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Post by petrolino on Dec 2, 2017 2:01:07 GMT
Yul Brynner : A Man Of Many Talents
"If Brynner's accent seems hard to place, it is small wonder. He has spoken 11 languages at one time or another. He was born on Sakhalin Island, between Japan and Siberia. His father was half Swiss and half Mongolian. His mother, who died as he was born, was "pure gypsy from Bessarabia." Brynner grew up in the Far East, later went to live with his mother's family in France and joined the circus as an acrobat, until a bad fall that left him, at 17, with a chronically troubled back and a career in limbo. The next steps were London, the theater, and New York. He became a director with CBS' "Omnibus" in the primeval days of television, and co-starred with Mary Martin in "Lute Song," an esoteric musical based on a 14th-century Chinese play. The show ran only a few months, but Oscar Hammerstein saw it and thought Brynner was impressive. "How he thought that, I'll never know," says Brynner. "I thought I was terrible." Right or wrong, Hammerstein remembered Brynner, which led to his being cast in "The King and I," which led to one of the strongest associations of one actor and one role in theatrical history. In February 1951, when "The King and I" opened in New Haven, "It was a disaster," Brynner recalls. "It was almost five hours long. There was nothing but conflict between Anna [Gertrude Lawrence] and the King. There was no such thing as 'Shall We Dance'. . . Rodgers and Hammerstein understood immediately that unless there was an underlying fascination with each other, then there really couldn't be a fascinating show." By the middle of the Boston run, the authors had made drastic cuts, while inserting "Shall We Dance" and "Getting to Know You" (a tune discarded from "South Pacific"). And when "The King and "I opened at the St. James Theater on March 29, Variety reported that the show "held the first-nighters enthralled, even minus the almost inevitable spring coughing." It stayed put on Broadway for 1,246 performances. It chugged merrilly on to Chicago. It devoured Los Angeles. It conquired London. The movie won Oscars for itself and its star, even though Brynner had to compete with Brynner in "Anastasia," another Twentieth Century-Fox release of the same year. ("I almost lost my Oscar through the stupidity of those people," he recalls. "That's why they're called Sixteenth Century-Fox.") And ever since, as the King would say, it has been one long case of "Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera."
- James Lardner, The Washington Post
Tony Curtis, Christine Kaufmann & Yul Brynner
While Yul Brynner was living in Paris, Jean Cocteau, Marlene Dietrich, Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse are among the artists who are said to have met him.
He was once married to Virginia Gilmore. He had a fine head of hair in his early days. Once he went bald, he was reluctant to turn back the pages due to characterisation, like Joan Bennett refusing to reverse-transition from sultry brunette to flighty blonde.
Virginia Gilmore
Brynner was once a trapeze artist with the dangerous Cirque D'Hiver company but had to decline his career due to a back injury.
He was an accomplished guitarist whose forte was Gypsy folk music. He cut records and headed up some almighty jams with his relaxed fingerpicking. His sister Vera was a nightclub singer.
'Two Guitars'
Brynner was a talented photographer who snapped pictures around the globe. He was accused of being a voyeur but said he liked observing life. It's been suggested that he became transfixed by the still image while working with filmmakers Sidney Lumet and John Frankenheimer in television.
Brynner was a servant to the United Nations. He was friends with UNICEF representative Audrey Hepburn. He loved to spend time among the unusual wildlife in Malaysia.
Yul Brynner & Audrey Hepburn
It's claimed that screen legends Clint Eastwood and Jerry Lewis could draw and shoot quickfire without blinking. The same was said of Brynner whose mechanical motions in 'Westworld' (1973) have been revived thanks to the hit tv show 'Westworld'.
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Post by mikef6 on Dec 2, 2017 3:03:02 GMT
Brynner's death in 1985 at age 65 was a rare celebrity death that really shocked and grieved me.
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Post by petrolino on Dec 2, 2017 3:05:56 GMT
Brynner's death in 1985 at age 65 was a rare celebrity death that really shocked and grieved me. I read that network television screened an advert he made after his death about the dangers of smoking. I guess he gave his blessing beforehand, knowing his time had come. |
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Post by OldAussie on Dec 2, 2017 3:10:42 GMT
Brynner's anti-smoking ad even screened in Australia.
He is pure magnetism on screen.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Dec 2, 2017 3:52:50 GMT
I was privileged to see Brynner on Broadway in a very short lived play called Homer Sweet Homer. It played for ONE Performance and 11 previews. The play itself was totally un-memorable BUT when that man walked onto the stage the audience just erupted with applause and love that seemed like it would never stop. I have been to many many Broadway plays... good ones and bad ones and this was one of the most moving and memorable experiences I have ever had in a theater. All he did was walk on stage. <I still shiver at the memory>.
Sad that the play itself was no King and I but so glad I got to see it. |
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Post by petrolino on Dec 2, 2017 3:54:43 GMT
I was privileged to see Brynner on Broadway in a very short lived play called Homer Sweet Homer. It played for ONE Performance and 11 previews. The play itself was tottally un-memorable BUT when that man walked onto the stage the audience just erupted with applause and love that seemed like it would never stop. I have been to many many Broadway plays... good ones and bad ones and this was one of the most moving and memorable experiences I have ever had in a theater. All he did was walk on stage. <I still shiver at the memory>.
