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In 1923, when Yul Brynner was just three, his father had an affair with an actress at Moscow Art Theatre and then abandoned his family. Perhaps the emotional scars remained and made him into this brooding and intensely private person. After her husband left her, his mother, Marousia, took her two children to Harbin, China where they attended a YMCA school.

Circa 1932, sensing the rising tensions between Japan and China, Marousia moved her family to Paris to avoid the impending war. Brynner only wanted to be in the performing arts. He dropped out of school and worked as a trapeze artist in a famous circus.

During his 5th year in the circus, Brynner suffered a back injury, ending his career. Meanwhile, he played guitar, primarily Gypsy songs, at Russian nightclubs in Paris. In 1938, Marousia was diagnosed with leukaemia and the family briefly moved back to Harbin, China.

In 1940, Brynner and his mother emigrated to the US joining his sister. Working as a French-speaking radio commentator for the US Office of War Information, he broadcasted into German-occupied France while studying under the tutelage of Russian-American actor, Michael Chekhov.

In 1941, Brynner performed his first Broadway show in ‘Twelfth Night’. His next play, ‘Lute Song’ with Mary Martin only won him mild acclaim but his friendship with Martin would later bring him the biggest acting role in his career.

In 1944, he married the first of four wives and began his career as a film and television director at CBS. His directing debut was a children’s puppet show and then established himself, successful directing films as ‘Studio One in Hollywood’ (1948).

In 1950, Martin encouraged Brynner to audition for ‘The King and I’. Initially reluctant to return to the stage, he was fascinated with the character of King Mongkut and joined the original Broadway production in 1951. Brynner was asked to shave his head and since then, he kept his head shaved becoming his most notable trademark.

Yul Brynner was sensational as King Mongkut, winning two Tony Awards. He reprised the role over 4000 times before the 1956 film and won an Academy Award for Best Actor. In his acceptance speech, he famously said:

“I hope this is not a mistake, because I won’t give it back for anything in the world. Thank you very much.”

For the next two decades of his career, Brynner starred in over 40 films including ‘Solomon and Sheba’ , (replacing Tyrone Power) (1959) and ‘The Magnificent Seven’ (1960). Due to his exotic good looks, he was typically cast in strong leading roles such as kings, an Egyptian Pharaoh and a Western gunslinger.

Brynner was also an accomplished photographer, author of 2 books and a guitarist.

Yul Brynner was passionate about refugee issues which arose from his interest in collecting United Nations Refugee stamps. This led to him taking up the post as Special Consultant on Refugees for the UNHCR. His fame brought awareness to the sufferings I around the world from Asia to the Middle East.

Brynner began smoking at the age of 12 and chain smoked until 1971. In 1983, he was suffering from inoperable lung cancer and given three months to live. He ended the 4,625th show of The King and I in June, 1985 and died a few months later.

Brynner recorded prior to his death an anti-smoking campaign and
poignantly said:

“Now that I’m gone, I tell you: Don’t smoke, whatever you do, just don’t smoke. If I could take back that smoking, we wouldn’t be talking about any cancer. I’m convinced of that.”