Yul Brynner

Yul Brynner (born Yuliy Borisovich Briner, July 11 1920 – October 10 1985) was a Russian‑born American actor whose striking presence and trademark shaved head made him an icon of mid‑century cinema and musical theatre. He first gained worldwide fame as King Mongkut in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I, a role he performed on Broadway more than four‑thousand times and later immortalised in the 1956 film, for which he won both a Tony and an Academy Award – a distinction shared by only a handful of performers. Born in Vladivostok, then part of the Far Eastern Republic, Brynner’s early life was shaped by the upheavals of the Russian Civil War, a peripatetic childhood in China and France, and a battle with drug addiction that he overcame during a year‑long treatment in Switzerland. After emigrating to the United States in 1940, he served as a multilingual broadcaster for the Office of War Information before studying with Michael Chekhov and making his Broadway debut in 1941. His film career spanned epic dramas such as The Ten Commandments and Anastasia, the classic western The Magnificent Seven, and the cult sci‑fi hit Westworld, where he introduced the world to the cold‑blooded Gunslinger. In addition to acting, Brynner worked as a model, photographer, and author of several books, and he was a passionate anti‑smoking advocate after his 1983 diagnosis with lung cancer. He died in New York in 1985, leaving a legacy of unforgettable performances, a celebrated family lineage, and a permanent mark on Hollywood history.