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Yul Brynner (July 11, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was a Russian-born
Broadway and Academy Award-winning Hollywood actor. He appeared in many movies and
stage productions in the United States. He is best known for his portrayal of the
Siamese king in the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical The King and I on the stage
and on the screen, as well as Rameses II in the 1956 Cecil B. DeMille film The Ten
Commandments and as Chris Adams in The Magnificent Seven.
He was known for his shaved head which he kept as a personal trademark since
adopting it in his role in The King and I. The term Yul Brynner became synonymous
with baldness during his lifetime.
He was born Yuliy Borisovich Brynner in Vladivostok, Russia. His mother, Marusya
Blagоvidova (Russian: father, Boris Brynner, was an engineer and inventor, who was
of Swiss and 1/16th Mongolian ancestry. He was named Yul after his paternal
grandfather, Jules Brynner.
Brynner's early life was exotic, but he made it out to be even more exotic than it
actually was, claiming that he was born Taidje Khan of part-Mongol parentage on the
Russian island of Sakhalin. A biography published by his son Rock Brynner in 1989
clarified these issues.
After Boris Brynner abandoned his family, his mother took Yul and his sister, Vera
Bryner to Harbin, China, where they attended a school run by the YMCA, and in 1934
she took them to Paris, France.
During WWII (1942-D-Day) Brynner worked as a French speaking radio announcer and
commentator for the US Office of War Information, broadcasting propaganda to
occupied France.
 Career
He began acting and modeling in his 20s, and early in his career he was
photographed nude by George Platt Lynes.
Brynner's best-known role was that of King Mongkut of Siam in the Broadway
production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical The King and I which he played
4,626 times onstage over the span of his career. He appeared in the original
production and subsequent touring productions, as well as a 1977 Broadway revival,
and another Broadway revival in 1985. He also appeared in the film version for
which he won an Academy Award as Best Actor, and in a short-lived TV version (Anna
and the King) on CBS in 1972. Brynner is one of only seven people who have won both
a Tony Award and an Academy Award for the same role.
He made an immediate impact upon launching his film career in 1956,
appearing not only in the film version of The King and I that year, but also in
major roles in The Ten Commandments opposite Charlton Heston and Anastasia opposite
Ingrid Bergman. Brynner, only 5'10", was reportedly concerned about being
overshadowed by Charlton Heston's physical presence in the film The Ten
Commandments, and prepared with an intensive weight-lifting program.
He later starred in such films as the Biblical epic Solomon and Sheba (1959), as
Solomon, The Magnificent Seven (1960), and Westworld (1973). He co-starred with
Marlon Brando in Morituri; Katharine Hepburn in The Madwoman of Chaillot and
William Shatner in a film version of The Brothers Karamazov. He starred with
Barbara Bouchet in Death Rage, 1976. His final feature film appearance was in the
sequel to Westworld, titled Futureworld with Peter Fonda and Blythe Danner, in
1976.
Brynner also appeared in drag in an unbilled role in the Peter Sellers comedy The
Magic Christian.
Towards the end of his life he contracted trichinosis and subsequently sued Trader
Vic's restaurant in the Plaza Hotel in New York City for serving him undercooked
pork, from which, allegedly, he caught the disease.
Yul Brynner with Steve McQueen, Horst Buchholz, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn,
Brad Dexter and James Coburn in The Magnificent Seven
Yul Brynner with Steve McQueen, Horst Buchholz, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn,
Brad Dexter and James Coburn in The Magnificent Seven
Photographer,
author, and musician
In addition to his work as a performer, Brynner was an active photographer, and
wrote two books. His daughter Victoria put together a book of his photographs of
family, friends, and fellow actors, as well as those he took while serving as a UN
special consultant on refugees. The book is titled Yul Brynner: Photographer (ISBN
0-8109-3144-3). Brynner also published Bring Forth the Children: A Journey to the
Forgotten People of Europe and the Middle East in 1960 and The Yul Brynner
Cookbook: Food Fit for the King and You (ISBN 0-8128-2882-8) in 1983.
A student of music from childhood, Brynner was an accomplished guitarist and
singer. In his early period in Europe he often played and sang gypsy songs in
Parisian nightclubs with Aliosha Dimitrievitch. He sang some of those same songs in
the film The Brothers Karamazov. In 1967, he and Dimitrievitch released a record
album, The Gypsy and I: Yul Brynner Sings Gypsy Songs (Vanguard VSD 79265).
Personal
life
Yul Brynner was married four times, of which the first three ended in divorce. He
had three children and adopted two others.
* His first wife, Virginia Gilmore (1944–1960), was an actress. They had one child,
Yul Brynner II (b. December 23, 1946), nicknamed when he was six "Rock" by his
father in honor of boxer Rocky Graziano, who won the middleweight title in 1947.
Rock is a historian, novelist and university history lecturer .
* Lark Brynner (b. 1958) was born out of wedlock and raised by her mother.
* His second wife, Doris Kleiner (1960 – 1967), was a Chilean model, whom he
married on the set during shooting of The Magnificent Seven in 1960. They had one
child, Victoria Brynner (b. November 1962), whose godmother is Audrey Hepburn.
* His third wife, Jacqueline de Croisset (1971 – 1981), was a French socialite. She
was the widow of Philippe de Croisset, a publishing executive. Yul and Jacqueline
adopted two Vietnamese children: Mia (1974), and Melody (1975).
* His fourth wife, Kathy Lee, born in Malaysia, was a dancer in The King and I
shows. They married in 1983.
Brynner also had an affair with Marlene Dietrich in the early 1950s.
Death
Brynner died on October 10, 1985 (the same day as Orson Welles, his costar in The
Battle of Neretva) in New York City. The cause of death was lung cancer brought on
by smoking. Throughout his life, Brynner was always seen with a cigarette in his
hand. In January 1985, nine months before his death, he gave an interview on Good
Morning America, expressing his desire to make an anti-smoking commercial. A clip
from that interview was made into just such a public service announcement by the
American Cancer Society, and released after his death; it includes the warning "Now
that I'm gone, I tell you, don't smoke." This advertisement now features in the
Body Worlds exhibition.
Yul Brynner is interred in the cemetery at the Saint-Michel-de-Bois-Aubry monastery
in Luzé, near Poitiers, Vienne, France.
Source : Some of the information on
this page came from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU
Documentation License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Yul
Brynner - Projector - Biography
