Biography for
Yul Brynner
b. July 7, 1915
Birth name
Taidje Khan
Height
5' 11" (1.80 m)
Mini biography
Exotic leading man of American films, famed as much for his completely bald head as for his performances. Brynner masked much of his life in mystery and in outright lies designed to tease the gullible, and it was not until the publication of a biography by his son in 1989 that many of the details of Brynner's early life became clear(er). He often claimed to be a half-Swiss, half-Japanese named Taidje Khan, born on the island of Sakhalin; in reality he was the son of Boris Bryner, a Swiss-Mongolian engineer and inventor, and Marousia Blagavidova, the daughter of a Russian doctor. He was born in their hometown of Vladivostok on 7 July 1915, and named Yul after his grandfather Jules Bryner. When Yul's father abandoned the family, his mother took Yul and his sister Vera to Harbin, China, where they attended a school run by the YMCA. In 1934 Yul's mother took her children to Paris. Her son was sent to the exclusive Lycée Moncelle, but his attendance was spotty. He dropped out and became a musician, playing guitar in the nightclubs among the Russian gypsies who gave him his first real sense of family. He met luminaries such as Jean Cocteau and became an apprentice at the Theatre des Mathurins. He worked as a trapeze artists with the famed Cirque d'Hiver company. He traveled to the U.S. in 1941 to study with acting teacher Michael Chekhov and toured the country with Chekhov's theatrical troupe. That same year he debuted in New York as Fabian in Twelfth Night (billed as Youl Bryner). After working in a very early TV series, "Mr. Jones and His Neighbors" (1944), he played on Broadway in Lute Song, with Mary Martin, winning awards and mild acclaim. He and his wife, actress Virginia Gilmore, starred in the first TV talk show, "Mr. and Mrs." (1948). Brynner then joined CBS as a television director. He made his film debut in Port of New York (1949). Two years later Mary Martin recommended him for the part he would always be known for: the King in Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical "The King and I". Brynner became an immediate sensation in the role, repeating it for film (The King and I (1956)) and winning the Oscar for Best Actor. For the next two decades he maintained a starring film career despite the exotic nature of his persona, performing in a wide range of roles from Egyptian pharoahs to Western gunfighters, almost all with the same shaven head and indefinable accent. In the 1970s he returned to the role that had made him a star, and spent most of the rest of his life touring the world in "The King and I". When he developed lung cancer in the mid-1980s, he left a powerful public service announcement denouncing smoking as the cause, for broadcast after his death. The cancer and its complications, after a long illness, ended his life. He remains one of the most fascinating, unusual and beloved stars of his time.
IMDb mini-biography by
Jim Beaver <
[email protected]>
Spouse
Kathy Lee (1983 - 10 October 1985) (his death)
Jacqueline de Croisset (1971 - 1981) (divorced) 2 children
Doris Kleiner (1960 - 1967) (divorced) 1 child
Virginia Gilmore (1944 - 1960) (divorced) 1 child
Trade mark
Completely shaved head.
The role of the King of Siam in "The King and I".
Trivia
In 1950, before he achieved fame, he was the director of a children's puppet show on CBS, "Life with Snarky Parker", which lasted barely eight months on the air before cancellation.
Son Yul 'Rock' Brynner II (b. 23 December 1946)
Daughter Lark, born out of wedlock and raised by her mother, (b.1958)
Daughter Victoria Brynner (b. November 1962 in Switzerland)
Daughter Mia Brynner (adopted 1974, born in Vietnam)
Daughter Melody Brynner (adopted 1975, born in Vietnam)
Interred at Saint Robert Churchyard at the Monastery of Saint Michael, La Tourraine, France.
Brynner married Doris Kleiner on the set during shooting of 'The Magnificent Seven' in 1960.
His paternal grandmother was Mongolian.
Is a recipient of the presitigious Connor Award, given by the brothers of the Phi Alpha Tau fraternity based out of Emerson College in Boston.
Died the same day as Orson Welles
One of only eight actors to have won both a Tony and an Oscar for having portrayed the same roles on stage and screen. The others are Joel Grey (Cabaret (1972)), Shirley Booth (Come Back, Little Sheba (1952)), Rex Harrison (My Fair Lady (1964)), Anne Bancroft (The Miracle Worker (1962)), Paul Scofield (A Man for All Seasons (1966)), José Ferrer (Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)) and Jack Albertson ("The Subject Was Roses").
