the ceremony. She appeared in full Apache attire and stated that owing to the "poor treatment of Native Americans in the film industry", Brando would not accept the award. This occurred while the standoff at Wounded Knee was
Marlon Brando cameo roles, such as in "Superman" (1978) and "The Formula" (1980), before taking a nine-year break from motion pictures. According to the "Guinness Book of World Records", Brando was paid a record $3.7 million ($ million in inflation-adjusted dollars) and 11.75% of the gross profits for 13 days' work on "Superman". He finished out the 1970s with his controversial performance as Colonel Kurtz in another Coppola film, "Apocalypse Now", a box-office hit for which he was highly paid and which helped finance his career layoff during the 1980s. Brando was ranked by the American Film Institute as the fourth-greatest movie