Marlon Brando has the Sun and the Moon together in Aries and Sagittarius rising: the actor who changed screen acting for good, with a chart built on instinct, independence and a deep dislike of being told what to do.

He was born at 11 in the evening on 3 April 1924 in Omaha, Nebraska. Astro-Databank rates the time AA, from a quoted birth record. He trained with Stella Adler in New York, played Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire on Broadway and on film, and won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice, for On the Waterfront (1954) and The Godfather (1972). He died in 2004.

Sun and Moon together in Aries

Brando was born a couple of hours before a New Moon: his Sun and Moon sit within about a degree of each other at 13 and 14 degrees of Aries. When the Sun and Moon share a sign, what a person wants and what they need pull the same way, and in Aries that means acting on impulse and trusting the body before the script. Aries is the sign of the first move, and Brando's raw, physical way of working, taken from Adler's teaching of Stanislavski, made the polished acting of the 1940s look old almost overnight.

The pair sit in his 4th house, the most private part of the chart: home, roots and the inner life. For all his fame, he guarded that life closely. He bought Tetiaroa, an atoll near Tahiti, built a home there in the 1970s and spent long stretches on it, far from Hollywood. The Moon also squares Pluto, a classic mark of strong feeling held under the surface.

Sagittarius rising, with Jupiter in the 1st house

Sagittarius rising meets the world as a free spirit, restless and outspoken, and Jupiter, the sign's own ruler, sits in his 1st house at 19 degrees. Jupiter enlarges what it touches: here, a big presence and a big appetite for life, and a reputation that went before him into every room. Jupiter squares Uranus, the planet of rebellion, an aspect of someone who breaks rules on principle. In 1973 he turned down his second Oscar and sent the actor and activist Sacheen Littlefeather to speak about Hollywood's treatment of Native Americans in his place.

Mars in Capricorn

His Mars, the planet of drive, is in Capricorn in the 2nd house of money and worth. Capricorn is Mars at its most strategic, and it gives a hard, controlled force under the spontaneity. Mercury, at the end of Aries in the 5th house of creative play, faces Saturn across the chart: a quick, mischievous mind that also knew how to hold back.

Compare your chart with his

If you have the Sun or Moon in Aries, or Sagittarius rising, you may know his need to do things your own way, first time, by feel. Add your details below to see how your chart meets his.