Beatty and Goldberg pay tribute to Brando

Warren Beatty and Whoopi Goldberg have paid tribute to Hollywood legend Marlon Brando at a gala awards ceremony and benefit for the famed acting school where the late two-time Oscar winner once studied.

Brando was posthumously honoured with the Stella Adler Award, which was accepted on his behalf by Beatty.

Beatty described Brando's many virtues including "the breadth of his friendships", the "variety of his curiosities" and the "sometimes totally unexpected straightforward earnestness".

"The thing is, he was never boring," Beatty said, before giving the award to Brando's son, Miko.

Brando and Beatty studied at what is now called the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. The school was founded in 1949 by actress Stella Adler, who also coached Robert De Niro, Elaine Stritch, Harvey Keitel and Candice Bergen. Adler died in 1992 after teaching acting for more than 40 years.

Brando established himself as an acting icon with his portrayals of Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire, Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront and Mafia boss Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather.

"My friendship with Marlon was really improbable, kind of unusual, but really cool," said Goldberg.