Editing Yul Brynner (section)

==Early life==
===In Russia===
[[File:Yul Brynner's birthplace.jpg|thumb|left|upright|The Briner family mansion in [[Vladivostok]], [[Russia]], where Yul Brynner was born and lived from 1920 to 1927]]
Yul Brynner was born Yuliy Borisovich Briner on July 11, 1920,<ref name="Social Security Death Index">Record of Yul Brynner, #108-18-2984. Social Security Administration. [http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/ Born in 1920 according to the Social Security Death Index (although some sources indicate the year was 1915)] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121127100448/http://searches.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ssdi.html |date=November 27, 2012}} Provo, Utah: MyFamily.com, Inc., 2006.<br /> In his biography of his father, Rock Yul Brynner, he asserts that he was born in the later year (1920).</ref><ref name="Intent p 21">United States Declaration of Intent (Document No. 541593), Record Group 21: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685–2004, filed June 4, 1943</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.imninalu.net/famousGypsies.htm |title=Famous Gypsies |website=www.imninalu.net |access-date=2011-01-31 |archive-date=2016-03-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160326095726/http://www.imninalu.net/famousGypsies.htm |url-status=dead}}</ref> in the city of [[Vladivostok]].<ref>[http://www.biography.com/people/yul-brynner-9542628 "Yul Brynner Biography"]. [[FYI (U.S. TV channel)|bio.]] Retrieved October 19, 2016.</ref> He had Swiss-German, Russian, and [[Buryats|Buryat]] (Mongol) ancestry. He also identified as having [[Romani people|Roma]] ancestry; however, recent scholarship does not support that claim.<ref name=hancock>{{cite journal |last=Hancock |first=Ian |author-link=Ian Hancock |title=The acquisition of English by American Romani children |journal=WORD |volume=27 |year=1971 |issue=1–3 |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |pages=353–362 |doi=10.1080/00437956.1971.11435631 |quote=There are many such individuals (ie, who have Romani ancestry but who are ignorant, at least at first hand, of their language and culture)-Yul Brynner and Ava Gardner are two well-known examples.|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Klímová-Alexander, Ilona|title=The Development and Institutionalization of Romani Representation and Administration. Part 3b: From National Organizations to International Umbrellas (1945–1970)—the International Level|journal=[[Nationalities Papers]]|volume=35|issue=4|year=2007|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|pages=627–661|doi=10.1080/00905990701475079|s2cid=154810008|quote=Yul Brynner (the half-Romani Hollywood star)}}</ref><ref name="Vera1" /><ref name="Vera2" /> He was born at his parents' home, a four-storey house on 15 Aleutskaya Street, Vladivostok, into a wealthy Swiss Russian family of landowners and [[silver]] mining developers in [[Siberia]] and the [[Far East]]. He was named after his grandfather merchant Yuliy Ivanovich Brinner.

At the time, the territory was controlled by the [[Far Eastern Republic]]—a [[History of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union (1917–1927)|communist Russian]] [[buffer state]]. Vladivostok was under [[Japanese intervention in Siberia|Japanese occupation]] until 1922. The Briner family enjoyed a good life at their four-storey mansion.

In October 1922, the [[Red Army]] occupied Vladivostok, and most of the Briner family's wealth was confiscated and nationalized at the end of the [[Russian Civil War]]. The Briners were stripped of home ownership, but the family, including Yul's elder sister Vera, continued living in their house under a temporary status.<ref name="bryners.ru">[http://www.bryners.ru/main.php?bryner=5 Yul Brynner and the Bryners family history]</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/Vladivostok/Bryner.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090822191641/http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/Vladivostok/Bryner.htm|url-status=dead|title=Briner Residence|archive-date=August 22, 2009}}</ref><ref>"[https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/bryner-vera-d-1967 Bryner, Vera (d.1967)]," encyclopedia.com. Retrieved August 29, 2020.</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">[http://www.bryners.ru/main.php?bryner=2 Russian biography of Boris Brinner, the father of Yul Brynner]</ref>

Later in his life, Brynner humorously enjoyed telling tall tales and exaggerating his background and early life for the press, claiming that he was born Taidje Khan of a [[Mongol]] father and Roma mother on the Russian island of [[Sakhalin]].<ref name="rockbrynner">Brynner, Rock. ''Yul: The Man Who Would Be King'', Berkeley Books: 1991; {{ISBN|0-425-12547-5}}</ref> He occasionally referred to himself as Julius Briner,<ref name="Social Security Death Index" /> Jules Bryner, or Youl Bryner.<ref name="Intent p 21" /> The 1989 biography by his son, Rock Brynner, clarified some of these issues.<ref name="rockbrynner" />

Brynner's father, Boris Yuliyevich Briner, was a [[Mining engineering|mining engineer]] and inventor of Swiss-German and Russian descent. He had graduated from [[Saint Petersburg Mining University|Mining University]] in [[Saint Petersburg]] in 1910. The actor's grandfather, Jules Briner ([[:ru:Бринер, Юлий Иванович|Бринер, Юлий Иванович]]), was a Swiss citizen who had moved to Vladivostok in the 1870s and established a successful import/export company.<ref name=Rochman>Rochman, Sue. [http://www.cancertodaymag.org/Winter2011/Pages/yul-brynner-lung-cancer.aspx "A King's Legacy"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161102211932/http://www.cancertodaymag.org/Winter2011/Pages/yul-brynner-lung-cancer.aspx |date=November 2, 2016}}, ''Cancer Today'' magazine, Winter 2011 (December 5, 2011). Retrieved January 20, 2013.</ref>
Brynner's paternal grandmother, Natalya Yosifovna Kurkutova, was a native of [[Irkutsk]] and a Eurasian of partial [[Buryats|Buryat]] ancestry.

