Brando daughter is London lawyer

Marlon Brando's adopted daughter is working as a lawyer in London, it emerged today.

Petra Fischer has turned her back on life in Hollywood to work as a solicitor for a major City law firm.

Brando, who died of pneumonia last week, is said to have "adored" the 31-year-old, whom he adopted when she was 14.

Miss Fischer became part of Brando's entourage when her mother, Caroline, became his personal assistant. Her father James Clavell, who wrote Shogun and directed The Great Escape, had agreed to pay his ex-mistress ?40,000 plus ?800 a month towards her upbringing.

Miss Fischer had to endure two bitter legal battles as the actor first pursued her father then her mother through the courts. In 1982, claiming she had been "emotionally disturbed'', Caroline - aided by Brando, who had come to hate Clavell - sued him for ?7 million palimony. The case lasted several years until the actor dropped the claim.

Brando then stepped in to help pay Miss Fischer's school and university fees. She was said to refer to the actor as her father and was there to comfort him when Cheyenne, his real daughter, killed herself in 1995.

Nevertheless after his finances worsened, Brando, who had given Caroline ?125,000 in 1985 to set herself and Miss Fischer up in Britain, demanded she repay the money when she retired as his assistant after 25 years.

He launched a legal battle that was concluded against him four days before he died of lung failure in UCLA's hospital. Today a friend of Miss Fischer said: "It was all very sad. I think she wants to draw a line under it all."