Yul brynner biography kings of the sun
Yul Brynner
Biography, movies and analysis of Yul Brynner
Early Life
Yul Brynner was born as Yuliy Borisovich Briner in 1920 in Russian most eastern port town Vladivostok. He grew up amidst the turbulent period in post-revolutionary Russia. At that time Vladivostok was part of the so-called Far Eastern Republic, an independent state that existed from 1920 until 1922t was overthrown by the Soviet Red Army making it part of the Soviet-Union.
His father, Boris Yuliyevich Briner, was a wealthy mining engineer while his mother, Marousia Dimitrievna, worked as an actress and singer. They lived a good life at the time when Yul was born, but that came to a tragic end when the Soviets confiscated all their belongings.
His multicultural background, with Swiss-German and Russian Buryat ancestry, would later help sculpt his exotic, enigmatic screen persona.
When Brynner was 4 years old young, his father and mother separated. His father fell for Russian actress Katerina Kornakova. She was a well-known actress and worked together with Michael Chekhov at the Moscow Art Theatre. Although Yul’s father kept supporting his family financially, his mother Marousia Blagovidova decided to move to the Chinese city of Harbin in 1927 where Yul attended school. After school young Yul learned to play guitar and took singing lessons. That was his first contact with the performing arts.
In 1933 mother and sister Vera, together with 13 year old Yul moved to Paris, fearing a war between China and Japan. As his mother was from Roma background, Yul began a performing career in Paris, singing in Russian and Roma and playing his guitar. He performed in the Hermitage and several Parisian night clubs. In 1936 Yul moved to the French harbor town of Le Havre where he joined a trapeze troupe, working in circuses. A back injury caused by a fall while making an acrobatic jump made Yul taking narcotics to kill the unsustainable pains. In 1937 Yul took opium on a regular basis making Born Taidje Kahn, July 11, 1920, in Sakhalin, an island north of Japan; diedof cancer in New York, NY, on October 10, 1985; married Virginia Gilmore, September 6, 1944 (divorced); married Doris Kleiner (divorced); married Jacqueline de Croisset (divorced); married Kathy Lee, 1983; children: (first marriage) Rock. Yul Brynner told several conflicting stories about his birth and early years;at various times, he gave his birthdate as 1915, 1917, 1920, and 1922. According to his obituaries in The New York Times and Variety, he was the son of aMongolian-Swiss mining engineer and a Rumanian gypsy woman, grew up in Peking and Paris, and worked as a circus acrobat and clown during his teens. Unknown at the time, Brynner was cast as the King of Siam in The King and I only after several better-known actors turned the role down. Originally, Gertrude Lawrence, who appeared opposite him as Anna, received star billing, whileBrynner's name was listed in smaller type below the title. He remained withthe show throughout its original three-year New York run and subsequently played the King in two successful Broadway revivals, several extensive road tours, the 1956 film, and a short-lived television series. Reviewing Brynner's 1985 "farewell engagement" in the musical, Frank Rich of the New York Times wrote, "Man and role have long since merged into a fixed image that is as much apart of our collective consciousness as the Statue of Liberty."Brynner's bald head, which he originally shaved for The King and I, became his trademark. A year before his death from lung cancer, Brynner, who at one time had smokedfive packs of cigarettes a day, stated in a radio interview, "I'm talking toyou now that I'm gone, and I'm telling you right now...that you must stop smoking." By prearrangement, the interview was broadcast after he died. 1963 British film by J. Lee Thompson This article is about the film. For the band, see Kings of the Sun (band). Kings of the Sun is a 1963 DeLuxe Color film directed by J. Lee Thompson for Mirisch Productions set in Mesoamerica at the time of the conquest of Chichen Itza by Hunac Ceel. Location scenes were filmed in Mazatlán and Chichen Itza. The film marks the second project Thompson completed with Yul Brynner within a year — the other being Taras Bulba. Balam is the son of the ruler of a Mayan city-state whose people use wooden swords (with obsidian edges). His father is killed in battle against metal-blade armed rivals led by Hunac Ceel. Balam succeeds to the throne, but is convinced by his advisers, including the head priest, to lead his followers away from the Yucatán, sail to the American Gulf Coast region, so they might regain their strength and fight again another day. Balam's party comes to a coastal settlement with many boats. Balam wants the population of the settlement to join him with their boats. The settlement's chief agrees if Balam agrees to marry his daughter, Ixchel, and make her Queen. Balam agrees. The new land they arrive in across the Gulf is a province occupied by a Native American tribe led by Black Eagle. They are none too pleased about these strange, uninvited immigrants. In a small raid to capture one of the Mayans, Black Eagle is wounded and taken captive to the Mayans' fortified settlement. Balam's love interest Ixchel tends to the Indian's wounds and gains an interested suitor, one who is more forthcoming with his love for her. Balam is under pressure to resume their custom of human sacrifice by sacrificing Black Eagle. Balam has always been against the policy of human sacrifice and sets Black Eagle free. Eventually, the two leaders agree to coexist in peace. However, due to jealousy, they quarrel over Ixchel and the Native Americans depart, just as Hunac Ceel finds Balam an stage and screen star best known for his starring role in The King and I Yuli Borisovich Bryner was born in Vladivostok, Russia, on July 11, 1920, the son of Marousia Dimitrievna (Blagovidova), the Russian daughter of a doctor, and Boris Yuliyevich Bryner, an engineer and inventor of Swiss-German and Russian descent. After his father abandoned the family, his mother moved him and his sister Vera to Manchuria, where they attended a YMCA school. In 1934 his mother moved the family to Paris, where he was enrolled at the exclusive Lycée Moncelle. Yul's school attendance was spotty, however, and he ended up dropping out and becoming a guitarist with a troupe of Russian gypsies that performed in various Paris nightclubs. He subsequently became an apprentice at the Theatre des Mathurins and working as a trapeze artist with the famed Cirque d'Hiver before emigrating to the United States in 1941. Brynner made his acting debut in New York in 1941, as Fabian in Twelfth Night. His next major role did not come until 1943, when he appeared in The Moon Vine. In 1944 Brynner moved to television, in the short-lived series "Mr. Jones and His Neighbors." He returned to the stage in 1946 with an appearance opposite Mary Martin in Lute Song, for which he won several awards and mild acclaim. In 1948 he and his wife, actress Virginia Gilmore, starred in the first television talk show, "Mr. and Mrs.," after which he joined CBS as a television director. He made his film debut in Port of New York (1949). In 1951 Mary Martin suggested that Brynner try out for the lead role in the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical The King and I. Initially reluctant to leave television, Brynner decided to take Martin's suggestion, and a life-long career was launched. The play, starring Brynner and Gerrude Lawrence, debuted on Broadway on May 29, 1951, and ran through March 20, 1954. His portrayal of King Mongkut earned him a Tony for Best Featured Actor in a M Yul Brynner Biography (1920-1985)
Kings of the Sun
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