Cheyenne Brando Wiki
Legendary actor Marlon Brando, was known as one of the most successful people in the movie industry, having made his mark during Hollywood’s golden age as the epitome of a vaguely dangerous, gorgeous leading man. However, his personal life was enigmatic and one chapter of his life is known as the most tragic. A big scandalous part of that family history was his daughter, Tarita Cheyenne Brando, a Tahitian fashion model.
Cheyenne was often referred to as ‘the beautiful girl who had no chance’, and even after her death, her life is still an exciting and sad story that people want to know more about. If you are one of those who would like to know what happened to this young model, let us tell you the naked truth about her.
Early life, family, and education
Cheyenne was the second child born from Marlon’s third marriage to French Polynesian actress Tarita Teriipaia, on 20 February 1970, in Tahiti, French Polynesia. Her mother was an actress who rose to prominence as Maimiti in the 1962 movie “Mutiny on the Bounty”, and for this role, she was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress – her co-star was her future husband, Marlon Brando.
The two married in 1962, soon after the movie was completed, and in 1963 Tarita gave birth to Cheyenne’s older brother, Simon Teihotu Brando, who has always been able to keep a low profile, as per his father’s wishes, who didn’t allow Simon to visit him in the United States.
Marlon said in one of his interviews: ‘ “I don’t think I will let them go to the States. As Tahitians, they are too trusting. They would be destroyed by the pace of life in the States’, and it seems that Simon respected his wish, while Cheyenne reportedly adored her father, and was the one who kept asking to come and visit him.
In 1989, after Marlon refused to allow her to visit him while he was filming “The Freshman” in Toronto, Canada, Cheyenne crashed her Jeep into a wall, and sustained a broken jaw, a torn ear, and lacerations under her eye. Subsequently, Marlon flew her to Los Angeles, California to undergo extensive reconstructive and cosmetic surgery.
As mentioned, Cheyenne’s love for her father was enormous and she bragged about him while she was a young girl, however, as she entered her teenage years, seemingly her feelings towards Marlon changed. In one of her interviews, Cheyenne said: ‘ I have come to despise my father for the way he ignored me when I was a child. He came to the island maybe once a year, but really didn’t seem to care whether he saw me or not. He wanted us but he didn’t want us.’
Speaking of Chayenne’s educational background, she dropped out of high school. She began taking drugs, including marijuana, Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), tranquilizers, and Phenycyclidiene (PCP, also known as ‘angel dust’), however, after she launched her modeling career, she subsequently stopped doing drugs.
With her exotic look, and being the daughter of a famous actor, Cheyenne didn’t have a tough time finding steady jobs for herself. However, her modeling career ended after the car accident.
Relationship with Dag Drollet
In 1987, 17-years-old Cheyenne fell in love with, at that time, 23-year-old Dag Drollet, who was a son of Jacques Dollet, a member of the Assembly of French Polynesia – Cheyenne and Dag met during a family party, since their fathers were long-time friends.
The two started dating, and in 1989 Chayenne became pregnant; at Marlon’s request, she and Dag moved to the US, into Marlon’s house in Santa Monica, California to await the birth of their child.
During that time, Cheyenne became close with her elder half-brother, Christian Brando, Marlon’s son with his first wife, Anna Kashfi.
On 16 May 1990, Christian fatally shot Dag in the living room of Marlon’s house. According to court documents, on the evening of the killing, Christian and Cheyenne had dinner at a restaurant, and she told him that Dag had been physically abusive toward her. Later that night, Christian, who admitted that he was drunk at the time, confronted Dag, as he said just wanting to scare him, and didn’t intend to kill him.
Christian and Dag were fighting over the gun when it accidentally went off, and Dag was shot. Christian was initially charged with murder, however, Cheyenne was a crucial witness, but didn’t attend the trial because she was put into a psychiatric hospital. Ten days after her boyfriend’s death, Chayenne gave birth to their son, Tuki Brando, and attempted suicide twice after his birth. On 22 December 1990, she was declared mentally unstable, and deemed unfit to testify in Christian’s trial. In the end, Christian pleaded guilty to manslaughter, and spent five years in prison.
Death
In the following years, Cheyenne’s mental health steadily deteriorated; she entered drug rehab and psychiatric hospital several times, and was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia. She lost custody of her son, Tuki, who was raised by her mother Tarita, and is today a successful fashion model.
Cheyenne publicly accused her father of molesting her, and accused him of being an accomplice in Dag Drollet’s death – Marlon Brando denied both accusations.
On 16 April 1995, Cheyenne hanged herself in her mother’s house, and she was buried in the Drollet’s family crypt, in the Roman Catholic Uranie Cemetery, in Papeete, Tahiti – she was 25 years old. Marlon Brando, didn’t attend her funeral.
A few months after Marlon Brando’s death in 2004, Chayenne’s mother, Tarita, published her memoirs, entitled “Marlon, My Love and My Torment”, and said in her interview for Paris Match Magazine: ‘We lived terrible tragedies and we all suffered a lot. Marlon never spoke about it. I wanted our children, all our grandchildren to know our history’.
