Marlon Brando led a sad life, says Elaine Stritch

London, Aug 10 : American actress Elaine Stritch spoke out about the agony of being a Hollywood celebrity and how her friend American actor Marlon Brando had led a sad life despite of all the glitz and glamour.

Stritch said that she has noting but pity for the young stars struggling to cope with fame and fortune, as she herself had gone through the same thing once.

The Emmy and Tony awards winner, 83, revealed that her decades-long battle with the booze was part of Broadway mythology, and that acting is one of "hardest" industry in the world.

As an example, she cited her late friend Marlon Brando, with whom she was at drama school, as a victim of the business along with all of Hollywood's troubled stars today.

"I'd describe Marlon as an extremely attractive pain in the a***," Daily Express quoted her as joking.

"The thing that makes me sad is that he didn't stay in theatre, or rather, he didn't return to theatre," she added ruefully. "But I don't think he was happy or had a happy life.

"I think that the entertainment world is the most difficult and it's hard to understand how you can stay in it - physically, mentally, emotionally.

"I'm up till four in the morning sometimes thinking: 'What are they going to say about my performance?' When people say they don't read their reviews, I say: 'Bull**** - course you do!'

"I know how rough this business is. I'm sad a lot of the youngsters in LA at the moment are not up to it. This idea so many have that the first step to fame and fortune is rehab... it makes me very sad," she said.

The actress, who sought help for alcoholism after her husband John Bay died from brain cancer in 1982, is now sober and on fighting form.

She is touring with her critically acclaimed one-woman show Elaine Stritch At Liberty, which she is about to take from London to Austin, Texas.

ANI