Yul Brynner's Orientation

Locations associated with him:
Ulitsa Aleutskaya, 15, Vladivostok, Primorskiy kray, Russia, 690091
Royal Abbey Saint-Michel Bois-Aubry, Bois-Aubry, 37120 Luzé, France

Yuliy Borisovich Briner (born July eleventh, nineteen twenty - passed away October tenth, nineteen eighty-five), known professionally as Yul Brynner, was a multi-talented individual, encompassing roles as a Russian, French, Swiss, and American actor, singer, and director. He is best known for his depiction of King Mongkut in the Rodgers and Hammerstein theatrical musical The King and I, which earned him two Tony Awards. He also received an Academy Award for Best Actor for his work in the movie adaptation. The part was performed four thousand six hundred and twenty-five times on stage, and he became famous for his shaved head, which he kept as a personal symbol long after adopting it for The King and I. Considered among the earliest Russian-American cinema stars,[1] he was commemorated with a ceremony to imprint his handprints in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood in nineteen fifty-six, and he also attained a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in nineteen sixty. He was the recipient of the National Board of Review Award for Best Actor for his rendition of Ramesses II in the Cecil B. DeMille epic The Ten Commandments (nineteen fifty-six) and General Bounine in the film Anastasia (also nineteen fifty-six). He was also widely recognized for his role as the gunman Chris Adams in The Magnificent Seven (nineteen sixty) and its first sequel Return of the Seven (nineteen sixty-six), along with playing the android "The Gunslinger" in Westworld (nineteen seventy-three), and its sequel, Futureworld (nineteen seventy-six).[2] Adding to his film credits, he also worked as a model, photographer, and was the author of several books.[3][4]

Brynner's romantic life included a diverse array of partners. He had four wives, including actress Viriginia Gilmor, Chilean model Doris Kleiner, Jacqueline Thion de la Chaume, and ballerina Kathy Lee, in addition to numerous affairs with such luminaries as Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, Joan Crawford, and Ingrid Bergman.

Yul Brynner, formerly known as Yuliy Borisovich Briner, was born on July eleventh, nineteen twenty,[5][6][7] in the city of Vladivostok.[8] He had mixed ancestry, including Swiss-German, Russian, Buryat (Mongol), and Romani heritage.[9][10] He came into the world at home within a four-story house at 15 Aleutskaya Street, Vladivostok. He had an older sister, Vera,[11] a soprano trained in the classical style who sang with the New York City opera.[12]

by George Platt Lynes

Brynner commenced his career playing guitar and singing gypsy songs amidst Russian immigrants in Parisian nightclubs. His proficiency in Russian and French allowed him to cultivate a following among the Czarist exiles residing in Paris. After a brief stint as a trapeze artist with the renowned Cirque D'Hiver company in France, he began acting with a touring troupe in the early nineteen forties. He rapidly advanced toward becoming the first ever bald stage and film idol.

In nineteen forty-one, Yul Brynner journeyed to the U.S., where he started a relationship with American actor Hurd Hatfield, noted for portraying the title role in the nineteen forty-five film The Picture of Dorian Gray. Both individuals were enrolled at the Michael Chekhov Theatre Studio in Ridgefield, Connecticut, and many of their classmates have since confirmed the relationship. Michael Chekhov (1891-1955), served as a mentor to performers such as Marilyn Monroe, Jack Palance, Patricia Neal, Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Leslie Caron, Gary Cooper, Clint Eastwood, Anthony Quinn, Jennifer Jones, Robert Vaughn and many others.

A year afterward, twenty-two-year-old Brynner (prior to shaving his head) posed fully nude for the esteemed gay photographer George Platt Lynes.

