Yul Brynner
| Yul Brynner | |
 Yul Brynner in 'The Magnificent Seven | |
| Background information | |
| Born as: | Yuliy Borisovich Briner |
| Other names: | Юл Бриннер (Russian) |
| Born | Jul 11, 1920 Vladivostok, Far Eastern Republic {Russia) |
| Died | Oct 10, 1985 - at age 64 New York City, U.S. Cancer |
| Buried: | Abbaye royale Saint-Michel de Bois-Aubry (near Luzé, France) |
| Spouse(s): |
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| Children: | 5 |
| Occupation: | Actor (1941 - 1985) |
| Nationality: | American, Swiss & Russian |
| Ethnicity: | Russian |
Yul Brynner (Russian: Юл Бриннер), born Yuliy Borisovich Briner (Russian: Юлий Борисович Бринер; July 11, 1920 – October 10, 1985), was a Russian-born actor. He gained fame for his portrayal of King Mongkut in the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical The King and I (1951), for which he won two Tony Awards, and he later received an Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1956 film adaptation. He performed the role 4,625 times on stage and became renowned 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, he was honored with a ceremony to put his handprints in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood in 1956. He also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.
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). He had roles as the android "The Gunslinger" in Westworld (1973), and its sequel, Futureworld (1976).
In addition to his film credits, he worked as a model and photographer. He also wrote several books.
Early life
In Russia
Yul Brynner was born Yuliy Borisovich Briner on July 11, 1920, in Vladivostok, Russia.[ He had Swiss-German, Russian, and Buryat (Mongol) ancestry. He also identified as having Roma ancestry; however, recent scholarship does not support that claim. He was born at his parents' home, a four-story house on 15 Aleutskaya Street, Vladivostok, into a wealthy Swiss-Russian family of landowners and silver mining developers in Siberia and the Far East. He was named after his grandfather, merchant Yuliy Ivanovich Brinner.
At the time, the territory was controlled by the Far Eastern Republic—a communist Russian buffer state. Vladivostok was under Japanese occupation until 1922. The Briner family enjoyed a good life at their four-storey mansion.
In October 1922, the Red Army occupied Vladivostok, and most of the Briner family's wealth was confiscated and nationalized at the end of the Russian Civil War. The Briners were stripped of home ownership, but the family, including Yul's elder sister, Vera, continued to live in their house under a temporary status.
Later in his life, Brynner enjoyed telling tall tales and exaggerating his background and early life for the press, claiming that he was born Taidje Khan to a Mongol father and a Roma mother on the Russian island of Sakhalin. He occasionally referred to himself as Julius Briner, Jules Bryner, or Youl Bryner. The 1989 biography by his son, Rock Brynner, clarified some of these issues.
Brynner's father, Boris Yuliyevich Briner, was a mining engineer and inventor with Swiss-German and Russian roots. He graduated from Mining University in Saint Petersburg in 1910. The actor's grandfather, Jules Briner (Бринер, Юлий Иванович), was a Swiss national who relocated to Vladivostok in the 1870s to establish a thriving import and export business. Brynner's paternal grandmother, Natalya Yosifovna Kurkutova, hailed from Irkutsk and was of mixed heritage, including partial Buryat ancestry.
Brynner's mother, Maria (Marousia) Dimitrievna (née Blagovidova, Мария Дмитриевна Благовидова[19]), was a member of the Russian intelligentsia and trained to be an actress and singer. Although her son claimed she had Russian Roma heritage, modern historians studying the Brinner family in Vladivostok argue there is no evidence of Roma ancestry. Yul became immersed in this culture during his exile while working with his sister, singer Vera Brinner, as they sought to develop a stage persona. Vera later expressed strong disapproval of this cultural appropriation. Brynner maintained a deep personal affinity for the Roma people. In 1977, he was appointed honorary president of the International Romani Union, a position he held until his passing.
