10 things you want to know about the Method

1. The Actors Studio was founded by directors Elia Kazan and Robert Lewis, and producer Cheryl Crawford in October of 1947. Another former Group Theater member, Lee Strasberg was invited to join in 1949; by 1951, he was already its power.

Irene Selznick, Tennessee Williams, Elia Kazan on the set of "A Streetcar Named Desire". New York City, 1947

2. It was Stella Adler who taught Brando the Stanislavskian system of acting --never Strasberg, as it is all too frequently assumed. Founding member of the Group, Adler was trained by Konstantin Stanislavski himself, whom she visited in Moscow circa 1934.

3. Jimmy Dean only attended about just a couple of sessions at the Studio. However, Strasberg was proud of Dean's character job in the 1956 epic film Giant.

4. 'Method' was a term coined by Strasberg to rename the Russian 'System' for the American stage.

5. Brando hated Strasberg and vice versa. Al Pacino loved them both; always had. Pacino first became aware of the Studio when he saw Brando in the Kazan pictures as a teenager. Many years later, he was Strasberg's most excellent disciple, protégé and friend. Then, in 1972, Pacino had his breakthrough playing the cold-blooded son to Brando's Godfather.

6. Among the alumni who could not stand the rigor of Strasberg, besides Dean, there have been other more contemporary greats, such as Harvey Keitel, who does acknowledge Strasberg as one of his mentors.

Harvey Keitel and Zina Bethune in Martin Scorsese's Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967)

7. It seems that the only girl --the one student, with disregard of their gender, Pacino aside-- who ever actually enjoyed the guy was Marilyn. She was devoted to Strasberg's dissecting lessons and overall psychoanalytical take on anything. Marilyn was a real sweetheart.

Laurence Olivier, Marilyn Monroe and Susan Strasberg

8. The soon to be called Method acting had its first time in the spotlight when the triumphant performance of Brando in the world debut of Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire", directed by Kazan, hit the Ethel Barrymore theater on December 3, 1947. 'Stella!!!' (an almost unbearable screaming which is also the laconic emblem of a shocking new kind of artistic expression) was, along with a ripped T-shirt and the desperately inarticulate style of a caveman, the trademark of an instant phenomenon. True or false, Brando and the Actors Studio went up to be so immediately and profoundly associated, it can be said the Method is modeled after him.

Brando (Stanley Kowalski) and Jessica Tandy (Blanche DuBois)

9. The best-known action movie star to have ever been a member of the Studio was Steve McQueen. From The Great Escape (1963) to The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), McQueen has turned out to be presumably one of the most oddly underrated leading men of the era.

10. Around the time The Godfather: Part II was in production, Kazan was unavailable. So, Francis Coppola approached Strasberg for the role of the venerable and treacherous Hyman Roth, following Pacino's advice. It is a tribute to Strasberg's prowess that he nailed the part (seemingly) effortlessly, and made it his own for generations to come and sing the praises of the legendary guru in a top demonstration of his method.