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Yul Brynner

 
Artist: Yul Brynner
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Performed Songs By:

Oscar Hammerstein II, Richard Rodgers
  • Genres: Soundtrack
  • Instrument: Vocals, Performer, Cast

Biography

Yul Brynner will forever be associated with his Oscar-winning role in The King and I in 1956, a role he had created on Broadway five years earlier and which also brought him a Tony Award. He began his professional career in a French circus, where he sailed through the air on a trapeze. The enigmatic Brynner was fluent in Russian and French, and he drew upon his language skills during WWII on the radio for Voice of America. He took up acting during the '40s and by 1946, he landed in his first Broadway production, Lute Song. Later in life, Brynner returned to the stage to re-create his role as the autocratic Siamese king, a role that ended shortly before he passed away in 1985 as the result of lung cancer. The actor wed four times: His first and longest marriage was to actress Virginia Gilmore, in 1940. They divorced in 1960, and the actor wed Doris Kleiner that same year. The couple divorced in 1967. Brynner married Jacqueline de Croisset in 1971, and the couple divorced after ten years. In 1983, he married Kathy Lee, and the marriage lasted until his death. ~ Linda Seida, All Music Guide
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Actor: Yul Brynner
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Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Actors
  • Born: Jul 11, 1920 in Sakhalin Island, Russia
  • Died: Oct 10, 1985 in New York City, New York
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '50s-'70s
  • Major Genres: Drama, Action
  • Career Highlights: The King and I, The Magnificent Seven, Anastasia
  • First Major Screen Credit: Port of New York (1949)

Biography

During his lifetime, it was hard to determine when and where actor Yul Brynner was born, simply because he changed the story in every interview; confronted with these discrepancies late in life, he replied, "Ordinary mortals need but one birthday." At any rate, it appears that Brynner's mother was part Russian, his father part Swiss, and that he lived in Russia until his mother moved the family to Manchuria and then Paris in the early '30s. He worked as a trapeze artist with the touring Cirque D'Hiver, then joined a repertory theater company in Paris in 1934. Brynner's fluency in Russian and French enabled him to build up a following with the Czarist expatriates in Paris, and his talents as a singer/guitarist increased his popularity. And when Michael Chekhov hired Brynner for his American theater company, he added a third language -- English -- to his repertoire.

After several years of regional acting, Brynner was hired by the Office of War Information as an announcer for their French radio service. In 1945, Brynner was cast as Tsai-Yong in the musical play Lute Song, which starred Mary Martin; the production opened on Broadway in 1946, and, though its run was short, Brynner won the Most Promising Actor Donaldson award. He went on to do theater in London and direct early live television programs in the States, including a children's puppet show, Life With Snarky Parker. In 1949, the actor made his movie debut as a two-bit smuggler in a Manhattan-filmed quickie Port of New York, which has taken on a video-store life of its own since lapsing into the public domain. On the strength of his Lute Song work of several years earlier, Brynner was cast as the King of Siam in Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1951 musical The King and I. The play was supposed to be a vehicle for Gertrude Lawrence, with the king an important but secondary role; but so powerful was Brynner's work that the role was beefed up in rehearsal, causing supporting actor Murvyn Vye to quit the show when Vye's only song was cut to give more stage time to Brynner. The King and I was an enormous hit, supplying Brynner with the role of a lifetime, one in which he would repeat brilliantly in the 1956 film version -- and win an Oscar in the process. Cecil B. DeMille, impressed by Brynner's King performance, cast the actor as the Egyptian Pharoah Rameses I in DeMille's multimillion-dollar blockbuster The Ten Commandments (1956). It became difficult for Brynner to play a "normal" character after this, so he seldom tried, although he came close to subtle believability in Anastasia (1956) and The Journey (1959). The first baldheaded movie idol, Brynner occasionally donned a wig or, as in Taras Bulba (1962), a Russian pigtail, but his fans (particularly the ladies) preferred him "scalped," as it were. Outside of his film work, Brynner was also an accomplished photographer, and many of his pictures appeared in major magazine spreads or were used as official studio production stills.

Hollywood changed radically in the '70s, and the sort of larger-than-life fare in which Brynner thrived thinned out; so, in 1972, the actor agreed to re-create his King and I role in an expensive weekly TV series, Anna and the King. But it lasted all of eight weeks. Brynner's last major film role was in the sci-fi thriller Westworld (1973) as a murderously malfunctioning robot, dressed in Western garb reminiscent of the actor's wardrobe in 1960's The Magnificent Seven. What could have been campy or ludicrous became a chilling characterization in Brynner's hands; his steady, steely-eyed automaton glare as he approached his human victims was one of the more enjoyably frightening filmgoing benefits of the decade. In 1977, Brynner embarked upon a stage revival of The King and I, and though he was dogged by tales of his outrageous temperament and seemingly petty demands during the tour, audiences in New York and all over the country loved the show. The actor inaugurated a second King tour in 1985; this time, however, he knew he was dying of lung cancer, but kept the news from both his fans and co-workers. Unable to perform the "Shall We Dance" waltz or get all the words out for the song "A Puzzlement," Brynner nonetheless played to packed audiences willing to shell out 75 dollars per ticket. Two months after the play closed in 1985, Brynner died in a New York hospital -- still insisting that his public not know the severity of his condition until after his death, although he had recorded a dramatic public-service announcement to be broadcast afterward that blamed the illness on smoking. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Wikipedia: Yul Brynner
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Yul Brynner

