Yul Brynner
Yuliy Borisovich Briner (Russian: Юлий Борисович Бринер; July 11, 1920 – October 10, 1985), known professionally as Yul Brynner, was a Russian-born actor. He was known for his portrayal of King Mongkut in the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical The King and I, for which he won two Tony Awards, and later an Academy Award for Best Actor for the film adaptation. He played the role 4,625 times on stage and became known for his shaved head, 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 also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.
"Yul Brenner" and "Brynner" redirect here. For the fictional Jamaican bobsledder, see Cool Runnings. For other uses, see Brynner (disambiguation).
Yul Brynner
October 10, 1985 (aged 65)
Abbaye royale Saint-Michel de Bois-Aubry (near Luzé, France)
- Soviet Union
- United States (renounced)
- Switzerland
Actor
1941–1985
5
In 1956, Brynner received the National Board of Review Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Rameses II in the Cecil B. DeMille epic The Ten Commandments and General Bounine in Anastasia. He was also well known as the gunman Chris Adams in The Magnificent Seven (1960) and its first 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 also worked as a model and photographer and was the author of several books.[3][4]
Career[edit]
1940s[edit]
In 1941, Brynner made his stage debut in a Broadway production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night that premiered on December 2, 1941. In it, Brynner appeared as Fabian and delivered only a few lines in his broken English with a noticeable Russian accent. The job helped to start adding English to the list of languages he spoke, which included French, Japanese, Hungarian, and Russian.[27] The show closed, as did many other Broadway productions, when America declared war on Japan and Nazi Germany. Soon Brynner found a job as a radio commentator presenting war propaganda in French and Russian at the Voice of America radio station. He had little acting work during the next few years[16] but among other acting stints he co-starred in a 1946 production of Lute Song with Mary Martin. He also did some modeling work and was photographed nude by George Platt Lynes.[28][26]