Media mourns 'charismatic' Brando

Brando starred in more than 40 movies

Hollywood legend Marlon Brando has been feted by US commentators as a "charismatic rebel" and a "poet" after his death at the age of 80.

America's media paid homage to Brando over the weekend with a host of front-page stories and glowing tributes.

The New York Times said: "Simply put, in film acting there is before Brando and there is after Brando."

The Los Angeles Times said his gift was "to stand apart, to do the unexpected, to be at the head of the class."

Brando died of lung failure at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles on Thursday evening, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

Brando won two Academy awards for best actor

His lawyer, David J Seeley, has said funeral arrangements will be private.

Brando, who starred in more than 40 movies, received eight Oscar nominations. He twice won the best actor award, for On the Waterfront and The Godfather.

In the Washington Post on Saturday, Brando was described as a "charismatic rebel" who "transformed movies".

In the Chicago Sun Times, film critic Roger Ebert remembered him as "the most influential actor in the history of the movies.

Mr Ebert said he was also "one of the most exasperating" for never quite realising his potential and taking on roles in many mediocre movies.

"He was a poet and, at the end, he was a pauper, but in all seasons of his life, he was unmistakably, defiantly, brilliantly Marlon Brando," he said.