AceShowbiz - Marlon Brando's ex-wife Anna Kashfi has launched an extraordinary legal battle over the movie icon's ashes - claiming her son's former girlfriend is refusing to hand them back to her. The "Wild One" star's remains were divided up among members of his family following his death from respiratory failure in 2004.

Brando's son Christian received some of the ashes, and following his death in 2008 they were allegedly kept by his then-girlfriend Donna Lopez Geon. Now Christian's mother Kashfi, who divorced Brando in 1959, wants them back - she's filed legal papers at Los Angeles County Superior Court demanding Geon returns "a portion of the cremated remains of Marlon Brando."

Kashfi also claims Geon has her son's St. Christopher's medal, but Geon tells TMZ.com, "Christian wasn't close with his family and wouldn't have wanted his mother or anyone else to have his property when he died... When I found out they were coming after the property, I took some of the ashes I have and spread them in Franklin Canyon (Los Angeles)... Marlon loved that place."