• Home
• Forum
• Trivia
• Quotes
• Characters
• Gallery
• Links
• News

• Main Info
• Cast
• Gueststar
• Episode Crew
• Trivia

Yul Brynner was born 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 July 11, 1920, 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, Marousia 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. Brynner took up acting after a serious accident curtailed his circus career. He then moved 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). Ironiucally, he failed a screen test at Universal in 1947 because he looked "too oriental"

After working in a very early TV series, "Mr. Jones and His Neighbors", 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." 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 and winning the Oscar for Best Actor. For the next two decades, he maintained a starring film career despite 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.

Outside of his film work, Brynner was also an accomplished photographer, and many of his pictures appeared in major magazine spreads or were used as official studio production stills.

In 1972, the actor agreed to re-create his King and I role in an expensive weekly TV series, Anna and the King. But it lasted all of eight weeks. Brynner's last major film role was in the sci-fi thriller Westworld (1973) as a murderously malfunctioning robot, dressed in Western garb reminiscent of the actor's wardrobe in 1960's The Magnificent Seven. In 1977, Brynner embarked upon a stage revival of The King and I, that was adored by audiences all over the country.

On October 10, 1985, at age 65, Brynner died in a New York hospital -- still insisting that his public not know the severity of his condition until after his death, although he had recorded a dramatic public-service announcement to be broadcast afterward that blamed the illness on smoking.

Movie Credits
The King and I (1956) - King Mongkut of Siam
Once More, with Feeling! (1960) - Victor Fabian
Solomon and Sheba (1959) - Solomon
The Sound and the Fury (1959) - Jason Compson
The Journey (1959) - Major Surov
The Buccaneer (1958) - Jean Lafitte
The Brothers Karamazov (1958) - Dmitri Karamazov
Anastasia (1956) - General Sergei Pavlovich Bounine
The Ten Commandments (1956) - Rameses
Cast a Giant Shadow (1966) - Asher Gonen
Morituri (1965) - Capt. Rolf Mueller
Invitation to a Gunfighter (1964) - Jules Gaspard d'Estaing
Flight from Ashiya (1964) - TSgt. Mike Takashima
Kings of the Sun (1963) - Chief Black Eagle
Taras Bulba (1962) - Taras Bulba
Escape from Zahrain (1962) - Sharif
Goodbye Again (1961) (uncredited) - Extra in nightclub scene
The Magnificent Seven (1960) - Chris Adams
Surprise Package (1960) - Nico March
Poppies Are Also Flowers (1966) - Col. Salem
Return of the Seven (1966) - Chris Adams
Villa Rides (1968) - Pancho Villa
The Long Duel (1967) - Sultan
The Double Man (1967) - Dan Slater/Kalmar
Triple Cross (1966) - Baron von Grunen
The Magic Christian (1969) (uncredited) - Transvestite cabaret singer
The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969) - The Chairman
The File of the Golden Goose (1969) - Peter Novak
Bitka na Neretvi (1969) - Yvan Vlado
The Light at the Edge of the World (1971) - Jonathan Kongre
Le Serpent (1973) - Vlassov
Westworld (1973) - The Gunslinger
The Ultimate Warrior (1975) - Carson
Futureworld (1976) - The Gunslinger
Con la rabbia agli occhi (1976) - Peter Marciani

... and many more.

[-] Hide Full Biography

Yul Brynner was born 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 July 11, 1920, 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, Marousia 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. Brynner took up acting after a serious accident curtailed his circus career. He then moved the U.S . in 1941 to study with acting teacher Michael

[+] Show Full Biography