Yul Brynner
Encyclopedia
Yul Brynner was a Russia
n-born actor of stage
and film. 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
blockbuster 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.
. In reality, he was born at home in a four-story residence at 15 Aleutskaya Street, Vladivostok
, in the Far Eastern Republic
(present-day Primorsky Krai
, Russia
). He also occasionally referred to himself as Julius Briner, Jules Bryner, or Youl Bryner. A biography
written by his son Rock Brynner in 1989 clarified these issues.
His father, Boris Yuliyevich Bryner, was a mining engineer
whose father, Jules Bryner, was Swiss
, and whose mother, Natalya Iosifovna Kurkutova, was a native of Irkutsk
and was partly of Buryat
Mongol ancestry. His mother, Marousia Dimitrievna (née Blagovidova), came from the intelligentsia
and studied to be an actress and singer.
He was also a Romani on his mother's side, and in 1977, he was named Honorary President of the International Romani Union
, an office that he kept until his death.
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
. By 1940, Brynner had returned to China and he emigrated from Dairen
aboard the S.S. President Cleveland, arriving in the U.S. October 25, 1940. 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.
. 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.
His best-known role remains that of King Mongkut
of Siam
in the Broadway
production of Rodgers and Hammerstein
's musical The King and I
which he played 4,525 times on stage over the span of his career. He appeared in the original production and later touring productions as well as a 1977 Broadway revival, London Production in 1979 and another Broadway revival in 1985. He also appeared in the film version for which he won an Academy Award
as Best Actor
and in a short-lived TV version (Anna and the King
) on CBS
in 1972. Brynner is one of only nine people who have won both a Tony Award
and an Academy Award
for the same role. His connection to the story and the role of King Mongkut is so deep he was mentioned in the song "One Night in Bangkok
" from the 1984 musical Chess
whose second act is set in Bangkok.
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 though he would sometimes wear a wig for certain roles. Brynner's shaved head was very unusual at the time and his striking appearance helped to give him an iconic appeal. Some fans shaved off their hair to emulate him, and a shaved head is often referred to as the "Yul Brynner look".
Brynner made an immediate impact upon launching his mainstream film career in 1956 and quickly gained superstar status after appearing not only in The King and I that year but also in starring roles in The Ten Commandments
with Charlton Heston
which remains one of the top five highest grossing films in history when adjusted for inflation and Anastasia
with Ingrid Bergman
. Brynner, at 5'10", was reportedly concerned about being overshadowed by Heston's height and physical presence in The Ten Commandments and prepared his impressive physique seen in the film with an intensive weight-lifting program.
He later starred in films such as the epic Solomon and Sheba
(1959), The Magnificent Seven
(1960), Taras Bulba (1962) and Kings of the Sun
(1963). He co-starred with Marlon Brando
in Morituri (1965), Katharine Hepburn
in The Madwoman of Chaillot
(1969) and William Shatner
in a film version of The Brothers Karamazov (1958). He played the titular role of The Ultimate Warrior
(1975) and starred with Barbara Bouchet
in Death Rage
(1976). Among his final feature film appearances were in Michael Crichton
's Westworld
(1973) and its sequel Futureworld
(1976). Brynner also appeared in drag (as a torch singer
) in an unbilled role in the Peter Sellers
comedy The Magic Christian
(1969).
and also The Yul Brynner Cookbook: Food Fit for the King and You (1983 ISBN 0-8128-2882-8).
A student of music from childhood, Brynner was an accomplished guitarist and singer. In his early period in Europe he often played and sang gypsy songs in Parisian nightclubs with Aliosha Dimitrievitch. He sang some of those same songs in the film The Brothers Karamazov. In 1967 he and Dimitrievitch released a record album The Gypsy and I: Yul Brynner Sings Gypsy Songs (Vanguard VSD 79265).
He and his first wife, actress Virginia Gilmore
(1944–1960), had one child, Yul Brynner II, who was born on December 23, 1946. His father nicknamed him "Rock" when he was six in honor of boxer
Rocky Graziano
, who won the middleweight title in 1947. Rock is a historian, novelist, and university history lecturer at Marist College
in Poughkeepsie, New York
and Western Connecticut State University
in Danbury, Connecticut
. In 2006, Rock wrote a book about his father and his family history titled Empire and Odyssey: The Brynners in Far East Russia and Beyond.
Rock regularly returns to Vladivostok, the city of his father's birth, for the "Pacific Meridian" Film Festival.
His daughter Lark Brynner (born 1959) was born out of wedlock and raised by her mother, Frankie Tilden, who was 20 years old when her daughter was born. Brynner supported her financially. His second wife, from 1960 to 1967, Doris Kleiner, was a Chile
an model whom he married on the set during shooting of The Magnificent Seven
in 1960. They had one child, Victoria Brynner (born November 1962), whose godmother was Audrey Hepburn
.
His third wife, Jacqueline Thion de la Chaume (1971–1981), was a French socialite, the widow of Philippe de Croisset (the victim of a car accident; he was the son of French playwright Francis de Croisset
and a publishing executive). Brynner and Jacqueline adopted two Vietnam
ese children: Mia (1974), and Melody (1975). The first house that he ever owned was the Manoir de Cricqueboeuf, a sixteenth-century manor house that he and Jacqueline purchased.