In 1922, after the formation of the Soviet Union, Yul's father, Boris Briner, was required to relinquish his Swiss citizenship. All family members became Soviet citizens. Brynner's father's work necessitated extensive travel, and in 1923, in Moscow, he fell in love with an actress, Katerina Ivanovna Kornakova. She was the ex-wife of actor Aleksei Dikiy and a stage partner of Michael Chekhov at the Moscow Art Theatre. Many years later, Katerina Kornakova would assist Brynner with her letter of recommendation, asking Michael Chekhov to employ him in his theatre company in the United States.
In 1924, Yul's father divorced his mother, Marousia, but continued to support her and their children. His father also adopted a girl because his new wife was childless. Many years later, after his father's death, Brynner took this adopted sister into his care. The father-son relationship remained complex and emotionally traumatic for Brynner.
After leaving his children and his former wife in Vladivostok, Boris Briner briefly lived in Moscow with Katerina Ivanovna Kornakova, but they eventually moved to Harbin, Manchuria, which at that time remained under Japanese control. Briner established a business in international trade.
In China
In 1927, Marousia Briner took her children, Yuliy and Vera (✦January 17, 1916, †December 13, 1967), and emigrated from Vladivostok to Harbin, China. There, young Yul and Vera attended a school run by the YMCA.
In 1930, Boris gave Yuliy an acoustic guitar as a birthday present. That guitar and the subsequent music lessons had a lasting influence on Brynner's artistic development. His natural curiosity, creativity, and imagination became focused on mastering guitar techniques and studying classical and contemporary music. Brynner studied music under the guidance of his sister Vera, a classically trained opera singer. After several years of intensive study, Brynner became an accomplished guitar player and singer.
In France and Switzerland
In 1933, fearing a war between China and Japan, Marousia Briner moved with her children to Paris. Many Russians had moved there in exile after the Revolution. There, on June 15, 1935, the fourteen-year-old Brynner made his debut at the "Hermitage" cabaret, where he played his guitar and sang in the Russian and Roma languages. After initial success, he continued performing at various Parisian nightclubs, sometimes accompanying his sister and playing and singing Russian and Roma songs. At that time, Brynner was a student at a lyceum in Paris, where he studied French. His classmates and teachers were aware of his strong character, as he was often involved in fistfights.
In the summer of 1936, Brynner worked as a lifeguard at a resort beach in Le Havre. There, he joined a French circus troupe, trained as a trapeze acrobat, and remained with the troupe for several years. After sustaining a back injury, he departed from the circus. In excruciating pain, Brynner took narcotics for relief, ultimately developing a drug dependency.
One day, while purchasing opium from a local dealer, Brynner met Jean Cocteau (1889–1963), and the two became lifelong friends. Cocteau introduced Brynner to Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Josephine Baker, Jean Marais, and the bohemian milieu of Paris. This experience and these connections eventually aided him in his multifaceted career in acting, directing, and producing.
Seventeen-year-old Brynner became a drug addict, and the family tried to help him treat his illness. He spent a year in Lausanne, Switzerland, undergoing treatment for his addiction at a Swiss clinic and at Lausanne University Hospital, with financial support from his aunt, Vera Dmitrievna Blagovidova-Briner, his mother's sister. Blagovidova-Briner was a physician trained at a medical school in Saint Petersburg, Russia, before the revolution. She later practiced in China and Switzerland. The year-long treatment in Switzerland, which included hypnotherapy, had a lasting effect on Brynner's health. Yul never used illicit drugs again in his life. He later became addicted to cigarettes, which damaged his lungs and ruined his health as he aged.
In Harbin, Brynner's father had a lucrative trade business and lived with his second wife, actress Katerina Ivanovna Kornakova. She provided Brynner with his first professional acting lessons by showing him scenes from her repertoire at the Moscow Art Theatre. She instructed him on how to respond to her lines using his voice tone and body language. During their initial lessons, Katerina Kornakova demonstrated and explained to Brynner the principles of Konstantin Stanislavsky's school of acting and the innovative ideas of Michael Chekhov. Brynner was excited and impressed by the new experience. His father initially tried to prepare his son for a management position in their family business but changed his mind after observing several acting lessons and witnessing Brynner's happiness.
