ON THIS DAY 7 11 2023

This Day in History: July 11

Featured Event

1953




Leon Spinks,
who, like his brother Michael, won a world boxing title—the first set of brothers to do so—was born in St. Louis, Missouri.

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Featured Biography

Yul Brynner
Russian-born actor




Yul Brynner, original name Yuliy Borisovich Bryner, (born July 11, 1920?, Vladivostok, Far Eastern Republic [Russia]—died October 10, 1985, New York, New York, U.S.), Russian-born stage and film actor who was known primarily for his role as the Siamese monarch in more than 4,000 performances in the Broadway musical The King and I between 1951 and 1985 and in the 1956 film version. (1956).
Brynner was prone to exaggeration and invention, causing much uncertainty about his life, especially his childhood. He notably stated that he was born on Sakhalin Island in Russia and that his father was from Mongolia and his mother was a Romanian Roma. However, a 1989 biography by his son revealed that Brynner was born in Vladivostok, a city in what was then Far Eastern Republic. According to that book, Brynner’s father was an engineer of Russian and Swiss descent and his mother was Russian. While Brynner was still young, his father left the family, and they moved to China before settling in France. There, a teenaged Brynner became a nightclub balladeer and then a trapeze artist.

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