At the age of 63, he married his fourth wife, Kathy Lee, a 24-year-old ballerina from a small town in Malaysia whom he had met in a production of The King and I
in which she had a small dancing role. They remained married for the last 2 years (1983–1985) of Brynner's life.
According to Marlene Dietrich
's daughter Maria Riva
(as she wrote in her memoir Marlene Dietrich, 1994), he had a passionate affair with the famous actress during the first production of The King and I
.
on October 10, 1985 in New York City, the same day as his Battle of Neretva co-star Orson Welles
.
Knowing he was dying of cancer, Brynner starred in a run of farewell performances of his most famous role, The King and I, on Broadway from January 7 to June 30, 1985, with Mary Beth Peil
as Anna Leonowens.
Throughout his life Brynner was often seen with a cigarette
in his hand. In January 1985, nine months before his death, he gave an interview on Good Morning America
, expressing his desire to make an anti-smoking commercial. A clip from that interview was made into a public service announcement by the American Cancer Society
and released after his death. It includes the warning "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." This advertisement is now featured in the Body Worlds
exhibition.
He is interred in France
on the grounds of the Saint-Michel-de-Bois-Aubry Russian Orthodox monastery near Luzé
between Tours
and Poitiers
.
at 6162 Hollywood Blvd where his childhood home in Vladivostok is now a museum.
In 1952 he received the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of The King in The King and I (musical).
He won the 1956 Academy Award for Best Actor
for his portrayal of the King of Siam in The King and I
and made the "Top 10 Stars of the Year" list in both 1957 and 1958.
In 1985 he received a Special Tony Award
honoring his 4,525 performances in The King and I.
Short subjects:
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n-born actor of stage
Stage (theatre)
In theatre or performance arts, the stage is a designated space for the performance productions. The stage serves as a space for actors or performers and a focal point for the members of the audience...
and film. He was best known for his portrayal of Mongkut
Mongkut
Phra Bat Somdet Phra Poramenthramaha Mongkut Phra Chom Klao Chao Yu Hua , or Rama IV, known in foreign countries as King Mongkut , was the fourth monarch of Siam under the House of Chakri, ruling from 1851-1868...
, king of Siam
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, in the Rodgers and Hammerstein
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were a well-known American songwriting duo, usually referred to as Rodgers and Hammerstein. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age of the medium...
musical The King and I
The King and I
The King and I is a stage musical, the fifth by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The work is based on the 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon and derives from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, who became governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in...
, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
for the film version; he also played the role more than 4,500 times on stage. He is also remembered as Rameses II
Ramesses II
Ramesses II , referred to as Ramesses the Great, was the third Egyptian pharaoh of the Nineteenth dynasty. He is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire...
in the 1956 Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...
blockbuster The Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments (1956 film)
The Ten Commandments is a 1956 American epic film that dramatized the biblical story of the Exodus, in which the Hebrew-born Moses, an adopted Egyptian prince, becomes the deliverer of the Hebrew slaves. The film, released by Paramount Pictures in VistaVision on October 5, 1956, was directed by...
, General Bounine in Anastasia
Anastasia (1956 film)
Anastasia is a 1956 American historical drama film directed by Anatole Litvak for 20th Century Fox. The film stars Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brynner, and Helen Hayes. Supporting players include Akim Tamiroff, Martita Hunt, and, in a small role, Natalie Schafer...
and Chris Adams in The Magnificent Seven
The Magnificent Seven
The Magnificent Seven is an American Western film directed by John Sturges, and released in 1960. It is a fictional tale of a group of seven American gunmen who are hired to protect a small agricultural village in Mexico from a group of marauding Mexican bandits...
. 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.
Early life
Yul Brynner was born Yuliy Borisovich Bryner in 1920. 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 SakhalinSakhalin
Sakhalin or Saghalien, is a large island in the North Pacific, lying between 45°50' and 54°24' N.It is part of Russia, and is Russia's largest island, and is administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast...
. In reality, he was born at home in a four-story residence at 15 Aleutskaya Street, Vladivostok
Vladivostok
The city is located in the southern extremity of Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula, which is about 30 km long and approximately 12 km wide.The highest point is Mount Kholodilnik, the height of which is 257 m...
, in the Far Eastern Republic
Far Eastern Republic
The Far Eastern Republic , sometimes called the Chita Republic, was a nominally independent state that existed from April 1920 to November 1922 in the easternmost part of the Russian Far East...
(present-day Primorsky Krai
Primorsky Krai
Primorsky Krai , informally known as Primorye , is a federal subject of Russia . Primorsky means "maritime" in Russian, hence the region is sometimes referred to as Maritime Province or Maritime Territory. Its administrative center is in the city of Vladivostok...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
). He also occasionally referred to himself as Julius Briner, Jules Bryner, or Youl Bryner. A biography
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
written by his son Rock Brynner in 1989 clarified these issues.
His father, Boris Yuliyevich Bryner, was a mining engineer
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
whose father, Jules Bryner, was Swiss
Swiss (people)
The Swiss are citizens or natives of Switzerland. The demonym derives from the toponym of Schwyz and has been in widespread use to refer to the Old Swiss Confederacy since the 16th century....
, and whose mother, Natalya Iosifovna Kurkutova, was a native of Irkutsk
Irkutsk
Irkutsk is a city and the administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, one of the largest cities in Siberia. Population: .-History:In 1652, Ivan Pokhabov built a zimovye near the site of Irkutsk for gold trading and for the collection of fur taxes from the Buryats. In 1661, Yakov Pokhabov...
and was partly of Buryat
Buryats
The Buryats or Buriyads , numbering approximately 436,000, are the largest ethnic minority group in Siberia and are mainly concentrated in their homeland, the Buryat Republic, a federal subject of Russia...