Katerina Kornakova was impressed by Brynner's intellectual and physical abilities and recommended that he study acting with her former partner, Michael Chekhov. Brynner accepted the letter of recommendation from his stepmother and also received financial support and blessings from his father. With the generous backing of both his father and stepmother, Brynner felt encouraged and confident about his future success as an actor.
At the same time, Brynner's mother's illness progressed and required special medical treatment that was available only in the United States. Brynner traveled with his mother on a long journey across the world.
In the USA
In the year 1940, with limited proficiency in English, Brynner and his mother emigrated to the United States aboard the SS President Cleveland, having departed from Kobe, Japan. They arrived in San Francisco on October 25, 1940. The final destination of their journey was New York City, where his sister was already residing. Vera, a talented singer, starred in The Consul on Broadway in 1950. Additionally, she made an appearance on television in the title role of the opera Carmen. Subsequently, she taught voice in New York.
During World War II, Brynner served as a French-speaking radio announcer and commentator for the United States Office of War Information, providing broadcasts to occupied France. Additionally, he was employed by the Voice of America, delivering broadcasts in Russian to the Soviet Union. Concurrently, throughout the war years, he pursued acting studies in Connecticut under the tutelage of the Russian actor Michael Chekhov. He also took on roles as a truck driver and stagehand for Chekhov's theatre company.
Career
1940s
In 1941, Yul Brynner made his stage debut in a Broadway production of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night," which premiered on December 2. In this production, Brynner portrayed the character Fabian. His role required him to deliver only a few lines due to his limited proficiency in English and his pronounced Russian accent. This opportunity allowed him to add English to his repertoire of languages, which already included Russian, French, Japanese, and Hungarian. The production concluded, as did numerous other Broadway performances, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, when the United States 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, but 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.
In 1944, Brynner wed actress Virginia Gilmore. Shortly afterward, he took on the role of a director at the newly established CBS television studios. Between 1948 and 1949, he both directed and performed on television alongside his wife during the first two seasons of "Studio One". He was also featured in various other shows.
Brynner made his film debut in Port of New York, which was released in November 1949.
1950s
- The King and I
The following year, at Martin's urging, Brynner auditioned for Rodgers and Hammerstein's new musical in New York. He recalled that while finding success as a television director, he had been reluctant to return to the stage. However, once he read the script, he became fascinated by the character of the King and was eager to participate in the project.
Brynner's role as King Mongkut in The King and I (4,625 times on stage) became his best known. He appeared in the original 1951 production opposite Gertrude Lawrence, along with later touring productions, as well as a 1977 Broadway revival, a London production 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 last.
He reprised the role in the 1956 film version, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor. He also portrayed it in Anna and the King, a short-lived TV series on CBS in 1972. Brynner is one of only ten people who have won both a Tony and an Academy Award for the same role.
In 1951, Brynner shaved his head for his role in The King and I. Following the huge success of the Broadway production and subsequent film, Brynner continued to shave his head for the rest of his life. He wore a wig when necessary for certain roles. Brynner's shaven head was unusual at the time, and his striking appearance contributed to his exotic appeal. Some fans shaved off their hair to imitate him. A shaven head was often referred to as the "Yul Brynner look. "
Brynner's second motion picture was the film version of The King and I (1956) with Deborah Kerr. It was a huge success critically and commercially.
Cecil B. de Mille hired Brynner for The Ten Commandments (1956) to play Ramesses II opposite Charlton Heston after seeing him in the stage version of The King and I, telling Brynner backstage that he was the only person for the role.[43] He rounded out his year with Anastasia (1956), co-starring with Ingrid Bergman under the direction of Anatole Litvak. Both films were big hits, and Brynner became one of the most in-demand stars in Hollywood.
MGM cast Brynner 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, Inger Stevens, Claire Bloom and Charles Boyer in a historically accurate tale of the Battle of New Orleans. The film was produced by De Mille and directed by Anthony Quinn.
MGM used Brynner again in The Journey (1959), opposite Kerr under the direction of Litvak, but the film lost money. So too did The Sound and the Fury (1959), based on the novel by William Faulkner, with Joanne Woodward.
