The Journey Yul Brynner Views
Yul Brynner (Russian: Юлий Борисович Бринер, Julij Borisovič Briner; July 11, 1920 – October 10, 1985)[1] was a Russian-born American actor of stage and film.[2] He was best known for his portrayal of Mongkut, king of Siam, in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor for the film version; he also played the role more than 4,500 times on stage. He is also remembered as Rameses II in the 1956 Cecil B. DeMille film The Ten Commandments, General Bounine in Anastasia and Chris Adams in The Magnificent Seven. Brynner was noted for his distinctive voice and for his shaven head, which he maintained as a personal trademark long after adopting it for his initial role in The King and I. He was also a photographer and the author of two books.
Yul Brynner was born Yuliy Borisovich Bryner in 1920.[3] He exaggerated his background and early life for the press, claiming that he was born Taidje Khan of part-Mongol-Tatar parentage, on the Russian island of Sakhalin. In reality, he was born at home in a four-story residence at 15 Aleutskaya Street, Vladivostok, in the Russian Far East (present-day Primorsky Krai, Russia).[4] He also infrequently referred to himself as Julius Briner.[1] A biography written by his son Rock Brynner in 1989 clarified these issues.
After Boris Bryner abandoned his family, his mother took Yul and his sister, Vera Bryner, to Harbin, China, where they attended a school run by the YMCA. 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.[8]
Yul Brynner began acting and modeling in his twenties, and early in his career he was photographed nude by George Platt Lynes.[9] After his radio work during World War II, Brynner moved into the nascent television industry, directing and acting in live productions in New York. In 1949 Brynner made his film debut in Port of New York, his only film with his natural head of hair.[citation needed]
The Journey Yul Brynner Images