Mongol ancestry. His mother, Marousia Dimitrievna (née Blagovidova), came from the intelligentsia
Intelligentsia
The intelligentsia is a social class of people engaged in complex, mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them...
and studied to be an actress and singer.
He was also a Romani on his mother's side, and in 1977, he was named Honorary President of the International Romani Union
International Romani Union
The International Romani Union is an organization active for the rights of the Romani people. Its seat is in Prague....
, an office that he kept until his death.
After Boris Bryner abandoned his family, his mother took Yul and his sister, Vera Bryner, to Harbin
Harbin
Harbin ; Manchu language: , Harbin; Russian: Харби́н Kharbin ), is the capital and largest city of Heilongjiang Province in Northeast China, lying on the southern bank of the Songhua River...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, where they attended a school run by the YMCA
YMCA
The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...
. In 1934 she took them to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. By 1940, Brynner had returned to China and he emigrated from Dairen
Dalian
Dalian is a major city and seaport in the south of Liaoning province, Northeast China. It faces Shandong to the south, the Yellow Sea to the east and the Bohai Sea to the west and south. Holding sub-provincial administrative status, Dalian is the southernmost city of Northeast China and China's...
aboard the S.S. President Cleveland, arriving in the U.S. October 25, 1940. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Brynner worked as a French-speaking radio announcer and commentator for the U.S. Office of War Information, broadcasting propaganda to occupied France.
Career
Yul Brynner began acting and modeling in his twenties and early in his career he was photographed nude by George Platt LynesGeorge Platt Lynes
George Platt Lynes was an American fashion and commercial photographer.Born in East Orange, New Jersey to Adelaide and Joseph Russell Lynes he spent his childhood in New Jersey but attended the Berkshire School in Massachusetts. He was sent to Paris in 1925 with the idea of better preparing him...
. 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.
His best-known role remains that of King Mongkut
Mongkut
Phra Bat Somdet Phra Poramenthramaha Mongkut Phra Chom Klao Chao Yu Hua , or Rama IV, known in foreign countries as King Mongkut , was the fourth monarch of Siam under the House of Chakri, ruling from 1851-1868...
of Siam
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
in the Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
production of Rodgers and Hammerstein
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were a well-known American songwriting duo, usually referred to as Rodgers and Hammerstein. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age of the medium...
's musical The King and I
The King and I
The King and I is a stage musical, the fifth by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The work is based on the 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon and derives from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, who became governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in...
which he played 4,525 times on stage over the span of his career. He appeared in the original production and later touring productions as well as a 1977 Broadway revival, London Production in 1979 and another Broadway revival in 1985. He also appeared in the film version for which he won an Academy Award
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
as Best Actor
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
and in a short-lived TV version (Anna and the King
Anna and the King (TV series)
Anna and the King is a short-lived sitcom broadcast in the United States by CBS as part of its 1972 fall lineup.-Overview:Anna and the King is a non-musical adaptation of the 1956 film of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I, which was in turn based on the novel Anna and the King of Siam by...
) on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
in 1972. Brynner is one of only nine people who have won both a Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
and an Academy Award
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for the same role. His connection to the story and the role of King Mongkut is so deep he was mentioned in the song "One Night in Bangkok
One Night in Bangkok
"One Night in Bangkok" is the title of a song originally sung by the British actor and Pop-dance singer Murray Head on the 1984 concept album for the musical Chess...
" from the 1984 musical Chess
Chess (musical)
Chess is a musical with music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, formerly of ABBA, and with lyrics by Tim Rice. The story involves a romantic triangle between two top players, an American and a Russian, in a world chess championship, and a woman who manages one and falls in love with the other;...
whose second act is set in Bangkok.
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 though he would sometimes wear a wig for certain roles. Brynner's shaved head was very unusual at the time and his striking appearance helped to give him an iconic appeal. Some fans shaved off their hair to emulate him, and a shaved head is often referred to as the "Yul Brynner look".
Brynner made an immediate impact upon launching his mainstream film career in 1956 and quickly gained superstar status after appearing not only in The King and I that year but also in starring roles in The Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments (1956 film)
The Ten Commandments is a 1956 American epic film that dramatized the biblical story of the Exodus, in which the Hebrew-born Moses, an adopted Egyptian prince, becomes the deliverer of the Hebrew slaves. The film, released by Paramount Pictures in VistaVision on October 5, 1956, was directed by...
with Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...
which remains one of the top five highest grossing films in history when adjusted for inflation and Anastasia
Anastasia (1956 film)
Anastasia is a 1956 American historical drama film directed by Anatole Litvak for 20th Century Fox. The film stars Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brynner, and Helen Hayes. Supporting players include Akim Tamiroff, Martita Hunt, and, in a small role, Natalie Schafer...
with Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute...
. Brynner, at 5'10", was reportedly concerned about being overshadowed by Heston's height and physical presence in The Ten Commandments and prepared his impressive physique seen in the film with an intensive weight-lifting program.
He later starred in films such as the epic Solomon and Sheba
Solomon and Sheba
Solomon and Sheba is a 1959 Biblical epic film made by Edward Small Productions and distributed by United Artists. The film stars Yul Brynner, Gina Lollobrigida, George Sanders and Marisa Pavan, with David Farrar, Harry Andrews, Jack Gwillim, Laurence Naismith, William Devlin, Jean Anderson and...