Nonetheless, Brynner subsequently received an offer to succeed Tyrone Power, who had passed away during the production of Solomon and Sheba (1959) alongside Gina Lollobrigida. The film achieved significant commercial success, causing a delay in the advancement of a proposed Brynner project concerning Spartacus. Upon the release of the Kirk Douglas film Spartacus (1960), Brynner chose not to pursue his own adaptation.
1960s
Brynner tried comedy with two films directed by Stanley Donen: Once More, with Feeling! (1960) and Surprise Package (1960), but public response was underwhelming. He made a cameo in Testament of Orpheus.
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 release in the U.S. However, it was hugely popular in Europe and has remained so. Its ultimate success led to Brynner's signing a three-picture deal with the Mirisch Company. The film was especially popular in the Soviet Union, where it sold 67 million tickets. He then made a cameo in Goodbye Again (1961).
Brynner focused on action films. He starred in Escape from Zahrain (1962), directed by Ronald Neame, and Taras Bulba (1962), featuring Tony Curtis and directed by J. Lee Thompson. Both films were commercial disappointments; while Taras Bulba enjoyed popularity, it ultimately failed to recoup its substantial budget.
The first film under Brynner's three-picture deal with Mirisch was Flight from Ashiya (1963) with George Chakiris. It was followed by Kings of the Sun (1963), also with Chakiris, directed by Thompson. Neither film was particularly popular, 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).
Brynner enjoyed a hit with Return of the Seven (1966), reprising his role from the original. Less popular were Triple Cross (1966), a war movie featuring Christopher Plummer; The Double Man (1967), a spy thriller; The Long Duel (1967), an imperial adventure opposite Trevor Howard; Villa Rides (1968), a Western; and The File of the Golden Goose (1969).
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 drag (as a torch singer) in an unbilled role in the Peter Sellers comedy The Magic Christian (1969).
Later career
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 lead roles for Romance of a Horse Thief (1971) and a Western, Catlow (1971).
Brynner had a small role in Fuzz (1972) then reprised his most famous part in the TV series Anna and the King (1972) which ran for 13 episodes.
After Night Flight from Moscow (1973) in Europe, Brynner took on one of his iconic roles in the cult hit film Westworld (1973) as the 'Gunslinger', a killer robot. His next two films were variations on this performance: The Ultimate Warrior (1975) and Futureworld (1976).
Brynner returned to Broadway in Home Sweet Homer, a notorious flop musical. His final movie was Death Rage (1976), an Italian action film.
Personal life
Although Brynner had become a naturalized U.S. citizen at the age of 22 in 1943 while living in New York as an actor and radio announcer, he renounced his U.S. citizenship at the U.S. Embassy in Bern, Switzerland, in June 1965 because he had lost his tax exemption as an American resident working abroad. He had stayed too long in the United States, which meant he would face bankruptcy due to the tax and penalty debts imposed by the Internal Revenue Service.
In 2006, Brynner's son Rock wrote a book about his father and family history titled "Empire and Odyssey: The Brynners in Far East Russia and Beyond." He regularly returned to Vladivostok, his father's birthplace, for the Pacific Meridian Film Festival.
Health
In 1979, Brynner settled out of court after allegedly contracting trichinosis at Trader Vic's in New York City.
In September 1983, Brynner suffered from a sore throat; his voice changed, and doctors found a lump on his vocal cords. In Los Angeles, just hours before his 4,000th performance in The King and I, he received test results indicating that he had inoperable lung cancer, although his throat was not affected. Brynner had started smoking heavily at age 12. Although he quit in 1971, his promotional photos often still depicted him with a cigarette in hand or a cigar in his mouth. He and the national tour of the musical were forced to take a few months off while he underwent radiation therapy, which damaged his throat and made singing and speaking difficult. The tour then resumed.
In January 1985, the tour reached New York for a farewell Broadway run. Aware that he was dying, Brynner gave an interview on Good Morning America discussing the dangers of smoking and expressing his desire to create an anti-smoking commercial. The Broadway production of The King and I ran from January 7 to June 30 of that year. His last performance, a few months before his death, marked the 4,625th time he had played the role of the King.
