#Yuliy Borisovich Bryner

[historysisco]

On This Day in History July 11, 1920: Legendary movie and theatre actor Yul Brynner (original name Yuliy Borisovich Bryner July 11, 1920 - October 10, 1985) in the city of Vladivostok which was part of the Far Eastern Republic, now Russia.

Brynner is best known for this role as the King Mongkut, the King of Siam in Rodgers and Hammerstein's the King and I. Brynner would win both the Tony and the Academy Award for the role on stage and screen respectively.

Brynner was also a mainstay of Westerns especially with the star studded cast of the Magnificent Seven, the vengeful gunslinger in Westworld, Pharaoh Rameses in the Ten Commandments. Brynner was also an accomplished photographer.

Not many actors past and present had the screen presence of Yul Brynner.

#YulBrynner #YuliyBorisovichBryner #MovieHistory #CinematicHistory #KingAndI #MagnificentSeven #TenCommandments #Westworld #History #Historia #Histoire #Geschichte #HistorySisco

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[newyorktheater]

Young Yul Brynner made his Broadway debut at the age of 21, one year after immigrating to the United States to join his sister, the opera singer Vera Bryner. Born Yuliy Borisovich Briner in the Russian city of Vladivostok, he grew up in Harbin, China and Paris, France.

Yul Brynner starred on Broadway as Odysseus in “Home Sweet Homer,” a musical that opened and closed on the same night.  He had better luck in his 1941 Broadway debut at the age of 21, a recent immigrant, in “Twelfth Night” which lasted 15 performances,  and in a 1943 comedy by Patricia Coleman called The Moon Vine that lasted 20. His biggest success on Broadway was playing Mary Martin’s husband in “Lute Song” a love story with music in 1946, which ran for four months. Biggest, that is, until his next role, for which Mary Martin recommended him to her friends Rodgers and Hammerstein.  It’s the only one of his five Broadway roles for which Yul Brynner is remembered, which is not surprising, because “The King and I” made him a star. He originated the role of King Mongkut in “The King and I,” which opened in 1951 and  ran for 1,246 performance that first go-round

He then starred in the 1956 movie,  and, although he became a movie star (The Ten Commandments, Anastasia, The Magnificent Seven) Brynner kept on returning to play the role on Broadway and around the world – reportedly a total of 4,625 times on stage.

He last appeared in The King and I on Broadway in 1985, a few months before he died at age 65. That last production was directed by Mitch Leigh, who is better known as a composer — of Man of Lamancha, and also of the one-day flop in 1976, “Home Sweet Homer.”

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Yul Brynner and Mary Martin in Lute Song, 1946

The King and I 1951. Gertrude Lawrence and Yul Brynner.

Home Sweet Homer, 1976. Yul Brynner as Odysseus with Diana Davila portraying a character named Nausikaa

Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr perform “Shall We Dance” from the 1956 film version of “The King and I.”

  Y is for Yul Brynner on Broadway Yul Brynner starred on Broadway as Odysseus in “Home Sweet Homer,” a musical that opened and closed on the same night.