Russian-born actor, singer, and conductor
“ Yul Brenner ” redirects here. For the fictional Jamaican bobsledder, see aplomb Runnings
Yuliy Borisovich Briner ( russian : Юлий Борисович Бринер ; July 11, 1920 – October 10, 1985 ), known professionally as Yul Brynner, was a Russian-American actor, singer, and film director, best known for his depicting of King Mongkut in the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage melodious The King and I, for which he won two Tony Awards, and belated an Academy Award for Best Actor for the film adaptation. He played the function 4,625 times on stage and became known for his plane fountainhead, which he maintained as a personal trademark long after adopting it for The King and I. Considered one of the first Russian-American film stars, [ 1 ] he was honored with a ceremony to put his handprints in front of Grauman ‘s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood in 1956, and besides received a asterisk on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.

He received the National Board of Review Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Ramesses II in the Cecil B. DeMille epic The Ten Commandments ( 1956 ) and General Bounine in the film Anastasia ( besides 1956 ). He was besides well known as the gunman Chris Adams in The Magnificent Seven ( 1960 ) and its beginning sequel Return of the Seven ( 1966 ), along with roles as the android “ The Gunslinger ” in Westworld ( 1973 ), and its sequel, Futureworld ( 1976 ). [ 2 ] In addition to his film credits, he besides worked as a model and photographer and was the generator of several books. [ 3 ] [ 4 ]

early life [edit ]

Yul Brynner was born Yuliy Borisovich Briner [ pronounced : Breener ; Briner is a common swiss family name ] on July 11, 1920, [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] in the city of Vladivostok. [ 8 ] He had Swiss-German, Russian, Buryat ( Mongol ) and purported Romani lineage. [ 9 ] [ 10 ] He was born at home in a four-storey theater at 15 Aleutskaya Street, Vladivostok. He had an elder sister, Vera, [ 11 ] a classically trained soprano who sang with the New York City opera. [ 12 ] Brynner enjoyed telling grandiloquent tales and exaggerating his background and early biography for the weigh, claiming that he was born Taidje Khan of a Mongol father and Roma mother on the russian island of Sakhalin. [ 13 ] He occasionally referred to himself as Julius Briner, [ 5 ] Jules Bryner or Youl Bryner. [ 6 ] The 1989 biography by his son, Rock Brynner, clarified some of these issues. [ 13 ]
Brynner ‘s photograph upon immigrating to the United States His forefather, Boris Yuliyevich Briner, was a mine engineer and inventor of Swiss-German and russian lineage. The actor ‘s grandfather, Jules Briner, was a swiss citizen who moved to Vladivostok in the 1870s and established a successful import/export company. [ 14 ] Brynner ‘s paternal grandma, Natalya Yosifovna Kurkutova, was a native of Irkutsk and a eurasian of part Buryat lineage. Brynner ‘s beget, Marousia Dimitrievna ( née Blagovidova ), hailed from the russian intelligentsia and studied to be an actress and singer ; she was allegedly of russian Romani ancestry. [ 9 ] Brynner felt a strong personal connection to the Romani people and in 1977 he was named honorary president of the International Romani Union, a title that he kept until his death. [ 15 ] [ 16 ] Boris Briner ‘s workplace required across-the-board travel, and in 1923 he fell in love with an actress, Katya Kornukova, at the Moscow Art Theatre, and soon after abandoned his kin. Yul ‘s beget took his elder sister, Vera ( January 17, 1916 – December 13, 1967 ), and him to Harbin, China, where they attended a school run by the YMCA. [ citation needed ] In 1932, fearing a war between China and Japan, she took them to Paris, France. [ 14 ] Brynner played his guitar in russian nightclubs in Paris, sometimes accompanying his sister, playing russian and Roma songs. He trained as a trapeze acrobat and worked in a french circus company for five years, [ 17 ] but after sustaining a back injury he turned to acting. [ 14 ] [ 18 ] In 1938 his mother was diagnosed with leukemia and they briefly moved back to Harbin. [ 14 ] In 1940, speaking little english, he and his mother immigrated to the United States aboard the President Cleveland, departing from Kobe, Japan, arriving in San Francisco on October 25, 1940. His final finish was New York City, where his sister already lived. [ 19 ] [ 6 ] [ 14 ] Vera, a singer, starred in The Consul on Broadway in 1950 [ 20 ] and appeared on television in the style character of Carmen. She late taught voice in New York. [ 21 ] During World War II Brynner worked as a french-speaking radio announcer and observer for the US Office of War Information, broadcasting to occupied France. [ 22 ] At the lapp meter he studied acting in Connecticut with the Russian teacher Michael Chekhov. [ citation needed ]

career [edit ]

