Yul Brynner was a man who liked to make up stories about his past life, resented reporters digging into his private affairs, and loved creating an air of mystery about himself. So it's no wonder that this biography fails to get that deep inside the man, although it is also a problem that there seem to be no major interviews with the people who knew him best. In this book Brynner comes off as a talented if childish man who has many admirable qualities -- a distaste for prejudice and a love of children, for instance -- but was also insecure (giving him a superiority complex), boastful, and a bit selfish. He was married four times, apparently discarding each wife as he found a new lover, but the book never really goes behind the scenes in any of these marriages. Brynner's most famous role was as the king in Rodger's and Hammerstein's The King and I, which he played in Broadway, London and touring productions as well as in the motion picture adaptation. He himself felt that Hollywood did not make the best of his abilities, although he gave excellent performances in such films as Anastasia in which he was "dynamic and sexy." The book is entertaining and provides an overview of Brynner's career, but it is rather superficial all told.
Verdict: Hopefully not the last word on Brynner. **1/2.
2 comments:
Interesting. I wonder if he was bisexual, I wonder if he groomed Sal Mineo, I wonder...but most of all, I adore him. What a great star. So much presence and charisma. He STOLE Ten Commandments from Heston!
-C
You're probably right about that. As for the rest, that's one thing the book definitely does not go into!
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