from the film Anastasia (1956)
Born Yuliy Borisovich Brynner
July 11, 1920(1920-07-11)
Vladivostok, Far Eastern Republic
Died October 10, 1985 (aged 65)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation Actor
Years active 1941–1985
Spouse(s) Virginia Gilmore (1944-1960) (divorced)
Doris Kleiner (1960-1967) (divorced)
Jacqueline Thion de la Chaume (1971-1981) (divorced)
Kathy Lee (1983-1985) (his death)

Yuliy Borisovich "Yul" Brynner (Russian: Юлий Борисович Бринер, Ûlij Borisovič Briner; July 11, 1920 – October 10, 1985)[1] was a Russian-born actor of stage and film, best known for his portrayal of the Mongkut, king of Siam, in the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical The King and I on both stage and screen, as well as Rameses II in the 1956 Cecil B. DeMille film The Ten Commandments and as Chris Adams in The Magnificent Seven. In addition to his work as a performer, Brynner was an ardent photographer, and wrote two books.

Brynner was noted for his deep, rich voice and for his shaven head, which he kept as a personal trademark after adopting it in his role in The King and I.

Contents

Early life

Brynner was born in Vladivostok, Far Eastern Republic. Brynner's mother, Maria Dimitrievna (née Blagovidova), came from the intelligentsia and studied to be an actress and singer; she was the granddaughter of a doctor who had converted from Judaism to the Russian Orthodox Church.[2] Brynner's father, Boris Julievitch Brynner (Russian: Борис Бринер), was a mining engineer whose father, Jules Bryner, was Swiss, and whose mother, Natalya Iosiphovna Kurkutova, was a native of Irkutsk and of part Buryat ancestry.[2]

Brynner exaggerated his background and early life for the press, claiming that he was born Taidje Khan of part-Mongol parentage, on the Russian island of Sakhalin. In reality, he was born at home in a 4 story residence at 15, Aleutskaya Street, Vladivostok.[3] A biography written by his son Rock Brynner in 1989 clarified these issues. He also claimed to be a quarter Romany and in 1983 was elected to the position of Honorary President of the Roma, an office that he kept until he died. He also infrequently referred to himself as Julius Briner.[1]

After Boris Brynner abandoned his family, his mother took Yul and his sister, Vera Bryner (Russian: Вера Бринер), to Harbin, China, where they attended a school run by the YMCA, and in 1934 she took them to Paris. During World War II, Brynner worked as a French-speaking radio announcer and commentator for the U.S. Office of War Information, broadcasting propaganda to occupied France.

Career

He began acting and modeling in his twenties, and early in his career he was photographed nude by George Platt Lynes.[4]

Brynner's best-known role was that of King Mongut of Siam in the Broadway production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical The King and I which he played 4,626 times on stage over the span of his career. He appeared in the original production and subsequent touring productions, as well as a 1977 Broadway revival, London Production in 1979 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 nine people who have won both a Tony Award and an Academy Award for the same role.

from the trailer for The Ten Commandments (1956).

He made an immediate impact upon launching his film career in 1956, appearing not only in The King and I that year, but also in major roles in The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston and Anastasia with Ingrid Bergman. Brynner, at 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), The Magnificent Seven (1960), and Kings of the Sun (1963). 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 (1958). He starred with Barbara Bouchet in Death Rage, 1976. Among his final feature film appearances were in Michael Crichton's Westworld (1973) and its sequel Futureworld (1976). Brynner also appeared in drag (as a torch singer), in an unbilled role in the Peter Sellers comedy The Magic Christian (1969).

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 Yul Brynner: Photographer (ISBN 0-8109-3144-3) a collection of his photographs of family, friends, and fellow actors, as well as those he took while serving as a UN special consultant on refugees. Brynner wrote Bring Forth the Children: A Journey to the Forgotten People of Europe and the Middle East (1960) and The Yul Brynner Cookbook: Food Fit for the King and You (1983 ISBN 0-8128-2882-8).

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

Brynner was married four times, the first three ending in divorce. He fathered three children and adopted two others.

He and his first wife, actress Virginia Gilmore (1944–1960), had one child, Yul Brynner II, who was born on December 23, 1946. His father nicknamed him "Rock" when he was six in honor of boxer Rocky Graziano, who won the middleweight title in 1947. Rock is a historian, novelist and university history lecturer at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY, and Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, CT.[5] In 2006, Rock wrote a book about his father and his family history titled Empire and Odyssey: The Brynners in Far East Russia and Beyond.

His daughter Lark Brynner (born 1958) was born out of wedlock and raised by his mother(according to an article at answers.com). Brynner's second wife, Doris Kleiner (1960–1967), was a Chilean model, whom he married on the set during shooting of The Magnificent Seven in 1960.[6] They had one child, Victoria Brynner (born November 1962), whose godmother was Audrey Hepburn.