Brynner ‘s first gear Broadway performance was a minor separate in Shakespeare ‘s Twelfth Night in December 1941. Brynner found little act work during the following few years [ 14 ] but among early acting stints he co-starred in a 1946 product of Lute Song with Mary Martin. He besides did some model work and was photographed nude by George Platt Lynes. [ 23 ] Brynner ‘s first marriage was to actress Virginia Gilmore in 1944, and soon after he began working as a director at the raw CBS television studios, directing Studio One among other shows. He made his film debut in Port of New York, released in November 1949. [ 24 ]

The King and I [edit ]

woman kneeling in front of a standing man; the two are conversing and each is gesturing with one hand as if ringing a small bell The King and I (1951) Brynner with Gertrude Lawrence in the original production of ( 1951 ) The following year, at the goad of Martin, he auditioned for Rodgers and Hammerstein ‘s newfangled musical in New York. He recalled that, as he was finding achiever as a director on television, he was reluctant to go back on the phase. once he read the script, however, he was fascinated by the character of the King and was tidal bore to perform in the visualize. [ 25 ] His function as King Mongkut in The King and I ( 4,625 times on stagecoach ) became his best-known function. He appeared in the original 1951 production and later touring productions american samoa well as a 1977 Broadway revival, a London product in 1979 and another Broadway revival in 1985. He won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for the first of these Broadway productions and a special Tony for the end. [ 26 ] He reprised the role in the 1956 film translation, for which he won an Academy Award as Best Actor and in Anna and the King, a ephemeral television receiver version on CBS in 1972. Brynner is one of lone ten people who have won both a Tony and an Academy Award for the same function. [ 27 ] His connection to the story and the function of King Mongkut is so deep that he was mentioned in the Murray Head song “ One Night in Bangkok “, from the 1984 musical Chess, the second act of which is set in Bangkok. [ citation needed ] In 1951 Brynner shaved his read/write head for his function in The King and I. [ 28 ] [ 29 ] Following the huge success of the Broadway production and subsequent film Brynner continued to shave his head for the rest of his life, though he wore a wig for sealed roles. Brynner ‘s shave head was strange at the time and his strike appearance helped to give him an alien invoke. [ 30 ] Some fans shaved off their hair’s-breadth to imitate him, [ 31 ] and a shave fountainhead was often referred to as the “ Yul Brynner count ”. [ 32 ] [ 33 ] [ 34 ]

Films [edit ]

Brynner ‘s second gesture video was the film translation of The King and I ( 1956 ) with Deborah Kerr. It was a huge success critically and commercially. [ 35 ]
Cecil B. de Mille hired him for The Ten Commandments ( 1956 ) to play Ramesses II opposite Charlton Heston after seeing him in the stage translation of The King and I, telling Brynner offstage that he was the merely person for the function. [ 36 ] He rounded out his year with Anastasia ( 1956 ), co-star with Ingrid Bergman under the guidance of Anatole Litvak. Both films were large hits and Brynner became one of the most in-demand stars in Hollywood. [ citation needed ] MGM cast him as one of The Brothers Karamazov ( 1958 ), which was another commercial success. Less so was The Buccaneer ( 1958 ), in which Brynner played Jean Lafitte ; he co-starred with Heston and the film was produced by De Mille but directed by Anthony Quinn. MGM used Brynner again in The Journey ( 1959 ), opposite Kerr under the direction of Litvak, but the film lost money. therefore excessively did The Sound and the Fury ( 1959 ) based on the novel by William Faulkner with Joanne Woodward. however Brynner then received an offer to replace Tyrone Power, who had died during the make of Solomon and Sheba ( 1959 ) with Gina Lollobrigida. The movie was a huge hit, which postponed the development of a design Brynner film about Spartacus. When the Kirk Douglas film Spartacus ( 1960 ) came out Brynner elected not to make his own adaptation. [ 37 ] Brynner tried drollery with two films directed by Stanley Donen : Once More, with Feeling! ( 1960 ) and Surprise Package ( 1960 ) but populace response was underwhelming. He made a cameo in Testament of Orpheus. [ 38 ]
Although the public received him well in The Magnificent Seven ( 1960 ), a western adaptation of Seven Samurai for The Mirisch Company, the picture proved a disappointment on its initial publish in the U.S. Howeverr it was enormously democratic in Europe and has had enduring popularity. Its ultimate success led to Brynner ‘s signing a three-picture share with the Mirisches. [ 39 ] The film was specially democratic in the Soviet Union, where it sold 67 million tickets. [ 40 ] He then made a cameo in Goodbye Again ( 1961 ). Brynner focused on action films. He did Escape from Zahrain ( 1962 ) with Ronald Neame as director and Taras Bulba ( 1962 ) with Tony Curtis for J. Lee Thompson. Both films were commercial disappointments ; Taras Bulba was democratic but failed to recoup its big cost. The first gear film under his three-picture manage with Mirisch was Flight from Ashiya ( 1963 ) with George Chakiris. It was followed by Kings of the Sun ( 1963 ), besides with Chakiris, directed by Thompson. Neither movie was peculiarly democratic ; nor was Invitation to a Gunfighter ( 1964 ), a western. Morituri ( 1965 ), opposite Marlon Brando, failed to reverse the series of unsuccessful movies. He had cameos in Cast a Giant Shadow ( 1966 ) and The Poppy Is Also a Flower ( 1966 ). [ 2 ] Brynner enjoyed a hit with Return of the Seven ( 1966 ), reprising his function from the original. Less popular was Triple Cross ( 1966 ), a war movie with Christopher Plummer ; The Double Man ( 1967 ), a spy thriller ; The Long Duel ( 1967 ), an imperial adventure narrative opposite Trevor Howard ; Villa Rides ( 1968 ), a western ; and The File of the Golden Goose ( 1969 ). [ 2 ]