(1959), The Magnificent Seven
The Magnificent Seven
The Magnificent Seven is an American Western film directed by John Sturges, and released in 1960. It is a fictional tale of a group of seven American gunmen who are hired to protect a small agricultural village in Mexico from a group of marauding Mexican bandits...
(1960), Taras Bulba (1962) and Kings of the Sun
Kings of the Sun
Kings of the Sun is a 1963 movie directed by J. Lee Thompson set in Mesoamerica at the time of the conquest of Chichen Itza by Hunac Ceel. The story is about Mayan refugees who sail to the Mississippi River Valley and lay the foundation for the Mississippian culture complex...
(1963). He co-starred with Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
in Morituri (1965), Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
in The Madwoman of Chaillot
The Madwoman of Chaillot (film)
The Madwoman of Chaillot is a 1969 American satirical comedy-drama film made by Commonwealth United Entertainment and distributed by Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. It was directed by Bryan Forbes and produced by Ely A. Landau with Anthony B. Unger as associate producer...
(1969) and William Shatner
William Shatner
William Alan Shatner is a Canadian actor, musician, recording artist, and author. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T...
in a film version of The Brothers Karamazov (1958). He played the titular role of The Ultimate Warrior
The Ultimate Warrior (1975 film)
The Ultimate Warrior is a 1975 science fiction and action-adventure film directed by Robert Clouse. One of the first in a series of post-apocalyptic films from the 1960s and 1970s, it is set in post-civilization 2012 New York City and depicts the struggles of a small enclave of inhabitants...
(1975) and starred with Barbara Bouchet
Barbara Bouchet
Barbara Bouchet, is a German-American actress and entrepreneur.She has acted in more than 80 films and television episodes and founded a production company that has produced fitness videos and books as well as owning a fitness studio...
in Death Rage
Death Rage
Death Rage Death Rage Death Rage (Italian: Con la rabbia agli occhi is a 1976 Italian film directed by Antonio Margheriti.The film is also known as Anger in His Eyes in the United Kingdom, Blood Reckoning in the USA (video title) and Shadow of the Killer in the Philippines (English title)- Cast...
(1976). Among his final feature film appearances were in Michael Crichton
Michael Crichton
John Michael Crichton , best known as Michael Crichton, was an American best-selling author, producer, director, and screenwriter, best known for his work in the science fiction, medical fiction, and thriller genres. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and many have been adapted...
's Westworld
Westworld
Westworld is a 1973 science fiction-thriller film written and directed by novelist Michael Crichton and produced by Paul Lazarus III. It stars Yul Brynner as a lifelike robot in a futuristic Western-themed amusement park, and Richard Benjamin and James Brolin as guests of the park.Westworld was the...
(1973) and its sequel Futureworld
Futureworld
Futureworld is a 1976 sequel to the 1973 science fiction film Westworld. It was written by George Schenk and Mayo Simon, and directed by Richard T. Heffron. The cast included Peter Fonda, Blythe Danner, and Arthur Hill. There is also a cameo appearance by Yul Brynner in a dream sequence...
(1976). Brynner also appeared in drag (as a torch singer
Torch song
A torch song is a sentimental love song, typically one in which the singer laments an unrequited or lost love, either where one party is oblivious to the existence of the other, where one party has moved on, or where a romantic affair has affected the relationship...
) in an unbilled role in the Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers
Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...
comedy The Magic Christian
The Magic Christian (film)
The Magic Christian is a 1969 British comedy film directed by Joseph McGrath and starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr, with noteworthy appearances by John Cleese, Raquel Welch, Christopher Lee, Richard Attenborough and Roman Polanski. It was loosely adapted from the 1959 comic novel of the same...
(1969).
Photographer, author, and musician
In addition to his work as a performer, Brynner was an active photographer and wrote two books. His daughter Victoria put together Yul Brynner: Photographer (ISBN 0-8109-3144-3) a collection of his photographs of family, friends, and fellow actors, as well as those he took while serving as a UN special consultant on refugees. 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 MorathInge Morath
Ingeborg Morath was an Austrian-born photographer. In 1953 she joined the Magnum Photos Agency, founded by top photographers in Paris, and became a full photographer with them in 1955...
and also The Yul Brynner Cookbook: Food Fit for the King and You (1983 ISBN 0-8128-2882-8).
A student of music from childhood, Brynner was an accomplished guitarist and singer. In his early period in Europe he often played and sang gypsy songs in Parisian nightclubs with Aliosha Dimitrievitch. He sang some of those same songs in the film The Brothers Karamazov. In 1967 he and Dimitrievitch released a record album The Gypsy and I: Yul Brynner Sings Gypsy Songs (Vanguard VSD 79265).
Personal life
Brynner was married four times, the first three ending in divorce. He fathered three children and adopted two.He and his first wife, actress Virginia Gilmore
Virginia Gilmore
Virginia Gilmore was an American film, stage, and television actress.-Biography:Virginia Gilmore was born as Sherman Virginia Poole in El Monte, California. Her father was a retired officer of the British Army. Gilmore began her stage career in San Francisco at the age of 15, but moved to Los...
