Quick Facts
- NAME: Yul Brynner
- OCCUPATION: Film Actor
- BIRTH DATE: July 11, 1920
- DEATH DATE: October 10, 1985
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Vladivostok, Russia
- PLACE OF DEATH: New York, New York
- Originally: Yuliy Borisovich Bryner
Best Known For
Yul Brynner was an actor of stage and screen most famous for portraying King Mongkut of Siam in The King and I.
Yul Brynner. (2012). Biography.com. Retrieved 02:12, May 24, 2012 from http://www.biography.com/people/yul-brynner-9542628
Yul Brynner [Internet]. 2012. http://www.biography.com/people/yul-brynner-9542628, May 24
" Yul Brynner." 2012. Biography.com 24 May 2012, 02:12 http://www.biography.com/people/yul-brynner-9542628
' Yul Brynner', Biography.com,(2012) http://www.biography.com/people/yul-brynner-9542628 [accessed May 24, 2012]
" Yul Brynner," Biography.com, http://www.biography.com/people/yul-brynner-9542628 (accessed May 24, 2012).
Yul Brynner [Internet]. Biography.com; 2012 [cited 2012 May 24]. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/yul-brynner-9542628.
Yul Brynner, http://www.biography.com/people/yul-brynner-9542628 (last visited May 24, 2012).
Yul Brynner, http://www.biography.com/people/yul-brynner-9542628 (last visited May 24, 2012).
Synopsis
Profile
Actor. Born Yuliy Borisovich Bryner on July 11, 1920 in Vladivostok, Russia. Best known for his acting career, Brynner was also a musician and in his early years played guitar and sang gypsy songs in Parisian nightclubs. After a brief career as a trapeze artist in France, Yul Brynner started acting with a touring company in the early 1940s.
He made his Broadway debut in Lute Sang in 1946. He began playing his most famous role, King Mongkut of Siam in The King and I in the Broadway production of the Oscar and Hammerstein musical in 1951. After more than three years and 1,246 performances, he starred in the screen version in 1956, winning an Oscar for Best Actor. He then returned to the stage for an additional 3,379 stage performances, the last being in 1985.
Along the way, Brynner also starred in such classic films as The Ten Commandments (1956), Anastasia (1956), The Brothers Karamazov (1958), and The Magnificent Seven (1960).
Brynner was also a photographer and authored two books, Bring Forth the Children: A Journey to the Forgotten People of Europe and the Middle East and The Yul Brynner Cookbook: Food Fit for the King and You.
Brynner's romantic life included four wives - actress Viriginia Gilmor, Chilean model Doris Kleiner, Jacqueline Thion de la Chaume, ballerina Kathy Lee, and numerous love affairs with such stars as Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, Joan Crawford, and Ingrid Bergman.
The actor died of lung cancer on October 10, 1985 in New York City -- the same day as Orson Welles.
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