Brynner's mother, Maria (Marousia) Dimitrievna (née Blagovidova, Мария Дмитриевна Благовидова<ref>{{Cite web |title=Мария и Вера Благовидовы-Бринер |url=http://bryners.ru/main.php?bryner=12 |access-date=2024-06-25 |website=bryners.ru}}</ref>), hailed from the Russian [[intelligentsia]] and had studied to be an actress and singer. According to her son, she was of Russian Roma ancestry,<ref name=hancock /> but documents examined by modern historians of Vladivostok claimed the Briner family had no blood connections with Roma. Yul came into close contact with this culture in exile while working with his sister, singer Vera Brinner, and they were looking for a stage image. Vera later sharply objected to this appropriation.<ref name="Vera1">{{Cite web |last=Жукова |first=Елена |date=2020-07-22 |title=Цыган, монгол или сахалинец? |url=https://vl.aif.ru/culture/cygan_mongol_ili_sahalinec |access-date=2024-06-25 |website=AiF |language=ru}}</ref><ref name="Vera2">{{Cite web |title=Вера Бриннер |url=http://bryners.ru/main.php?bryner=4 |access-date=2024-06-25 |website=bryners.ru}}</ref> Brynner felt a strong personal connection to the Roma. In 1977 he was named honorary president of the [[International Romani Union]], a title that he kept until his death.<ref name="book">{{cite book |author=Daniel C. Blum |title=Great Stars of the American Stage |publisher=[[Grosset & Dunlap]] |year=1954 |page=137}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Pankok, Moritz |date=April 12, 2015 |title=The Roma Theatre Pralipe |url=https://www.romarchive.eu/en/theatre-and-drama/institutional-theatre/roma-theatre-pralipe/ |access-date=2017-06-26 |website=romarchive.eu}}</ref>

In 1922, after the formation of the [[Soviet Union]], Yul's father Boris Briner was required to relinquish his Swiss citizenship. All family members were made Soviet citizens. Brynner's father's work required extensive travel, and in 1923, in Moscow he fell in love with an actress, Katerina Ivanovna Kornakova. She was the ex-wife of actor [[Aleksei Dikiy]], and stage partner of [[Michael Chekhov]] at the [[Moscow Art Theatre]]. Many years later, Katerina Kornakova would help Brynner with her letter of recommendation asking Michael Chekhov to employ him in his theatre company in the United States.

In 1924, Yul's father divorced his mother Marousia, but continued to support her and their children. His father also adopted a girl, because his new wife was childless. Many years later, after the death of his father, Brynner would take this adopted sister into his care. The father and son relationship remained complex and emotionally traumatic for Brynner.

After leaving his children and his former wife in Vladivostok, Boris Briner lived briefly in Moscow with Katerina Ivanovna Kornakova, but eventually they moved to [[Harbin]], [[Manchuria]]. At that time it remained under Japanese control. Briner established a business in international trade.<ref name="bryners.ru" /><ref name="ReferenceA" />

===In China===
In 1927, Marousia Briner took her children, Yuliy and Vera (January 17, 1916 – December 13, 1967), and emigrated from Vladivostok to Harbin, China. There, young Yul and Vera attended a school run by the [[YMCA]].<ref name="bryners.ru"/><ref name="ReferenceA"/>

In 1930, Boris gave Yuliy an [[acoustic guitar]] as a birthday present. That guitar and the following [[music lessons]] made a lasting influence on Brynner's artistic development. His natural [[curiosity]], [[creativity]], and [[imagination]] became focused on mastering the [[guitar technique]] and studying classical and contemporary music. Brynner studied music under the guidance of his sister Vera, who was a classically trained [[opera singer]]. After several years of arduous studies, Brynner became an accomplished [[guitar]] player and singer.<ref name="bryners.ru"/>

===In France and Switzerland===
In 1933, fearing a war between China and Japan, Marousia Briner moved with her children to [[Paris]]. Many Russians had moved there in exile after the Revolution.<ref name="Rochman" /> There, on June 15, 1935, the fourteen-year-old Brynner made his debut at the "Hermitage" cabaret, where he played his guitar and sang in the Russian and Roma languages. After initial success, he continued performing at various Parisian nightclubs, sometimes accompanying his sister, and playing and singing Russian and Roma songs. At that time, Brynner was a student at a lyceum in Paris, where he studied French. His classmates and teachers were aware of his strong character, as he was often involved in [[fist fighting]]. 