Even though Brynner had become a naturalized U.S. citizen at the age of twenty-two in nineteen forty-three, while residing in New York as an actor and radio announcer,[6] he renounced his U.S. citizenship at the U.S. Embassy in Bern, Switzerland, in June of nineteen sixty-five because he lost his tax exemption as an American resident employed abroad. He had remained in the United States for an excessively long period, resulting in his potential bankruptcy due to tax and penalty debts imposed by the Internal Revenue Service.[46]

Brynner entered into matrimony four times, with his initial three marriages culminating in divorce. He fathered three children and adopted two. His inaugural wife (nineteen forty-four to nineteen sixty) was actress Virginia Gilmore, with whom he had one child, Yul "Rock" Brynner (born December twenty-three, nineteen forty-six). He acquired the nickname "Rock" when he was six years old, in honor of the boxer Rocky Graziano. 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 two thousand and six, Rock penned a book about his father and his family history titled Empire and Odyssey: The Brynners in Far East Russia and Beyond. He would regularly visit Vladivostok, his father's birthplace, for the "Pacific Meridian" Film Festival.

Yul Brynner maintained a protracted affair with Marlene Dietrich, who was nineteen years his senior, beginning during the inaugural production of The King and I.[43]

Following more than three years and one thousand two hundred and forty-six performances, he starred in the screen version in nineteen fifty-six, attaining an Oscar for Best Actor. He subsequently returned to the stage for an additional three thousand three hundred and seventy-nine stage performances that stretched all the way to nineteen eighty-five. Brynner, at thirty-five years old and married, was almost unknown when he was cast in The King and I, and 52- year-old Gertrude Lawrence's name appeared above his. Yul and Gertrude were involved in an affair during this time. Rodgers and Hammerstein frequently recounted the story that when Lawrence passed away during the run of the show, Brynner finally achieved top billing, and he was overcome with tears upon hearing the news (of his getting top billing - not the news of Lawrence's death).

When Yul Brynner was in Paris making the film, Once More With Feeling, Manuel Puig was working as an assistant on the set in nineteen fifty-nine. The two men had a brief sexual affair, and Puig boasted about Brynner's considerable physical endowment.

In nineteen fifty-nine, Brynner fathered a daughter, Lark Brynner, with Frankie Tilden, who was twenty years old. Lark lived with her mother, and Brynner provided financial support for her. His second wife, from nineteen sixty to nineteen sixty-seven, Doris Kleiner, a Chilean model, whom he wed on the set during the filming of The Magnificent Seven in nineteen sixty. They were parents to one child, Victoria Brynner (born November nineteen sixty-two), whose godmother was Audrey Hepburn.[44] Belgian novelist and artist Monique Watteau was also romantically associated with Brynner, from nineteen sixty-one to nineteen sixty-seven.[45] In nineteen sixty-nine, rumors circulated that Roman Polanski made an adult video /"threesome" featuring Sharon Tate and Brynner. His third wife (nineteen seventy-one to nineteen eighty-one), Jacqueline Simone Thion de la Chaume (1932-2013), a French socialite, was the widow of Philippe de Croisset (son of French playwright Francis de Croisset and a publishing executive). Brynner and Jacqueline adopted two Vietnamese children: Mia (nineteen seventy-four) and Melody (nineteen seventy-five). The initial residence owned by Brynner was the Manoir de Criquebœuf, a sixteenth-century manor house situated in northwestern France that Jacqueline and he acquired.[46] His third marriage ended, allegedly due to his nineteen eighty announcement that he would continue in the role of the King for another prolonged tour and Broadway run, in addition to his relationships with female fans and his neglect of his wife and children.[47] On April fourth, nineteen eighty-three, at the age of sixty-two, Brynner married his fourth and final wife, Kathy Lee (born nineteen fifty-seven), a twenty-six-year-old ballerina from Ipoh, Malaysia, whom he had met in a production of The King and I. They remained married for the final two years of his life. His long-standing close friends Meredith A. Disney and her sons Charles Elias Disney and Daniel H. Disney were in attendance at Brynner and Lee's concluding performances of The King and I.[48]

Brynner passed away from lung cancer on October tenth, nineteen eighty-five, at New York Hospital, at sixty-five years old.[54][55] Brynner was laid to rest within the confines of the Saint-Michel-de-Bois-Aubry Orthodox monastery, near Luzé, between Tours and Poitiers in France.[56]

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