There was only one rule in Marlon Brando’s Tahiti based family: “Don’t ever go to Hollywood!” It was a rule obeyed by most of the numerous Brando offspring, with two notable exceptions — his gorgeous daughter Cheyenne, and his son Christian.
Cheyenne wanted to ‘make it big’. She was a dancer and a model, and rather stunning. But as pretty as she was, she was also disturbed mentally… once, when still a teenager, she drove her father’s car way over the speed limited and crashed it. She recovered from the accident physically, although it scarred her face. Mentally, she decayed…
Back to Tahiti she went… now she was smoking, her hair cut short and she liked her booze a little too much… her father advised her to stop, to behave, to think of her health and well-being. But she wasn’t listening, and frankly the older Brando had too many kids to give each the proper attention — he had eleven acknowledged children and a dozen more unacknowledged ones, and he wasn’t getting any younger. He tried taking her surfing and snorkeling, getting her interest in horseback riding… but she stayed sad and lost no matter what he tried…
Finally, in early 1990s Cheyenne found a bit of happiness. She smiled again, for the first time in a long time… because she had fallen in love with a handsome young Tahitian man named Dag Drollet. Though she was only 19, she knew he was ‘the one’ and the pair got engaged…
Enter Christian Brando. The older half-brother of Cheyenne. He was living in America, and Cheyenne and him had gotten in touch. Seemed like a decent enough guy, just… troubled. Most of the Brandlings were troubled. Anyway, to cut a long story short, Cheyenne and her fiancée Dag were visiting with the elder Brando in his Mulholland Drive apartment. One night, Cheyenne called her older brother in tears… “Dag hit me…” she said.
So Christian drives to the apartment, confronts his sister’s fiancée and, after a brief struggle, produces a gun and shoots his brother-in-law-to-be in the face. Point blank. Dag Drollet falls over and collapses on the sofa. Dead.
There’s a trial. Christian is sentenced to five years in jail for manslaughter, as the killing was ruled a tragic misfortune and not premeditated. The ordeal left all involved parties utterly broken… Cheyenne was eight months pregnant when her fiancée was killed by her own brother. And later on, Brando came to doubt whether Dag had ever truly been abusive, as the mentally ill young woman had a history of lying her older brother was unaware of, having grown up in different households.
“I feel like a chump for believing her…” Christian later said. Cheyenne died in 1995, committing suicide. She hung herself in her father’s home. Her son was raised by Marlon and his ex-wife until the elder Brando died in 2004. Christian Brando died in 2008… a sad story without winners.
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