Brynner went to Yugoslavia to star in a war film, Battle of Neretva ( 1969 ). He supported Katharine Hepburn in the big-budget flop The Madwoman of Chaillot ( 1969 ). Brynner appeared in embroil ( as a torch singer ) in an unbilled character in the Peter Sellers drollery The Magic Christian ( 1969 ). [ 42 ]

subsequently career [edit ]

Brynner went to Italy to make a Spaghetti Western, Adiós, Sabata ( 1970 ) and supported Kirk Douglas in The Light at the Edge of the World ( 1971 ). He remained in go roles for Romance of a Horsethief ( 1971 ) and a western Catlow ( 1971 ). [ 2 ] Brynner had a minor function in Fuzz ( 1972 ) [ 2 ] then reprised his most celebrated part in the television series Anna and the King ( 1972 ) which ran for 13 episodes. After Night Flight from Moscow ( 1973 ) in Europe, Brynner created one of his iconic roles in the cult hit film Westworld ( 1973 ) as the ‘Gunslinger ‘, a killer whale automaton. His adjacent two films were variations on this performance : The Ultimate Warrior ( 1975 ) and Futureworld ( 1976 ). [ 2 ] Brynner returned to Broadway in Home Sweet Homer, a ill-famed flop musical. His final movie was Death Rage ( 1976 ), an italian legal action film .

personal life [edit ]

Brynner married four times, his foremost three marriages ending in disassociate. He fathered three children and adopted two. His first wife ( 1944–1960 ) was actress Virginia Gilmore with whom he had one child, Yul “ Rock ” Brynner ( hold December 23, 1946 ). He was nicknamed “ Rock ” when he was six years old in award of boxer Rocky Graziano. He is a historian, novelist, and university history lector at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York and western Connecticut State University in Danbury, Connecticut. In 2006, Rock wrote a bible about his beget and his class history titled Empire and Odyssey: The Brynners in Far East Russia and Beyond. He regularly returned to Vladivostok, the city of his father ‘s birth, for the “ Pacific Meridian ” Film Festival. Yul Brynner had a long affair with Marlene Dietrich, who was 19 years his senior, beginning during the inaugural production of The King and I. [ 43 ] In 1959, Brynner fathered a daughter, Lark Brynner, with Frankie Tilden, who was 20 years old. Lark lived with her mother and Brynner supported her financially. His second wife, from 1960 to 1967, Doris Kleiner is a chilean model whom he married on the specify during shoot of The Magnificent Seven in 1960. They had one child, Victoria Brynner ( born November 1962 ), whose godmother was Audrey Hepburn. [ 44 ] belgian novelist and artist Monique Watteau was besides romantically linked with Brynner, from 1961 to 1967. [ 45 ] In 1969, it was rumored that Roman Polanski made an adult video / ” three ” with Sharon Tate and Brynner.
His one-third wife ( 1971–1981 ), Jacqueline Simone Thion de la Chaume ( 1932–2013 ), a french socialite, was the widow of Philippe de Croisset ( son of french dramatist Francis de Croisset and a print administrator ). Brynner and Jacqueline adopted two vietnamese children : Mia ( 1974 ) and Melody ( 1975 ). The first sign of the zodiac Brynner owned was the Manoir de Criquebœuf, a 16th-century manor sign of the zodiac in northwestern France that Jacqueline and he purchased. [ 46 ] His one-third marriage broke up, reportedly owing to his 1980 announcement that he would continue in the function of the King for another retentive go and Broadway run, american samoa well as his affairs with female fans and his negligence of his wife and children. [ 47 ] On April 4, 1983, aged 62, Brynner married his fourthly and final wife, Kathy Lee ( digest 1957 ), a 26-year-old ballerina from Ipoh, Malaysia, whom he had met in a production of The King and I. They remained married for the last two years of his life. His longtime close friends Meredith A. Disney and her sons Charles Elias Disney and Daniel H. Disney attended Brynner and Lee ‘s final examination performances of The King and I. [ 48 ] Although Brynner had become a naturalize U.S. citizen, aged 22, in 1943, while living in New York as an actor and radio announcer, [ 6 ] he renounced his uranium citizenship at the U.S. Embassy in Bern, Switzerland, in June 1965 because he had lost his tax exemption as an american english resident working overseas. He had stayed besides long in the United States mean he would be bankrupted by his tax and punishment debts imposed by the Internal Revenue Service. [ 46 ]

other interests [edit ]