Other interests
In addition to his roles as a director and performer, Brynner was also an accomplished photographer and authored two books. His daughter, Victoria, compiled "Yul Brynner: Photographer," a curated collection of his photographs featuring family members, friends, and fellow actors, along with images he captured during his tenure as a special consultant on refugee matters for the United Nations.
Brynner wrote "Bring Forth the Children: A Journey to the Forgotten People of Europe and the Middle East" (1960), with photographs by himself and Magnum photographer Inge Morath, and "The Yul Brynner Cookbook: Food Fit for the King and You" (1983).
He enjoyed singing gypsy songs. In 1967, Dimitrievitch and he released a record album The Gypsy and I: Yul Brynner Sings Gypsy Songs (Vanguard VSD 79265).
Relationships and marriages
Brynner married four times, his first three marriages ending in divorce. 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 (✦1946–†2023). He was nicknamed "Rock" when he was six years old in honor of boxer Rocky Graziano. Rock was a historian, novelist, and university history lecturer at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York and Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, Connecticut.
Yul Brynner had a long affair with Marlene Dietrich, who was 19 years his senior, beginning during the first production of The King and I.
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 (✦1931–†2025), was a Chilean model whom he married on the set during the shooting of The Magnificent Seven in 1960. They had one child, Victoria Brynner (born November 1962), whose godmother was Audrey Hepburn. Belgian novelist and artist Monique Watteau was also romantically linked with Brynner from 1961 to 1967.
His 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 playwright Francis de Croisset and a publishing executive). Brynner and Jacqueline adopted two Vietnamese children: Mia (1974) and Melody (1975). The first house Brynner owned was the Manoir de Criquebœuf, a 16th-century manor house in northwestern France that Jacqueline and he purchased. His third marriage broke up, reportedly owing to his 1980 announcement that he would continue in the role of the King for another long tour and Broadway run, as well as his affairs with female fans and his neglect of his wife and children.
On April 4, 1983, at the age of 62, Brynner married his fourth and final wife, Kathy Lee (born 1957), a 26-year-old ballerina from Ipoh, Malaysia, whom he had met in the London 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 performances of The King and I.
Death
Brynner passed away from lung cancer on October 10, 1985, at New York Hospital, at the age of 65. His remains were cremated, and the ashes were interred at the Saint-Michel-de-Bois-Aubry Orthodox monastery grounds, situated near Luzé, between Tours and Poitiers in France.
Anti-smoking campaign
Prior to his death, with the help of the American Cancer Society, Brynner created a public service announcement using a clip from the "Good Morning America" interview. A few days after his death, it premiered on all major U.S. television 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 with death imminent. He then looked directly into the camera for 30 seconds and said, "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." In one version of the commercial, his year of birth was incorrectly given as 1915.
Legacy
In Russia
On September 28, 2012, a 2.4-meter-tall statue was inaugurated at Yul Brynner Park, in front of the home where Brynner was born at Aleutskaya St. No. 15 in Vladivostok, Russia. Created by local sculptor Alexei Bokiy, the monument was carved from a granite monolith that was acquired in China and delivered to Vladivostok, Russia. It depicts him in the role of King Mongkut of Siam from The King and I. The grounds for the park were donated by the city of Vladivostok, which also covered additional costs. Vladivostok Mayor Igor Pushkariov, U.S. Consul General Sylvia Curran, and Brynner's son, Rock, participated in the ceremony, along with hundreds of local residents.
In the U.S.
In 1956, Brynner imprinted his hands and feet into the concrete pavement in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California. In 1960, Brynner was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6162 Hollywood Boulevard.
In 2022, a podcast was launched celebrating his filmography, entitled "Here's Looking at Yul, Kid," and has included guests such as Ron Howard.
In France
Brynner spent many years living, studying, and working in France, and his last will expressed his wish to be buried there. His resting place at Abbaye royale Saint-Michel de Bois-Aubry features a memorial dedicated to him.
Filmography
- Wikipedia article: Yul Brynner Filmography
Further reading
References
- Capua, Michelangelo (2006). Yul Brynner: A Biography. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-2461-3.
External links
- More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Yul_Brynner ]
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