(1944–1960), had one child, Yul Brynner II, who was born on December 23, 1946. His father nicknamed him "Rock" when he was six in honor of boxer
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
Rocky Graziano
Rocky Graziano
Rocky Graziano, born Thomas Rocco Barbella in New York City , was an Italian American boxer. Graziano was considered one of the greatest knockout artists in boxing history, often displaying the capacity to take his opponent out with a single punch...
, who won the middleweight title in 1947. Rock is a historian, novelist, and university history lecturer at Marist College
Marist College
Marist College is a private liberal arts college on the east bank of the Hudson River near Poughkeepsie, New York. The site was established in 1905 by Marist Brothers, and the college was chartered in 1929...
in Poughkeepsie, New York
Poughkeepsie (town), New York
Poughkeepsie is a town in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 42,777 at the 2000 census. The name is derived from the native term, "Uppu-qui-ipis-in," which means "reed-covered hut by the water."...
and Western Connecticut State University
Western Connecticut State University
Western Connecticut State University is a public university in Danbury, Connecticut. Founded in 1903, WestConn has an arts and sciences curriculum, a business school, and several professional programs including elementary and secondary education, nursing, music performance, and social work...
in Danbury, Connecticut
Danbury, Connecticut
Danbury is a city in northern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It had population at the 2010 census of 80,893. Danbury is the fourth largest city in Fairfield County and is the seventh largest city in Connecticut....
. In 2006, Rock wrote a book about his father and his family history titled Empire and Odyssey: The Brynners in Far East Russia and Beyond.
Rock regularly returns to Vladivostok, the city of his father's birth, for the "Pacific Meridian" Film Festival.
His daughter Lark Brynner (born 1959) was born out of wedlock and raised by her mother, Frankie Tilden, who was 20 years old when her daughter was born. Brynner supported her financially. His second wife, from 1960 to 1967, Doris Kleiner, was a Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
an model whom he married on the set during shooting of The Magnificent Seven
The Magnificent Seven
The Magnificent Seven is an American Western film directed by John Sturges, and released in 1960. It is a fictional tale of a group of seven American gunmen who are hired to protect a small agricultural village in Mexico from a group of marauding Mexican bandits...
in 1960. They had one child, Victoria Brynner (born November 1962), whose godmother was Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...
.
His third wife, Jacqueline Thion de la Chaume (1971–1981), was a French socialite, the widow of Philippe de Croisset (the victim of a car accident; he was the son of French playwright Francis de Croisset
Francis de Croisset
Francis de Croisset was a Belgium-born French playwright and opera librettist.His opera librettos include Massenet's Chérubin , based on his play of the same name, and Reynaldo Hahn's Ciboulette .He married, in 1910, Marie-Thérèse Bischoffsheim, the widow of banking heir Maurice Bischoffsheim and...
and a publishing executive). Brynner and Jacqueline adopted two Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
ese children: Mia (1974), and Melody (1975). The first house that he ever owned was the Manoir de Cricqueboeuf, a sixteenth-century manor house that he and Jacqueline purchased.
At the age of 63, he married his fourth wife, Kathy Lee, a 24-year-old ballerina from a small town in Malaysia whom he had met in a production of The King and I
The King and I
The King and I is a stage musical, the fifth by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The work is based on the 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon and derives from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, who became governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in...
in which she had a small dancing role. They remained married for the last 2 years (1983–1985) of Brynner's life.
According to Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
's daughter Maria Riva
Maria Riva
Maria Riva is a German-American actress who primarily worked on television in the 1950s. She is the daughter of the actress Marlene Dietrich, about whom she wrote a memoir published in 1994.-Early life:...
(as she wrote in her memoir Marlene Dietrich, 1994), he had a passionate affair with the famous actress during the first production of The King and I
The King and I
The King and I is a stage musical, the fifth by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The work is based on the 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon and derives from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, who became governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in...
.
Citizenship
Brynner, a Russian-born Swiss citizen, renounced his naturalized US citizenship in June 1965 at the American embassy in Berne, Switzerland for tax reasons (he had lost his tax exemption as an American resident abroad by working too long in the US, and would have been bankrupted by his tax and penalty debt).Death
Brynner died of lung cancerLung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
on October 10, 1985 in New York City, the same day as his Battle of Neretva co-star Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
.
Knowing he was dying of cancer, Brynner starred in a run of farewell performances of his most famous role, The King and I, on Broadway from January 7 to June 30, 1985, with Mary Beth Peil
Mary Beth Peil
Mary Beth Peil is an American actress and singer.-Early life:Born in Davenport, Iowa in 1940, Peil trained as an opera singer at Northwestern University under Lotte Lehmann. There she became a member of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority...
as Anna Leonowens.
Throughout his life Brynner was often seen with a cigarette
Cigarette
A cigarette is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth and in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well...
in his hand. In January 1985, nine months before his death, he gave an interview on Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
, expressing his desire to make an anti-smoking commercial. A clip from that interview was made into a public service announcement by the American Cancer Society
American Cancer Society
The American Cancer Society is the "nationwide community-based voluntary health organization" dedicated, in their own words, "to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives, and diminishing suffering from cancer, through research, education, advocacy, and...
and released after his death. It includes the warning "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." This advertisement is now featured in the Body Worlds
Body Worlds
Body Worlds is a traveling exhibition of preserved human bodies and body parts that are prepared using a technique called plastination to reveal inner anatomical structures...
exhibition.