Sad that the play itself was no King and I but so glad I got to see it. Nice experience ...  |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 2, 2017 10:54:45 GMT
Not seen much of him but he was good in the things i have seen him in.
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Post by marshamae on Dec 2, 2017 16:24:24 GMT
I was lucky to see him in King and I during the last tour. He was already quite ill, and wore a prosthetic padded chest garment because of the wasting, and perhaps surgery. He was still electric. I have no idea how he was able to play . he must have been exhausted.
I remember the posthumous TV ad about smoking. It was done at his instigation and designed to run after his death. It was harrowing.
Ive read that people who knew him thought he ... well, fictionalized a lot of his biographic details. N]Maybe just a guy who didn't like being pinned down, maybe never felt that a mundane life of near poverty in some suburb explained who he actually was. The same could be said of Charlie Chaplin, Cary Grant, Sheila Graham, Gertrude lawrence, and any number of other actors. If the circumstances of your life simply don't fit you, what else would you do but reinvent yourself.
I always find him fascinating on screen although I never cared for West world and Magnificent 7. He often got less than wonderful material but he wa usually interesting.
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Post by pimpinainteasy on Dec 2, 2017 16:34:31 GMT
he was a badass. him and brando appeared together in a mediocre film like MORITURI but brynner held his own.
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Post by teleadm on Dec 2, 2017 19:30:43 GMT
Yul Brynner was one of a kind, something we might never see again.
Even evening news posters in far away Sweden yelled on fornt page "Yul Brynner is Dead".
He was what I like to call "larger than life".
During a Florida summer concert of The King and I, in mid 1970s, when he was down and out, he said that maybe we should do it again, and he continued to play the king until a month before he died.
To Steve McQueen during The Magnificent Seven, he said, you do any thing more, and I take of my hat, and nobody will see what you do!
Like a panther or cat, he must first see if it's interesting, then he/she want to learn, and then it's fun
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Post by koskiewicz on Dec 2, 2017 19:55:55 GMT
...I don't remember where I read this, but I recall something about his passing due to trichinosis, which is caused by pork not properly cooked...
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Post by outrider127 on Dec 2, 2017 22:36:02 GMT
...I don't remember where I read this, but I recall something about his passing due to trichinosis, which is caused by pork not properly cooked... No, it was because he smoked 100 cigarettes a day |
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Post by outrider127 on Dec 2, 2017 22:36:36 GMT
loved him in Westworld and Magnificent 7
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Post by politicidal on Dec 2, 2017 23:36:22 GMT
he was a badass. him and brando appeared together in a mediocre film like MORITURI but brynner held his own. Ugh! Hated that movie. |
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Post by Sulla on Dec 3, 2017 0:42:56 GMT
In that first pic I think he's wearing his Taras Bulba costume. He was always a pleasure to watch on-screen.
Edit: oops, I forgot Curtis and Kaufmann were also in that movie. |
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Post by taylorfirst1 on Dec 15, 2017 17:47:02 GMT
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Post by BATouttaheck on Dec 15, 2017 18:49:39 GMT
...I don't remember where I read this, but I recall something about his passing due to trichinosis, which is caused by pork not properly cooked... Most likely in one of the Hollywood Babylon or similar books which in reality don't always present the "true facts "  |
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Post by vegalyra on Dec 15, 2017 22:19:46 GMT
Brynner was excellent. I haven't seen as many films of his as I'd like to have. Anyone tell me about "The File of the Golden Goose"? Looks interesting and there is a blu ray release of it.
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Post by petrolino on Dec 15, 2017 22:24:17 GMT
Hi, Petrolino. Enjoyed your great post. I just wanted to elaborate on your mention of Brynner working with Lumet and Frankeneimer in television: Many may not know that back in those days, the Golden Age of live television, Brynner was actually working as a director (1949-1953)! In fact, it was he who got Lumet involved in directing live television in the early fifties - Lumet's beginning as a director. (Told by Lumet himself to Robert Osborne on TCM). But then Brynner became a movie star, and that was the end of his directing career. A wonderful gain for those of us who loved him on screen, but I wonder if it was a loss of a great director to the world? Sadly, we'll never know. Hi spiderwort. This is interesting stuff regarding Brynner as I've never seen anything he directed. On a similar note, Dennis Hopper - in my opinion one of the few great actors who became a great director - maintained throughout his life that James Dean would have gone on to become a great filmmaker had he lived. Hopper must have seen something special in Dean when they were active on sets together. |
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Post by geralmar on Dec 15, 2017 22:46:24 GMT
Brynner's death in 1985 at age 65 was a rare celebrity death that really shocked and grieved me. I read that network television screened an advert he made after his death about the dangers of smoking. I guess he gave his blessing beforehand, knowing his time had come. I saw it when originally broadcast. Devastating. |
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