In the summer of 1936, Brynner worked as a lifeguard at a resort beach in [[Le Havre]]. There he joined a French circus troupe, trained as a [[trapeze]] [[Acrobatics|acrobat]] and worked with a circus troupe for several years.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS3dd-OhsP4 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/cS3dd-OhsP4| archive-date=December 11, 2021 |url-status=live |title=Yul Brynner Interview with Bill Boggs |date=2012-06-26 |via=www.youtube.com}}{{cbignore}}</ref> After sustaining a back injury, he left the circus troupe. In nearly unbearable [[pain]], Brynner took [[narcotics]] for relief. He soon developed a [[Substance dependence|drug dependency]]. 

One day, while buying [[opium]] from a local dealer, Brynner met [[Jean Cocteau]] (1889{{ndash}}1963) and the two became lifelong friends. Cocteau introduced Brynner to [[Pablo Picasso]], [[Salvador Dalí]], [[Josephine Baker]], [[Jean Marais]], and the bohemian milieu of Paris. The experience and connections eventually helped him in his multifaceted career of acting, directing, and producing.<ref name="bryners.ru"/>

Seventeen-year-old Brynner became a drug addict and the family tried to help him treat the illness. He spent a year in [[Lausanne]], [[Switzerland]] treating his addiction at a Swiss clinic and at [[Lausanne University Hospital]] with financial support from his aunt Vera Dmitrievna Blagovidova-Briner, his mother's sister. Blagovidova-Briner was a physician trained at medical school in [[Saint Petersburg]], Russia, before the revolution. She later practiced in China and Switzerland. The year-long treatment in Switzerland, which included [[hypnotherapy]], had a lasting effect on Brynner's health. Yul never used illicit drugs again in his life. He later became addicted to cigarettes, which damaged his lungs and ruined his health as he aged.<ref name="Rochman" /><ref>Seiler, Michael. [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-10-10-mn-15605-story.html "Yul Brynner Dies at 65; 30 Years in ''King and I''"], ''Los Angeles Times''</ref> 

In Harbin, Brynner's father had a lucrative trade business and lived with his second wife, actress Katerina Ivanovna Kornakova. She gave Brynner his first professional acting lessons by showing him scenes from her repertoire at Moscow Art Theatre. She instructed him in how to respond to her lines using his voice tone and body language. During their first lessons, Katerina Kornakova demonstrated and explained to Brynner the principles of [[Konstantin Stanislavsky]]'s school of acting, and the innovative ideas of [[Michael Chekhov]]. Brynner was excited and impressed with the new experience. His father initially tried to prepare his son for a management position at their family business, but changed his mind after watching several acting lessons and witnessing Brynner's happiness.

Katerina Kornakova was impressed with Brynner's intellectual and physical abilities and recommended him to study acting with her former partner [[Michael Chekhov]]. Brynner took the letter of recommendation from his stepmother and also accepted money and blessings from his father. With the generous support from both his father and stepmother, Brynner became encouraged and confident in his future success as an actor. 

At the same time, Brynner's mother's illness{{clarification needed |date=August 2024}} progressed and required special medical treatment that was available only in the United States. Brynner traveled with his mother on a long trip across the world.<ref name="Rochman" /><ref name="bryners.ru"/>

===In the USA===
[[File:Yul brynner immigration portrait and seal.jpg|thumb|left|Brynner's 1943 photo after immigrating to the United States]]
In 1940, speaking little English, Brynner and his mother emigrated to the United States aboard the {{SS|President Cleveland|1920|2}}, departing from [[Kobe]], Japan. They arrived in San Francisco on October 25, 1940. His final destination was New York City, where his sister already lived.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KXHW-H4S |title=FamilySearch.org |website=[[FamilySearch]]}}</ref><ref name="Intent p 21" /><ref name="Rochman" /> Vera, a singer, starred in ''[[The Consul]]'' on Broadway in 1950.<ref>[http://ibdb.com/person.php?id=94435 Vera Brynner], at the Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved January 20, 2013.</ref> She also appeared on television in the title role of the opera ''[[Carmen]]''. She later taught voice in New York.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OkbpkXl3lMwC&dq=vera+brynner&pg=PA56|title=Voice teacher |work=Ebony |date=1966-10-23 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

During [[World War II]] Brynner worked as a French-speaking radio announcer and commentator for the US [[Office of War Information]], broadcasting to occupied France. He also worked for the [[Voice of America]], broadcasting in Russian to the [[Soviet Union]].<ref>Brynner, Rock. ''Yul: The Man Who Would Be King'' (p. 30) Berkeley Books: 1991. {{ISBN|0-425-12547-5}}</ref> At the same time, during the war years, he studied acting in [[Connecticut]] with the Russian actor Michael Chekhov. He worked as a truck driver and stage hand for Chekhov's theatre company.<ref name="ReferenceB">[http://www.bryners.ru/main.php?bryner=5 Russian biography of Yul Brynner and the Bryners family history]</ref>