He is interred in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
on the grounds of the Saint-Michel-de-Bois-Aubry Russian Orthodox monastery near Luzé
Luzé
Luzé is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in central France.-See also:*Communes of the Indre-et-Loire department...
between Tours
Tours
Tours is a city in central France, the capital of the Indre-et-Loire department.It is located on the lower reaches of the river Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. Touraine, the region around Tours, is known for its wines, the alleged perfection of its local spoken French, and for the...
and Poitiers
Poitiers
Poitiers is a city on the Clain river in west central France. It is a commune and the capital of the Vienne department and of the Poitou-Charentes region. The centre is picturesque and its streets are interesting for predominant remains of historical architecture, especially from the Romanesque...
.
Honors and awards
Brynner has a star on the Hollywood Walk of FameHollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
at 6162 Hollywood Blvd where his childhood home in Vladivostok is now a museum.
In 1952 he received the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of The King in The King and I (musical).
He won the 1956 Academy Award for Best Actor
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
for his portrayal of the King of Siam in The King and I
The King and I (1956 film)
The King and I is a 1956 musical film made by 20th Century Fox, directed by Walter Lang and produced by Charles Brackett and Darryl F. Zanuck. The screenplay by Ernest Lehman is based on the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II musical The King and I, based in turn on the book Anna and the King...
and made the "Top 10 Stars of the Year" list in both 1957 and 1958.
In 1985 he received a Special Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
honoring his 4,525 performances in The King and I.
Filmography
Features:- Port of New York (19491949 in filmThe year 1949 in film involved some significant events.-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:*Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello...
) - The King and IThe King and I (1956 film)The King and I is a 1956 musical film made by 20th Century Fox, directed by Walter Lang and produced by Charles Brackett and Darryl F. Zanuck. The screenplay by Ernest Lehman is based on the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II musical The King and I, based in turn on the book Anna and the King...
(19561956 in filmThe year 1956 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 5 - The Ten Commandments opens in cinemas and becomes one of the most successful and popular movies of all time, currently ranking 5th on the list of all time moneymakers * February 5 - First showing of documentary films by...
) - The Ten CommandmentsThe Ten Commandments (1956 film)The Ten Commandments is a 1956 American epic film that dramatized the biblical story of the Exodus, in which the Hebrew-born Moses, an adopted Egyptian prince, becomes the deliverer of the Hebrew slaves. The film, released by Paramount Pictures in VistaVision on October 5, 1956, was directed by...
(1956) - AnastasiaAnastasia (1956 film)Anastasia is a 1956 American historical drama film directed by Anatole Litvak for 20th Century Fox. The film stars Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brynner, and Helen Hayes. Supporting players include Akim Tamiroff, Martita Hunt, and, in a small role, Natalie Schafer...
(1956) - The Brothers Karamazov (19581958 in filmThe year 1958 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 16- "In the Money" by William Beaudine is released on this date. It would be the last installment of The Bowery Boys series which began back in 1946....
) - The BuccaneerThe Buccaneer (1958 film)The Buccaneer is a 1958 War film, made by Paramount Pictures like the 1938 version and shot in Technicolor and VistaVision. It takes place during the War of 1812, and tells a heavily fictionalized version of how the pirate Jean Lafitte helped in the Battle of New Orleans and how he had to choose...
(1958) - The JourneyThe Journey (1959 film)The Journey is a 1959 American drama film directed by Anatole Litvak. A group of Westerners tries to flee Hungary after the Soviet Union moves to crush the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. It stars Deborah Kerr, Yul Brynner, and Jason Robards. Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner were paired again since they...
(19591959 in filmThe year 1959 in film involved some significant events, with Ben-Hur winning a record 11 Academy Awards.-Events:* The Three Stooges make their 190th and last short film, Sappy Bull Fighters....
) - The Sound and the FuryThe Sound and the Fury (film)The Sound and the Fury is a 1959 film directed by Martin Ritt. It is an adaptation of the novel with the same name.- Cast :*Yul Brynner : Jason Compson*Joanne Woodward : Quentin Compson*Margaret Leighton : Caddy Compson*Jack Warden : Benjy Compson...
(1959) - Solomon and ShebaSolomon and ShebaSolomon and Sheba is a 1959 Biblical epic film made by Edward Small Productions and distributed by United Artists. The film stars Yul Brynner, Gina Lollobrigida, George Sanders and Marisa Pavan, with David Farrar, Harry Andrews, Jack Gwillim, Laurence Naismith, William Devlin, Jean Anderson and...
(1959) - Once More, with Feeling!Once More, with Feeling!Once More, with Feeling! is a British comedy film directed and produced by Stanley Donen from a screenplay by Harry Kurnitz, based on his play. The film was released by Columbia Pictures and has music by Franz Liszt, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Richard Wagner, arranged by Muir Mathieson...
(19601960 in filmThe year 1960 in film involved some significant events, with Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho the top-grossing release in the U.S.-Events:* April 20 - for the first time since coming home from military service in Germany, Elvis Presley returns to Hollywood, California to film G.I...
) - Testament of OrpheusTestament of OrpheusTestament of Orpheus is a 1960 film directed by and starring Jean Cocteau. It is considered the final part of the Orphic Trilogy, following The Blood of a Poet and Orphée...
(1960) - Surprise PackageSurprise Package (film)Surprise Package is a 1960 American comedy film directed by Stanley Donen and starring Yul Bryner, Mitzi Gaynor, Noel Coward, Eric Pohlmann and Barry Foster. An American gangster living on a Greek island and a deposed King hatch a plan to steal some crown jewels....