According to a new book, "Alfred Hitchcock : A Life in Darkness and Light" by Patrick McGilligan, he was considered for the role of Vandamn, the senior villain (eventually played by James Mason) in "North by Northwest."
While touring in the play "Odyssey" in the mid-1970s, Brynner attained a reputation of being a holy terror toward hotel staff members. Among other things, all hotel suites where he would stay had to be painted a certain shade of tan and all kitchens in those hotel suites had to be stocked in advance with "one dozen brown eggs, under no circumstances white ones!" The play itself, later retitled "Home, Sweet Homer", had a successful pre-Broadway tour of over a year, but lasted exactly one performance when it opened on Broadway in 1976.
He was an accomplished photographer. He took many photos on the sets of the various projects he worked on over the years.
Mentioned in the popular mid-1980s song "One Night in Bangkok," sung by Murray Head, from the soundtrack of the musical Chess.
When he found out he would be playing Pharoah opposite Charlton Heston's Moses in "The Ten Commandments" and that he would be shirtless for most of the film, he began a rigorous weight lifting program because he did not want to be physically overshadowed by Charlton Heston (which explains his buffer than normal physique during "The King and I", another film he was set to work on at the time.)
A recording of him explaining how being bald helped him is included in a song by Stephen Malkmus (of Pavement) entitled "Jo Jo's Jacket". The first verses are about Brynner and include a reference to Westworld and the King and I.
Won Broadway's 1952 Tony Award as Best Supporting or Featured Actor (Musical) for "The King and I," a role he recreated in his Oscar-winning performance in the film of the same name, The King and I (1956). He also won a second, Special Tony in 1985 "honoring his 4,525 performances in 'The King and I'."
Died of the same cause (lung cancer) as The Magnificent Seven (1960) co-star Steve McQueen.
Personal quotes
"People don't know my real self, and they're not about to find out."
To interviewers: "Just call me a nice, clean-cut Mongolian boy."
Musical: King and I
Song: Puzzlement
King
When I was a boy
World was better spot.
What was so was so,
What was not was not.
Now I am a man;
World have changed a lot.
Some things nearly so,
Others nearly not.
There are times I almost think
I am not sure of what I absolutely know.
Very often find confusion
In conclusion I concluded long ago
In my head are many facts
That, as a student, I have studied to procure,
In my head are many facts..
Of which I wish I was more certain I was sure!
[Spoken]
Is a puzzlement...
[Sung]
What to tell growing son
What for instance, shall I say to him of women?
Shall I educate him on the ancient lines?
Shall I tell the boy as far as he is able,
To respect his wives and love his concubines?
Shall I tell him everyone is like the other,
And the better of the two is really neither?
If I tell him this I think he won't believe it-
And I nearly think that I don't believe it either!-
When my father was a king
He was a king who knew exactly what he knew,
And his brain was not a thing
Forever swinging to and fro and fro and to.
Shall I, then be like my father
And be willfully unmovable and strong?
Or is it better to be right?...
Or am I right when I believe I may be wrong?
Shall I join with other nations in alliance?
If allies are weak, am I not best alone?
If allies are strong with power to protect me,
Might they not protect me out of all I own?
Is a danger to be trusting one another,
One will seldom want to do what other wishes;
But unless someday somebody trust somebody
There'll be nothing left on earth excepting fishes!
There are times I almost think
Nobody sure of what he absolutely know.
Everybody find confusion
In conclusion he concluded long ago
And it puzzle me to learn
That tho' a man may be in doubt of what he know,
Very quickly he will fight...
He'll fight to prove that what he does not know is so!
Oh-h-h-h-h-h Sometimes I think that people going mad!
Ah-h-h-h-h-h! Sometimes I think that people not so bad!
But not matter what I think
I must go on living life.
As leader of my kingdom I must go forth,
Be father to my children and husband to each wife
Etcetera, etcetera, and so forth.
If my Lord in Heaven Buddha, show the way,
Everyday I try to live another day.
If my Lord in Heaven Buddha, show the way,
Everyday I do my best for one-more day!
[Spoken]
But...Is a puzzlement!
