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| Man of the World continued on page 14 |
Yul Brynner talks about Women
'Women think to much about love and not enough about loving'
Vyvyenne Newcombe our Features Editor, is seen here talking with Yul Brynner
MEETING Yul Brynner shaven-headed star of The King and I, Anastasia and now The Ten Commandments, which has its world premiere in London on Thursday, was rather like getting an electric shock. He has more personal magnetism than any other star I have met, a complete individualist, a law unto himself and incredibly handsome into the bargain.
It was at a party thrown for him on his arrival in this country. I thought that he looked rather like a caged panther, lithe but with a curious reserve. "Even when he murmurs 'How do you do?'," a friend of mine whispered, "he makes the words sound romantic!" She was quite right. And that is the secret of the astonishing effect this man has on women. He makes them feel romantic!
Weeks later, when he was free from filming for a while, I met Yul again. This time I particularly wanted his views on women, though I did not make the mistake of asking him that question direct; he might have shut up like a clam, I thought, remembering the story of how someone had once asked him why he thought women liked him without hair. The uncompromising reply was: "How should I know? I'm not a woman." And a woman standing near added fervently "Amen."
Amen, indeed. Yul Brynner with his interest in everything that is going on around him, with his passion for photography, his ability to converse in nine languages, his water skiing, his film and television directing, his vast stage experience, particularly in France and America, what a loss he would have been to us women if he hadn't emerged as an international star of the screen.
He has, I found, in spite of his remark, very definite views on women. We were talking about The King and I, the film which brought him shooting into the limelight, when he said suddenly: "Women think too much about love, and not enough about loving." After throwing this bombshell into my lap, he went on to explain that he thought the unspoken love between Anna and the King of Siam in the film was one of the most beautiful he had known.
"Maybe," he continued, going back to his original theme, "it's because a woman has too much time to think of herself while her man is out at work. She wonders whether he is still in love with her if he happens to be feeling moody or is preoccupied with work I Then she starts asking, 'Do you still love me?' or says accusingly, 'You don't love. me any more.' "
His, eyes were twinkling, and I knew he expected me to argue, he likes arguing. But I had to agree with him that many women were like that, though probably for a different reason, as I didn't think many wives had enough time on their hands to brood on this all day.
But immediately his quick mind had jumped to another subject. "Why do women journalists always want to know what age people are?" he demanded accusingly. (And unjustly, too for I had deliberately kept off his age, or his wife's.)
"Stop fighting the years"
"WOMEN," he went on, "are much too preoccupied with age altogether. If they only forgot about the days and years of their lives, and their friends lives, and stopped fighting time, they would remain beautiful from the cradle to the grave. Look at Helen Hayes," he said, pointing across to the charming American star, who is nearly 60 now, and was surrounded by a number of people, all in animated conversation. "Why, she remains her own enchanting self. She is at ease with everyone, young or old. Men," he added thoughtfully, "dislike women who make up too young, dress too young, and try to be too young."
This charming handsome, soft-eyed man also had a harsh thing or two to say about women who put their careers before their families. He maintains that family life is the most priceless thing in the world.
"Money cannot buy it," he said "and frequently fame destroys it."
Fortunately, he was in a confidential mood for he did not give me the 'mind your own business' look I expected when I said, "Your wife does not appear to have done much acting since you married her in 1943." (His wife is Virginia Gilmore, a beautiful blonde who made her name in several films, then dropped out of sight.) "Is this because you didn't want her to?"
"Oh, no," he said, "because, although Virginia was a very successful actress indeed, she decided she wanted to be with me. Prehaps she felt that one actor in the family is enough. She's turned instead to writing, which gives her an outlet for her talents as well as the freedom to be with Rocky (their 10 year old son) and myself."
MEETING Yul Brynner shaven-headed star of The King and I, Anastasia and now The Ten Commandments, which has its world premiere in London on Thursday, was rather like getting an electric shock. He has more personal magnetism than any other star I have met, a complete individualist, a law unto himself and incredibly handsome into the bargain.
It was at a party thrown for him on his arrival in this country. I thought that he looked rather like a caged panther, lithe but with a curious reserve. "Even when he murmurs 'How do you do?'," a friend of mine whispered, "he makes the words sound romantic!" She was quite right. And that is the secret of the astonishing effect this man has on women. He makes them feel romantic!
Weeks later, when he was free from filming for a while, I met Yul again. This time I particularly wanted his views on women, though I did not make the mistake of asking him that question direct; he might have shut up like a clam, I thought, remembering the story of how someone had once asked him why he thought women liked him without hair. The uncompromising reply was: "How should I know? I'm not a woman." And a woman standing near added fervently "Amen."
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| The magnetism of Yul Brynner is all here in Karsh's portrait |
He has, I found, in spite of his remark, very definite views on women. We were talking about The King and I, the film which brought him shooting into the limelight, when he said suddenly: "Women think too much about love, and not enough about loving." After throwing this bombshell into my lap, he went on to explain that he thought the unspoken love between Anna and the King of Siam in the film was one of the most beautiful he had known.