His third wife, Jacqueline Thion de la Chaume[7] (1971-1981), was a French socialite, the widow of Philippe de Croisset (son of French playwright Francis de Croisset), a publishing executive, the victim of a car accident. Brynner and Jacqueline adopted two Vietnamese children: Mia (1974), and Melody (1975). The first house that he ever owned was the Manoir de Cricqueboeuf, a sixteenth-century manor house that he bought with Jacqueline.[7]

He married his fourth wife, Kathy Lee, when she was 24. She is a ballerina from a small town in Malaysia, and met Brynner in The King and I broadway roadshows, playing one of the dancers in the Uncle Tom Cabin play. The marriage lasted for 2 years (1983-1985) until Brynner died.[8]

Death

Brynner died of lung cancer on October 10, 1985 in New York City, the same day as Orson Welles.

Knowing he was dying of cancer, Brynner starred in a run of farewell performances of his most famous role, The King and I, on Broadway from January 7 to June 30, 1985, opposite Mary Beth Peil. He received the 1985 Special Tony award honoring his 4,525 performances in The King and I.[9]

Throughout his life, Brynner was often 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.[10] 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. Whatever you do, just don't smoke. If I could take back that smoking, we wouldn't be talking about any cancer. I'm convinced of that."[11] This advertisement is now featured in the Body Worlds exhibition.

Brynner is interred in the grounds of the Saint-Michel-de-Bois-Aubry Russian Orthodox monastery not far from Luzé, between Tours and Poitiers, Vienne, France.

Honors and awards

Brynner has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6162 Hollywood Blvd, and his childhood home, in Vladivostok, is now a museum. He made "Top 10 stars of the year", in both 1957 and 1958. In 1956, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the King of Siam in The King and I.

Filmography

Features:

Short Subjects:

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

Stage Work

  • Twelfth Night (December 2 - December 13, 1941) (Broadway)
  • The Moon Vine (February 11 - February 27, 1943) (Broadway)
  • Lute Song (February 6 - June 8, 1946) (Broadway)
  • The King and I (March 29, 1951 - March 20, 1954) (Broadway and national tour)
  • Home Sweet Homer (January 4, 1976) (Broadway)
  • The King and I (Revival) (May 2, 1977 - December 30, 1978) (Broadway and national tour)
  • The King and I (Revival) (January 7 - June 30, 1985) (Broadway)

References

  1. ^ a b Record of Yul Brynner, #108-18-2984. Social Security Administration. Social Security Death Index (Death Master File). Provo, Utah: MyFamily.com, Inc., 2006.
  2. ^ a b Brynner, Rock (2006). Empire & odyssey: the Brynners in Far East Russia and beyond. Steerforth Press. pp. 20-30, 80-82. ISBN1586421026. 
  3. ^ Bryner Residence
  4. ^ Leddick, David. George Platt Lynes. New York: Taschen, 2000
  5. ^ Mosnews.com[dead link]
  6. ^ http://www.elsur.cl/archivo/marzo2000/22marzo2000/elsur/despacho/opinion4.htm
  7. ^ a b Capua, Michelangelo (2006). Yul Brynner, A Biography. McFarland. ISBN 0786424613. 
  8. ^ tv.com. "Yul Brynner: Biography". http://www.tv.com/yul-brynner/person/18963/biography.html. 
  9. ^ http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=4357
  10. ^ http://boss.streamos.com/wmedia/musc/ybpsa2.wvx
  11. ^ http://youtube.com/watch?v=JNjunlWUJJI

External links

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Academy Award for Best Actor

Gary Cooper (1941) · James Cagney (1942) · Paul Lukas (1943) · Bing Crosby (1944) · Ray Milland (1945) · Fredric March (1946) · Ronald Colman (1947) · Laurence Olivier (1948) · Broderick Crawford (1949) · José Ferrer (1950) · Humphrey Bogart (1951) · Gary Cooper (1952) · William Holden (1953) · Marlon Brando (1954) · Ernest Borgnine (1955) · Yul Brynner (1956) · Alec Guinness (1957) · David Niven (1958) · Charlton Heston (1959) · Burt Lancaster (1960)

Complete List · (1928–1940) · (1941–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001–present)
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Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical

David Wayne (1947) · Myron McCormick (1950) · Russell Nype (1951) · Yul Brynner (1952) · Hiram Sherman (1953) · Harry Belafonte (1954) · Cyril Ritchard (1955) · Russ Brown (1956) · Sydney Chaplin (1957) · David Burns (1958) · Russell Nype (1959) · Tom Bosley (1960) · Dick Van Dyke (1961) · Charles Nelson Reilly (1962) · David Burns (1963) · Jack Cassidy (1964) · Victor Spinetti (1965) · Frankie Michaels (1966) · Joel Grey (1967) · Hiram Sherman (1968) · Ron Holgate (1969) · René Auberjonois (1970) · Keene Curtis (1971) · Larry Blyden (1972) · George S. Irving (1973) · Tommy Tune (1974) · Ted Ross (1975)

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