(1960) - The Magnificent SevenThe Magnificent SevenThe Magnificent Seven is an American Western film directed by John Sturges, and released in 1960. It is a fictional tale of a group of seven American gunmen who are hired to protect a small agricultural village in Mexico from a group of marauding Mexican bandits...
(1960) - Goodbye AgainGoodbye Again (1961 film)Goodbye Again, also known as Aimez-vous Brahms?, is a 1961 Franco-American romantic drama film directed by Anatole Litvak It was produced and from a screenplay by Samuel A. Taylor, based on the novel Aimez-Vous Brahms? by Françoise Sagan. The music score was by Georges Auric with additional music...
(19611961 in filmThe year 1961 in film involved some significant events, with West Side Story winning 10 Academy Awards.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:* Atlantis, the Lost ContinentB...
) - Escape from ZahrainEscape from ZahrainEscape from Zahrain is a 1962 American action film directed by Ronald Neame and starring Yul Brynner, Anthony Caruso, James Mason and Jack Warden....
(19621962 in filmThe year 1962 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May - The Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards are officially founded by the Taiwanese government....
) - Taras Bulba (1962)
- Kings of the SunKings of the SunKings of the Sun is a 1963 movie directed by J. Lee Thompson set in Mesoamerica at the time of the conquest of Chichen Itza by Hunac Ceel. The story is about Mayan refugees who sail to the Mississippi River Valley and lay the foundation for the Mississippian culture complex...
(19631963 in filmThe year 1963 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* June 12 - Cleopatra starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison and Richard Burton premieres at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City....
) - Flight from AshiyaFlight from AshiyaFlight from Ashiya is a 1964 film about the U.S. Air Force's Air Rescue Service, flying out of Ashiya Air Base, Japan. In this fictionalized film set in the early 1960s, a flight crew's mission is to rescue a liferaft of Japanese civilians stranded in rough seas.- Plot :The movie centers on three...
(19641964 in filmThe year 1964 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 29 - The film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is released....
) - Invitation to a GunfighterInvitation to a GunfighterInvitation to a Gunfighter is a 1964 drama directed by Richard Wilson, starring Yul Brynner and George Segal.-Plot:Confederate veteran Matt Weaver returning home after the Civil War discovers his farm was sold by a banker named Brewster .-Cast:* Yul Brynner as Jules Gaspard d'Estaing* Janice Rule...
(1964) - Morituri (19651965 in filmThe year 1965 in film involved some significant events, with The Sound of Music topping the U.S. box office.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:...
) - Cast a Giant ShadowCast a Giant ShadowCast a Giant Shadow is a 1966 big budget, action movie based on the life of Colonel Mickey Marcus starring Kirk Douglas and Senta Berger. Yul Brynner, John Wayne, Frank Sinatra, and Angie Dickinson also appear in supporting roles...
(19661966 in filmThe year 1966 in film involved some significant events.-Events:Animation legend Walter Disney, well known for his creation of Mickey Mouse, died in 15 December 1966 of acute circulatory collapse following a diagnosis of, and surgery for, lung cancer...
) - The Poppy Is Also a FlowerThe Poppy Is Also a FlowerThe Poppy Is Also a Flower is an ABC made-for-television spy and anti-drug film. The film was directed by Terence Young and stars Senta Berger, Stephen Boyd, Trevor Howard, Rita Hayworth, Angie Dickinson, Yul Brynner, and Marcello Mastroianni...
(1966) - Return of the SevenReturn of the SevenReturn of the Seven , is the first sequel to the 1960 western, The Magnificent Seven. Made in 1966, Yul Brynner is the sole returning cast member from the first film, portraying Chris Adams....
(1966) - Triple Cross (1966)
- The Double ManThe Double Man (1967 film)The Double Man is a 1967 British spy film which was directed by Franklin Schaffner and based on the novel Legacy of a Spy by writer Henry Maxfield.-Cast:* Yul Brynner as Dan Slater / Kalmar* Britt Ekland as Gina* Clive Revill as Frank Wheatley...
(19671967 in filmThe year 1967 in film involved some significant events. It is widely considered as one of the most ground-breaking years in film.-Events:* December 26 - The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour airs on British television....
) - The Long DuelThe Long DuelThe Long Duel is a 1967 British adventure film directed by Ken Annakin and starring Yul Brynner, Trevor Howard, Charlotte Rampling and Harry Andrews...
(1967) - Villa RidesVilla RidesVilla Rides is a 1968 film starring Yul Brynner in toupee in the title role and Robert Mitchum as an American adventurer and pilot of fortune. The supporting cast includes Charles Bronson as Fierro, Herbert Lom as Huerta, and Alexander Knox as Madero...
(19681968 in filmThe year 1968 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 30 - The film The Lion in Winter, starring Katharine Hepburn, debuts.* November 1 - The MPAA's film rating system is introduced.-Top grossing films :- Awards :...
) - The Picasso Summer (19691969 in filmThe year 1969 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Last year for prize giving at the Venice Film Festival until it is revived in 1980...
) - The File of the Golden GooseThe File of the Golden GooseThe File of the Golden Goose is a 1969 British thriller film directed by Sam Wanamaker and starring Yul Brynner, Charles Gray and Edward Woodward...
