Brynner, Yul (1915-1985)
Brynner, Yul (1915-1985)
In 1951 Yul Brynner, a Russian-born Mongolian, made a multi-award-winning Broadway debut in The King and I, and in 1956 he won the Best Actor Oscar for the screen version. He shaved his head for the role, and it is to this image of baldness as a badge of virile exoticism that he owed his subsequent prolific and highly paid film career during the 1960s and 1970s, as well as his continuing status as a twentieth-century icon. Seemingly ageless, he continued to star in revivals of the show until shortly before his much-publicized death from lung cancer. Much of his early life is shrouded in self-created myth, but he arrived in the United States in 1941, having worked as a trapeze artist with the Cirque d'Hiver in Paris until injury intervened. A largely mediocre actor, who appeared in increasingly mediocre films, relying on his mysterious, brooding personality, he is also remembered for his roles as the pharaoh in The Ten Commandments (1956) and the black-clad leader of The Magnificent Seven (1960).
—Robyn Karney
Further Reading:
Katz, Ephraim. The International Film Encyclopedia. New York, Harper Collins, 1994.
Thomson, David. A Biographical Dictionary of Film. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1994.