| Yul Brynner: A Biography | 
 enlarge | Author: Michelangelo Capua
Publisher: McFarland & Company
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
Buy New: $34.30
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 234156
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 9 x 5.9 x 0.4
ISBN: 0786424613
Dewey Decimal Number: 792.028092
EAN: 9780786424610
ASIN: 0786424613
Publication Date: May 11, 2006
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Availability: Usually ships in 7 to 11 days
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Product Description
Known as the bald cowboy in The Magnificent Seven and the sexy, charismatic male lead in The King and I, Yul Brynner was a Hollywood paragon of masculinity. Beyond his distinctive appearance and distinguished acting career was a life of intrigue and concocted tales surrounding his youth. Born Youl Bryner in Russia, he played gypsy guitar and worked as a trapeze clown until a severe injury motivated him to pursue his interest in theater. This biography takes readers through Brynners formative years in Russia, France and China and describes his journey from sweeping stages in Parisian theaters to a versatile career in theater, television and film, reaching a stardom that began and ended with the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I. With accounts of his personal and professional successes and failures, the book includes his four marriages, his numerous and notorious affairs with such stars as Judy Garland, Joan Crawford and Ingrid Bergman, and his 1985 death from lung cancer. A filmography details his movies and plays, and appendices outline his work in documentaries, music and soundtracks, radio programs and television.
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| Customer Reviews:
A Complex Human Being January 18, 2007
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
Who can explain it? I was attracted to Yul Brynner's weird chemistry even before the concept of puberty dawned on my sheltered existence. He was one of those rare individuals with real animal magnetism (a kind of cultured feralness crouching behind an active mind) that is simply catnip to certain women. This biography, more than others, is less obsequious to the legend of Yul Brynner. It lays the facts of Brynner's life out "like a patient etherized upon a table" to quote T.S. Eliot. The ambition. The effortless talent. The prevaricating. The opportunism. The perfectionism. The womanizing. The egoism. The humanitarianism. Made me wish I'd been a dinner partner of his for just one evening, provided he was in a good mood, which most of the time he was -- if things were going his way.
Many of his male contemporaries recall Brynner's almost pathological need to "one up" everyone around him. Sensitive about his height (5'8"), perhaps he (like Napoleon) felt he had something "to prove."
Typecast by his bald physiognomy and in thrall to a lavish personal lifestyle, Brynner was often forced to accept film roles that were dogged by a perverse luck -- he'd pick a winning director but get a lousy script, or be in a third-rate vehicle with another acclaimed actor that would tank. Too many times he ended up in movies that were simply too little in scope for his huge talent or which typecast him in an imperious role, constantly reprising "The King and I."
Like most males whose father figure is absent or emotionally unavailable during the formative years, Brynner had a hole somewhere inside his psyche that he could never fill. He loved children, yet could not stay with the families he created. He had a great sense of humor, yet could sometimes be found silent, alone, with a tear coursing down his cheek at some dark memory of hurt. He was a great humanitarian for refugee relief and a thoughtful friend -- yet at one and the same time, egotistical, ruthlessly demanding, and given to living well above his means. Nevertheless, he possessed qualities that made his wives not only fall for him, but grieve his loss for the rest of their lives. He was the love of her life to Virginia Gilmore (his first wife) who never fully recovered from the loss of him, and Doris Brynner never gave up his name, saying that she would always love him but could not live with him. Others who fell under his spell included Judy Garland, Ingrid Bergman, and Marlene Detreich. Brynner was larger than life, a part of the "old school" which includes Douglas, Lancaster, and Burton, and his final resting place is an anti-climax to his flamboyant life. The weathered stone, standing by itself in an obscure church yard in France can be located on the Internet. Short of stature or no, the man's talent and sheer personality warrant a massive cairn to his memory.
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