July 17, 1963 - Marlon Brando (pictured with face under sheet), “very sick” with a kidney ailment, was hospitalized today in Santa Monica, Calif., with a high fever. As a result, the actor will not be able to participate in Maryland integration demonstrations this weekend as planned. Mr. Brando was taken by ambulance from his home to St. John’s Hospital this morning, suffering from acute pyelonephritis. Less than 24 hours earlier, Brando had called a press conference to disclose that he would participate in civil rights protests in racially besieged Cambridge, Md., and at a segregated amusement park in Baltimore starting Sunday. The 39-year-old actor’s illness is a recurrence of an infection for which he was treated at the same hospital in early May shortly after returning from a 30,000-mile promotional tour for his picture, “The Ugly American.” “He will be hospitalized at least several days, and I’m sure he will not be able to go ahead with his plans. He is very sick, running a high fever,” Dr. Robert Kositchek said today. Dr. Kositchek added that he did not regard the illness in its present stage as serious or critical.
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