(1969) - Battle of Neretva (1969)
- The Madwoman of ChaillotThe Madwoman of Chaillot (film)The Madwoman of Chaillot is a 1969 American satirical comedy-drama film made by Commonwealth United Entertainment and distributed by Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. It was directed by Bryan Forbes and produced by Ely A. Landau with Anthony B. Unger as associate producer...
(1969) - The Magic ChristianThe Magic Christian (film)The Magic Christian is a 1969 British comedy film directed by Joseph McGrath and starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr, with noteworthy appearances by John Cleese, Raquel Welch, Christopher Lee, Richard Attenborough and Roman Polanski. It was loosely adapted from the 1959 comic novel of the same...
(1969) - Adiós, SabataAdiós, SabataAdiós Sabata is a 1971 Spaghetti Western film directed by Gianfranco Parolini. It is the second film in The Sabata Trilogy by Parolini...
(19711971 in filmThe year 1971 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*February 8 - Bob Dylan's hour long documentary film, Eat the Document, premieres at New York's Academy of Music...
) - The Light at the Edge of the WorldThe Light at the Edge of the WorldThe Light at the Edge of the World is a 1971 adventure film, adapted from Jules Verne's classic 1905 adventure novel Le Phare du bout du monde...
(1971) - Romance of a Horsethief (1971)
- CatlowCatlowCatlow is a 1971 western film based on a 1963 novel by Louis L'Amour. It stars Yul Brynner as a renegade outlaw determined to pull off a Confederate gold heist. It co-stars Richard Crenna and Leonard Nimoy....
(1971) - FuzzFuzz (film)Fuzz is a 1972 American action comedy film directed by Richard A. Colla and starring Burt Reynolds, Yul Brynner, Raquel Welch, Tom Skeritt, and Jack Weston. The screenplay was written by Evan Hunter, based on the 1968 novel of the same name that was part of the "87th Precinct" series he wrote under...
(19721972 in filmThe year 1972 in film involved some significant events.-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:*Avanti!, directed by Billy Wilder, starring Jack Lemmon and Juliet MillsB...
) - Night Flight from MoscowNight Flight from MoscowNight Flight from Moscow or Le Serpent is a French thriller made in 1973. It was produced and directed by Henri Verneuil. The music was written by Ennio Morricone.-Plot:...
(19731973 in filmThe year 1973 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx divorces his second wife, Barbara Blakely. Blakely would later marry actor/singer Frank Sinatra....
) - WestworldWestworldWestworld is a 1973 science fiction-thriller film written and directed by novelist Michael Crichton and produced by Paul Lazarus III. It stars Yul Brynner as a lifelike robot in a futuristic Western-themed amusement park, and Richard Benjamin and James Brolin as guests of the park.Westworld was the...
(1973) - The Ultimate WarriorThe Ultimate Warrior (1975 film)The Ultimate Warrior is a 1975 science fiction and action-adventure film directed by Robert Clouse. One of the first in a series of post-apocalyptic films from the 1960s and 1970s, it is set in post-civilization 2012 New York City and depicts the struggles of a small enclave of inhabitants...
(19751975 in filmThe year 1975 in film involved some significant events, with Steven Spielberg's thriller Jaws topping the box office.-Events:*March 26 - The film version of The Who's Tommy premieres in London....
) - Death RageDeath RageDeath Rage Death Rage Death Rage (Italian: Con la rabbia agli occhi is a 1976 Italian film directed by Antonio Margheriti.The film is also known as Anger in His Eyes in the United Kingdom, Blood Reckoning in the USA (video title) and Shadow of the Killer in the Philippines (English title)- Cast...
(19761976 in filmThe year 1976 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*March 22 - Filming begins on George Lucas' Star Wars science fiction film...
) - FutureworldFutureworldFutureworld is a 1976 sequel to the 1973 science fiction film Westworld. It was written by George Schenk and Mayo Simon, and directed by Richard T. Heffron. The cast included Peter Fonda, Blythe Danner, and Arthur Hill. There is also a cameo appearance by Yul Brynner in a dream sequence...
(1976)
Short subjects:
- On Location with Westworld (19731973 in filmThe year 1973 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx divorces his second wife, Barbara Blakely. Blakely would later marry actor/singer Frank Sinatra....
) - Lost to the Revolution (19801980 in film- Events :* May 21 - Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is released and is the biggest grosser of the year ....
) (narrator)
Stage work
- Twelfth Night (December 2–13, 1941) (Broadway)
- The Moon Vine (February 11–27, 1943) (Broadway)
- Lute SongLute Song (musical)Lute Song is a 1946 American musical with a book by Sidney Howard and Will Irwin, music by Raymond Scott, and lyrics by Bernard Hanighen. It is based on the 14th century Chinese play Pi-Pa-Ki by Kao-Tong-Kia and Mao-Tseo...
(February 6 – June 8, 1946) (Broadway) - The King and IThe King and IThe King and I is a stage musical, the fifth by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The work is based on the 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon and derives from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, who became governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in...
(March 29, 1951 – March 20, 1954) (Broadway and national tour) - Home Sweet HomerOdysseusOdysseus or Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....
(January 4, 1976) (Broadway) - The King and IThe King and IThe King and I is a stage musical, the fifth by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The work is based on the 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon and derives from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, who became governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in...
(Revival) (May 2, 1977 – December 30, 1978) (Broadway and national tour) - The King and I (Revival) (January 7 – June 30, 1985) (Broadway)