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Yul Brynner
from the film Anastasia (1956)
Birth name	Yuliy Borisovich Brynner
Born	July 11, 1920(1920-07-11) Vladivostok, Russian SFSR
Died	October 10, 1985 aged 65 New York, New York, United States
Years active	1944 - 1980
Spouse(s)	Virginia Gilmore (1944–1960) 1 child Doris Kleiner (1960–1967) 1 child Jacqueline de Croisset (1971–1981) 2 children Kathy Lee (1983–1985)
Children	Yul 'Rock' Brynner II (born 1946) Lark (born 1958) Victoria Brynner (born 1962) Mia Brynner (adopted 1974) Melody Brynner (adopted 1975)
Awards Academy Awards Best Actor 1956 The King and I Tony Awards Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical 1952 King and I 1985 Special Award

Yul Brynner (July 11, 1920^[1] – October 10, 1985) was an Academy Award-winning Russian-born Broadway and 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. Yul Brynner became synonymous with baldness during his lifetime.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Career 1.3 Photographer, author, and musician 1.4 Personal life 1.5 Death 2 Credits 2.1 Filmography 2.1.1 Features 2.1.2 Short Subjects 2.2 Broadway credits 2.3 Radio credits 3 Honors and Awards 4 Popular culture references 5 References 6 External links

He was born Yuliy Borisovich Brynner (Russian: Юлий Бори́сович Бри́ннер) in Vladivostok, Russia. His mother, Marusya Blagоvidova (Russian: Маруся Благовидова), was the daughter of a Russian doctor and his father, Boris Brynner (Russian: Борис Бриннер), 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, in 1915. 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 (Russian: Вера Бриннер), to Harbin, China, where they attended a school run by the YMCA, and in 1934 she took them to Paris.

During WWII (1941-D-Day) Brynner worked as a French speaking radio announcer and commentator for the US Office of War Information, broadcasting propaganda to occupied France.

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.

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).

Yul Brynner was married four times, the first three ending 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 (born 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.^[2]

• Lark Brynner (born 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.^[3] They had one child, Victoria Brynner (born 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.^[4] They married in 1983.

Brynner also had an affair with Marlene Dietrich in the early 1950s.^{[citation needed]}

Brynner died on October 10, 1985 (the same day as Orson Welles, his co star 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 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.^[5] 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.

• Port of New York (1949)
• The King and I (1956)
• The Ten Commandments (1956)
• Anastasia (1956)
• The Brothers Karamazov (1958)
• The Buccaneer (1958)
• The Journey (1959)
• The Sound and the Fury (1959)
• Solomon and Sheba (1959)
• Once More, with Feeling! (1960)
• Testament of Orpheus (1960)
• Surprise Package (1960)
• The Magnificent Seven (1960)
• Goodbye Again (1961)
• Escape from Zahrain (1962)
• Taras Bulba (1962)
• Kings of the Sun (1963)
• Flight from Ashiya (1964)
• Invitation to a Gunfighter (1964)
• Morituri (1965)
• Cast a Giant Shadow (1966)
• The Poppy Is Also a Flower (1966)
• Return of the Seven (1966)
• Triple Cross (1966)
• The Double Man (1967)
• The Long Duel (1967)
• Villa Rides (1968)
• The Picasso Summer (1969)
• The File of the Golden Goose (1969)
• The Battle of Neretva (1969)
• The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969)
• The Magic Christian (1969)
• Adiós, Sabata (1971)
• The Light at the Edge of the World (1971)
• Romance of a Horsethief (1971)
• Catlow (1971)
• Fuzz (1972)
• Night Flight from Moscow (1973)
• Westworld (1973)
• The Ultimate Warrior (1975)
• Death Rage (1976)
• Futureworld (1976)

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

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

• Cafe Istanbul

Awards
Preceded by Ernest Borgnine for Marty	Academy Award for Best Actor 1956 for The King and I	Succeeded by Alec Guinness for The Bridge on the River Kwai

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.

• 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 is mentioned in the R.E.M. song "I Wanted To Be Wrong," which appears on their 2004 album Around the Sun. The song begins with the lyrics "You know where I come from / You know what I feel / You're Yul Brenner Westworld / Reporting from the field."
• Brynner's role as the king of Siam in The King and I is also referenced in the 1984 song "One Night in Bangkok" from the musical Chess, in which the lyrics describe Bangkok as "the creme de la creme of the chess world in a show with everything but Yul Brynner".^[6] (Bangkok is the capital of the former Siam, now Thailand.)
• Brynner is shown photographed nude in Naked Men: Pioneering Male Nudes 1935–1955.^[7]
• "Yul Brenner" was the name of one of the four bobsled teammates in the film Cool Runnings. The reference to the very similarly named Yul Brynner was apparently lost on the character himself in the film.
• Brynner is mentioned in the "Munchkin Song" in the Red Dwarf episode "Blue" - "He's Arnold, Arnold, Arnold Rimmer / More reliable than a garden strimmer / he's never been mistaken for Yul Brynner / He's not bald, and his head doesn't glimmer."

• Yul Brynner at the Internet Movie Database
• Yul Brynner at the TCM Movie Database
• Yul Brynner at the Internet Broadway Database
• Yul Brynner at TV.com

Persondata
NAME	Brynner, Yul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Brynner, Yuliy Borisovich
SHORT DESCRIPTION	actor
DATE OF BIRTH	July 11, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH	Vladivostok, Russian SFSR
DATE OF DEATH	October 10, 1985
PLACE OF DEATH	New York, New York, U.S.