Yul Brynner (July 11, 1920 – 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 , was the daughter of a Russian doctor and his 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 4626 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. He is one of only seven people who have won both a Tony Award and an Academy Award (Oscar) for the same role.

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.

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.

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.

Filmography

Theater credits

• Twelfth Night

• The Moon Vine

• Lute Song

• The King and I

• Home Sweet Homer

Radio credits

• Cafe Istanbul radio program.

Honors and Awards

Popular culture references

• He is referenced in a Toy Dolls song entitled "Yul Brynner was a Skinhead". The lyrics, contrary to the title, humorously point out that Brynner can't be a skinhead since he's not wearing Dr. Martens boots and doesn't have any tattoos.

• Brynner's appearances in Westworld and The King and I are noted in former Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus's song "Jo Jo's Jacket." It features a clip of Brynner's voice and the lyrics "I have a bald head, my name is Yul Brynner, and I am a famous movie star!". The song appears on Malkmus's first solo album, Stephen Malkmus.

• Brynner's role in The King and I is also referenced in the 1984 Murray Head song "One Night in Bangkok", in which the lyrics describe Bangkok as "the creme de la creme of the chess world in a show with everything but Yul Brynner". Bangkok is located in Thailand, which was formerly known as Siam.

• One of the main characters in the 1993 Disney movie Cool Runnings goes by the name Yul Brenner.

• Brynner is shown photographed nude in "Naked Men: Pioneering Male Nudes 1935-1955".