Yul Brynner

Yul Brynner was a Russian-born actor, and he also worked as a model and photographer and was the author of several books. He was best known for his portrayal of "King Mongkut" in the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical "The King and I', on Broadway, for which he won two Tony Awards, and then he later won an Academy Award for Best Actor for playing the same role in the film adaptation, Walter Lang's adaptation of the Broadway Musical for 20th Century Fox, 'The King and I' (1956), co-starring Deborah Kerr as "Anna Leonowens", and with supporting performances by Rita Moreno as "Tuptim", Terry Saunders as "Lady Thiang", Martin Benson as "Kralahome", Rex Thompson as "Louis Leonowens", Patrick Adiarte as "Prince Chulalongkorn", Alan Mowbray as "Sir John Hay", Geoffrey Toone as "Sir Edward Ramsay", and Carlos Rivas as "Lun Tha". Yul Brynner played the role 4,625 times on stage and became known for his shaved head, which he maintained as a personal trademark long after adopting it for 'The King and I'. He was honoured with a ceremony to put his handprints in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood in 1956, and he also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960. In 1956, Yul Brynner received the National Board of Review Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of "Rameses II" in the Cecil B. DeMille epic Biblical drama for Paramount Pictures, 'The Ten Commandments' (1956), with an all-star cast that included Charlton Heston as "Moses" (and the voice of God at the Burning Bush), Anne Baxter as "Nefretiri", Edward G. Robinson as "Dathan", Yvonne De Carlo as "Sephora", Debra Paget as "Lilia", John Derek as "Joshua", Sir Cedric Hardwicke as "Seti I", Nina Foch as "Bithiah", Martha Scott as "Yochabel", Judith Anderson as "Memnet", Vincent Price as "Baka", John Carradine as "Aaron", Olive Deering as "Miriam", Douglass Dumbrille as "Jannes", Frank de Kova as "Abiram", and Henry Wilcoxon as "Pentaur". That year Yul Brynner also played the role of "General Bounine" in Anatole Litvak's period drama of Arthur Laurent's screenplay, in a movie for 20th Century Fox, 'Anastasia' (1956), also starring Ingrid Bergman as "Anna Koreff / Anastasia", Helen Hayes as the "Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna", and in supporting roles, Akim Tamiroff as "Boris Andreevich Chernov", Martita Hunt as "Baroness Elena von Livenbaum", and Felix Aylmer as "Chamberlain". He was also well known later as the gunman "Chris Adams" a Cajun gunslinger, the leader of the seven, in John Sturges' classic Western for United Artists, 'The Magnificent Seven' (1960), also starring Steve McQueen as "Vin Tanner", a drifter, Horst Buchholz as "Chico", the young, hot-blooded shootist, Charles Bronson as "Bernardo O'Reilly", the professional in need of money, Robert Vaughn as "Lee", the traumatized veteran, Brad Dexter as "Harry Luck", the fortune seeker, James Coburn as "Britt", the knife expert, and Eli Wallach as "Calvera", the bandit chief, and then he played the same role again in the sequel, Burt Kennedy's Western, 'Return of the Seven' (1966), co-starring Robert Fuller as "Vin Tanner", Julián Mateos as "Chico", Warren Oates as "Colbee", Claude Akins as "Frank", Virgilio Teixeira as "Luis Emilio Delgado", and Jordan Christopher as "Manuel De Norte". Several years later he played the android "The Gunslinger" in Michael Crichton's science fiction Western for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 'Westworld' (1973), also starring Richard Benjamin as "Peter Martin", James Brolin as "John Blane", Norman Bartold as "Medieval Knight", Alan Oppenheimer as the "Chief Supervisor", Victoria Shaw as the "Medieval Queen", and Dick Van Patten as the "Banker", and then he played the role again in its sequel, Richard T. Heffron's science fiction thriller for American International Pictures, 'Futureworld' (1976), also starring Peter Fonda as "Chuck Browning", Blythe Danner as "Tracy Ballard", Arthur Hill as "Dr. Duffy", John Ryan as "Dr. Morton Schneider", Stuart Margolin as "Harry Croft", James M. Connor as "Clark the robot", and Allen Ludden as the game show host. Yul Brynner lived in France for many years and that is where he's buried. Remembering Yul Brynner (July 11, 1920 – October 10, 1985) .