In addition to his work as a conductor and performer, Brynner was an active photographer and wrote two books. His daughter Victoria put together Yul Brynner: Photographer ( ISBN 0-8109-3144-3 ), a collection of his photograph of family, friends, and colleague actors, arsenic well as those he took while serving as a UN limited adviser on refugees. [ 49 ] [ 50 ] [ 51 ] Brynner wrote Bring Forth the Children: A Journey to the Forgotten People of Europe and the Middle East ( 1960 ), with photograph by himself and Magnum photographer Inge Morath, and The Yul Brynner Cookbook: Food Fit for the King and You ( 1983 ISBN 0-8128-2882-8 ). He was besides 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 like songs in the movie The Brothers Karamazov. [ citation needed ] In 1967, Dimitrievitch and he released a read album The Gypsy and I: Yul Brynner Sings Gypsy Songs ( Vanguard VSD 79265 ) .

Health [edit ]

In September 1983, Brynner found a lout on his vocal music cords. In Los Angeles, alone hours before his 4,000th performance in The King and I, he received the examination results indicating that while his throat was very well, he had inoperable lung cancer. Cigarette smoke is by a solid margin the greatest risk factor for lung cancer, and Brynner began smoking heavily aged 12. Although he had depart in 1971, his promotional photos often still showed him with a cigarette in hand. He and the national tour of the melodious were forced to take a few months off while he undergo radiation therapy which damaged his throat and made it impossible for him to sing or address easily. [ 14 ] The enlistment then resumed. [ 52 ] [ 53 ] In January 1985, the enlistment reached New York for a farewell Broadway run. Aware he was dying, Brynner gave an interview on Good Morning America discussing the dangers of smoke and expressing his desire to make an anti-smoking commercial. The Broadway production of The King and I run from January 7 to June 30 of that year, with Mary Beth Peil as Anna. His last performance, a few months before his end, marked the 4,625th clock time he had played the function of the King .

death [edit ]

Statue of Brynner in presence of his birthplace in Vladivostok Brynner died of lung cancer on October 10, 1985, at New York Hospital at the age of 65. [ 54 ] [ 55 ] Brynner was buried in the grounds of the Saint-Michel-de-Bois-Aubry Orthodox monastery, near Luzé, between Tours and Poitiers in France. [ 56 ]

Anti-smoking campaign [edit ]

anterior to his death, with the aid of the american Cancer Society, Brynner created a public serve announcement using a clip from the Good Morning America interview. A few days after his death, it premiered on all major US television receiver networks and in other countries. Brynner used the announcement to express his desire to make an anti-smoking commercial after discovering he had cancer, and that his death was at hand. He then looked directly into the camera for 30 seconds and said, “ now that I ‘m gone, I tell you : Do n’t smoke. Whatever you do, good do n’t smoke. If I could take back that smoking, we would n’t be talking about any cancer. I ‘m convinced of that. ” His year of parturition, in one interpretation of the commercial, was incorrectly given as 1915. [ 57 ]

memorial [edit ]

On September 28, 2012, a 2.4-m-tall statue was inaugurated at Yul Brynner Park, in battlefront of the home where he was born at Aleutskaya St. No. 15 in Vladivostok, Russia. Created by local anesthetic sculptor Alexei Bokiy, the memorial was carved in granite from China. The grounds for the park were donated by the city of Vladivostok, which besides paid extra costs. Vladivostok Mayor Igor Pushkariov, US Consul General Sylvia Curran, and Yul ‘s son, Rock Brynner, participated in the ceremony, along with hundreds of local residents. [ 58 ]

Awards [edit ]

Filmography [edit ]

short subjects :

  • On Location with Westworld (1973)
  • Lost to the Revolution (1980) (narrator)

Box agency rank [edit ]

At the stature of his career, Brynner was voted by exhibitors as among the most popular stars at the corner office :

  • 1956 – 21st (US)
  • 1957 – 10th (US), 10th (UK)
  • 1958 – 8th (US)
  • 1959 – 24th (US)
  • 1960 – 23rd (US)

choice stage cultivate [edit ]

References [edit ]

far reading [edit ]

  • Capua, Michelangelo (2006). Yul Brynner: A Biography. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-2461-3.

Read more: David Prowse