Befitting his larger-than-life status, Marlon Brando has not one but two final resting places.
Several of the actor's A-list friends, including Sean Penn, Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty, attended a private tribute at the home of Hollywood producer Mike Medavoy.
Afterward, Brando's family scattered his ashes at his home in the South Pacific paradise of Tahiti, as well as in Death Valley, California, the Los Angeles Times reports.
According to son Miko Brando, the two-time Oscar winner's cremated remains were disbursed between Tetiaroa, a string of tiny atolls in Tahiti that the actor owned since the 1960s, and in Death Valley, the austere desert landscape that Brando admired.
"It was a place he really loved and we took many trips out there," Miko, 43, told the Times.
As part of the same Death Valley ceremony, Miko said the ashes of Brando's best friend, Wally Cox, who died in 1973, were also scattered. It's not known how Brando came to possess Cox's remains.
Brando's friends and family members revealed to the Times several details of the reclusive life of the former Godfather don, who died of lung failure on July 1 at age 80.
In the months before his death, Brando dropped 85 pounds from his once immense physique. He also required a portable oxygen tank to help him breathe because of the lung condition pulmonary fibrosis.
The ever-guarded Brando tried to keep his deteriorating health a secret so producers would still consider him for roles.
But, according to one associate, Brando himself didn't realize the extent of his illness.
"I don't think he knew he was that ill," Medavoy told the Times.
The Hollywood producer, once the head of TriStar Pictures, was tapped by Brando to be the co-executor of his estate, along with the actor's business manager Larry Dresler and friend Arva Douglas, two weeks before he died at UCLA Medical Center.
Another longtime friend and former assistant, Joan "Toni" Petrone, said that after his death, Brando's body was placed on view at a local mortuary clothed in a Japanese robe and his beloved red scarf.
Among other revelations: Brando hardly left home save a trip last year to Neverland Ranch to visit close pal Michael Jackson, who's godfather to Brando's nine-year-old granddaughter, Prudence. Brando, who appeared at Jackson's 30th anniversary tribute concert in 2001, was particularly fond of Jackson's hospitality.
"The last time my father left his house to go anywhere, to spend any kind of time, it was with Michael Jackson," Miko, a longtime security guard for Jackson, told the Times. "He loved it...My father had a 24-hour chef, 24-hour security, 24-hour help, 24-hour kitchen, 24-hour maid service. Just carte blanche."
Miko also said his father was not as eccentric as his legend purported, but was a normal guy who liked watching sports and was a doting family man.
Brando's executors now must decide how to divvy up his $21.6 million estate among the nine offspring named in his will, as well as preserve his legacy. The executors are trying to ensure that Brando's heirs have complete control over his name and likeness.
Several people are lining up for a piece of the action, per the Times. Brando's lawyer, David Seely, told the paper there were "at least five or six" claims that he knew about. He declined to discuss the specifics. Such claims can turn nasty and hold up the disbursement of an estate.
According to the Times, Petrone is asking for $3,000 for a diamond ring she says she lost down the garbage disposal while making a salad at Brando's L.A.-area home.
Meanwhile, a Tahitian businessman who runs Air Moorea, a small airline that serviced Tetiaroa, says his company is owed at least $460,000 in business costs.
Aside from the budding legal dispute, there's another question concerning the Polynesian hideaway.
"I think there's talk about developing half of it, because at the end, my father wanted to develop it and have a hotel franchise take it over and develop it as a resort," said Miko. "He was talking with a big hotel franchise that would set it up as a luxury resort, hotel and spa. He never got around to it, so you know, if it comes up, that's an option we have. But we're keeping our business options open."
Meanwhile, the executors are cataloguing hundreds of pencil drawings made by Brando and are completing a set of DVDs based on unreleased footage showing the stage and screen icon teaching the Method to fellow pros like Penn Nick Nolte, Jon Voight and Edward James Olmos.