 Francis Ford Coppola (qv) believed that Marlon Brando (qv) was  familiar with Joseph Conrad (I) (qv)s "Heart of Darkness" and had  prepared for the role before the legendary actor arrived on the set.  When Brando did come out, Coppola was horrified to find that Brando  had never read "Heart of Darkness", did not know his lines, and had  become extremely fat (Kurtz had always been written as a tall but  starvingly