10 Favorite Actors and their performances

[MissGoddess]

April, have you ever seen The Sound and The Fury? It's Yul Brynner with hair, and he is gorgeous. It's a really good movie with JoAnne Woodward and Margaret Leighton, Ethel Waters and Jack Warden. It's loosely based on the Faulkner novel.

It is one movie of his I have never seen all the way through. Every time it's on I come in late and have missed the beginning. I thought what I saw really interesting because I never would have thought to cast Brynner in such a role.

I got to see Mr. Brynner in a stage production of The King and I, about 2 years before his death. He was simply marvelous.

That is stunning. Truly, that's one of the the "events" of Broadway history, to have seen Brynner in the stage version. I wish I could have. I'm not a big musicals fan, but his King Mongkut is really something he was born to play. Not since Gable and "Rhett Butler" has a role and actor fit so well. Oh, and maybe Rex Harrison and Professor Higgins.

[knitwit45]

One of the things I remember most was the affection between him and the children. They truly seemed to love him, and he seemed to really enjoy them.

[stuart.uk]

Yet Brynner didn't appear popular with the producers of his West End version of The King And I at the Palladium with Virginia McKenna. He insisted on being called Mr. Brynner and was always complaining about something as regards the production

[charliechaplinfan]

Yul Brynner is someone I know very little about and I've watched him only in The King and I he's marvellous of course but I've never caught his other movies so to me he's always The King of Siam. Did the role bring him to fame, did he star on Broadway first, then hit films? Or was he in films and the role got created for him.

[MissGoddess]

The story had been filmed before as Anna and the King of Siam with Rex Harrison, then it was made into a Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical. From what I recall from his children's books (both a son and daughter have published books on Yul), Brynner definitely become a star because of this role. He was in the original stage production, then the movie, and later in the revival which toured the world.

He'd done only one or two films prior to The King and I, but had theatrical experience (including apprenticeship with Michael Chekov and Jean Cocteau in Paris) and even had his own television show with wife Virginia Gilmore in the late 1940s and was a real early TV pioneer---all this before he became king.

It's worth adding he was a marvelous amateur photographer. If you ever get a chance to look at Victoria Brynner's book on her father's photos, you won't be disappointed.

For all my drooling, there really aren't too many actors I would have really been interested in
dating, but Yul is on that short list. Fascinating man of culture, wit, warmth romance..

[charliechaplinfan]

You've got me, I'm a convert. Next question was he naturally bald or did he shave it for the role and find it suited him so kept it like that.

[MissGoddess]

He had hair but you can see the high forehead makes it look like it's receding in this youthful photo.
I can't remember if he shaved it specifically for King, but I imagine so.


One of the many photos he took of his one time amante, Ingrid Bergman.


I just discovered that many of his photos are online, here:
http://yulbrynnerphotographer.com/books/

[JackFavell]

Those are great photos, MissG! He's so wonderful in The King and I, he makes me sob every time I see it, the king is such a full character. To me his performance feels as if someone came up and hit me in the solar plexus...you can't take your eyes off him - he's commanding, subtle, foolish, wise, wrong-headed, human, terribly romantic, sexy and in the end deeply moving.

Some of the photos remind me a bit of Boyer, they both had style and continental charm, especially with a cigarette in the hand. And such full lips.

[charliechaplinfan]

I was thinking the same myself

I love that picture of Ingrid Bergman. I must have been mistaken I thought he was the long time lover of Marlene Dietrich.

[intothenitrate]

I know the rules say 10, but I gotta say I'm crazy about Warren William too. He kills me.

[charliechaplinfan]

Yes, he's one of a kind. It's very hard to keep it to ten, I could name ten favorite American, British, French, silent and probably Italian actors too.

[ChiO]

This seemed to be the spot to post this without starting a new thread --

For those who can't get enough of Timothy Carey -- and I know you're out there -- here's a compendium that grows daily: http://letsnothateanyone.typepad.com/blog/

[moira finnie]

This seemed to be the spot to post this without starting a new thread --

For those who can't get enough of Timothy Carey -- and I know you're out there -- here's a compendium that grows daily: http://letsnothateanyone.typepad.com/blog/

I'm so glad you have found another member of the Carey Tribe, ChiO. Any chance that there is a blog devoted to Whit Bisselll too?

[ChiO]

I did find a well-written and thoughtful paen to Our Man Whit. We are not alone.

http://moirasthread.blogspot.com/2008/0 ... seell.html