"Maybe," he continued, going back to his original theme, "it's because a woman has too much time to think of herself while her man is out at work. She wonders whether he is still in love with her if he happens to be feeling moody or is preoccupied with work I Then she starts asking, 'Do you still love me?' or says accusingly, 'You don't love. me any more.' "
His, eyes were twinkling, and I knew he expected me to argue, he likes arguing. But I had to agree with him that many women were like that, though probably for a different reason, as I didn't think many wives had enough time on their hands to brood on this all day.
But immediately his quick mind had jumped to another subject. "Why do women journalists always want to know what age people are?" he demanded accusingly. (And unjustly, too for I had deliberately kept off his age, or his wife's.)
"Stop fighting the years"
"WOMEN," he went on, "are much too preoccupied with age altogether. If they only forgot about the days and years of their lives, and their friends lives, and stopped fighting time, they would remain beautiful from the cradle to the grave. Look at Helen Hayes," he said, pointing across to the charming American star, who is nearly 60 now, and was surrounded by a number of people, all in animated conversation. "Why, she remains her own enchanting self. She is at ease with everyone, young or old. Men," he added thoughtfully, "dislike women who make up too young, dress too young, and try to be too young."
This charming handsome, soft-eyed man also had a harsh thing or two to say about women who put their careers before their families. He maintains that family life is the most priceless thing in the world.
"Money cannot buy it," he said "and frequently fame destroys it."
Fortunately, he was in a confidential mood for he did not give me the 'mind your own business' look I expected when I said, "Your wife does not appear to have done much acting since you married her in 1943." (His wife is Virginia Gilmore, a beautiful blonde who made her name in several films, then dropped out of sight.) "Is this because you didn't want her to?"
"Oh, no," he said, "because, although Virginia was a very successful actress indeed, she decided she wanted to be with me. Prehaps she felt that one actor in the family is enough. She's turned instead to writing, which gives her an outlet for her talents as well as the freedom to be with Rocky (their 10 year old son) and myself."
Stars are not ordinary people
YUL does not like discussing his private family matters, and voiced his opinions rather forcibly. "Stars, if they are stars, should realize that they are not ordinary persons. They should preserve their private lives as much as possible. I will not allow my wife and son to be dragged in for interviews and picture sessions. I do not like articles on actors and actresses in their own homes, where cameramen and writers invade every nook and cranny.
"It isn't fitting that a person like Ingrid Bergman (with whom he starred in Anastasia) should be photographed frying eggs."
Yul does not take kindly to people who ask him how it felt to be a star overnight. "Why don't you," he asked me; "write instead about the hard work that lies behind so-called stardom? It has been twenty years of hard work to make me what is commonly called a success.
"In France, I used to play romantic roles, but I don't like them. I prefer to be more subtle. You see, I am a perfectionist. It is very difficult being a perfectionist, because each time I complete a job, whether as an actor or director or anything else, I am not satisfied. "
Yul was slightly bothered by the fact that some people seemed to think that his bald head was a gimmick. Actors don't need gimmicks, he said, and although his first major pictures called for his head to be shaven (his latest, just completed in Hollywood, is The Brothers Karamazov), in his newest film, The Buccaneers, he will not only have a crop of hair (his own), but a moustache as well. He will play the part of a swashbuckling pirate, Jean Lafitte. So far, all Yul's screen appearances have had a touch of cruelty in them, and more than a touch of masculine domination. Perhaps this is another reason why women find him so devastatingly attractive. Both in British and American studios, the secretaries, canteen workers and studio technicians find it difficult to keep their eyes off him when he is around. In one studio recently, an order went out that all photographs of Yul were to be kept under lock and key, it seems that the lab assistants found them so fascinating that the photographs were disappearing in large numbers!
What is his secret?
BUT who would have thought, even two years back, that a man with a head as shiny as an egg, would have made our hearts flutter? We just wouldn't have believed. it. But now, is it so hard to understand after all?
He makes us feel romantic, he makes us feel that we are women and that, as well as his "tremendous acting ability, is Yul Brynner's secret. ------------ VYVYENNE NEWCOMBE
YUL does not like discussing his private family matters, and voiced his opinions rather forcibly. "Stars, if they are stars, should realize that they are not ordinary persons. They should preserve their private lives as much as possible. I will not allow my wife and son to be dragged in for interviews and picture sessions. I do not like articles on actors and actresses in their own homes, where cameramen and writers invade every nook and cranny.
"It isn't fitting that a person like Ingrid Bergman (with whom he starred in Anastasia) should be photographed frying eggs."
Yul does not take kindly to people who ask him how it felt to be a star overnight. "Why don't you," he asked me; "write instead about the hard work that lies behind so-called stardom? It has been twenty years of hard work to make me what is commonly called a success.
"In France, I used to play romantic roles, but I don't like them. I prefer to be more subtle. You see, I am a perfectionist. It is very difficult being a perfectionist, because each time I complete a job, whether as an actor or director or anything else, I am not satisfied. "
Yul was slightly bothered by the fact that some people seemed to think that his bald head was a gimmick. Actors don't need gimmicks, he said, and although his first major pictures called for his head to be shaven (his latest, just completed in Hollywood, is The Brothers Karamazov), in his newest film, The Buccaneers, he will not only have a crop of hair (his own), but a moustache as well. He will play the part of a swashbuckling pirate, Jean Lafitte. So far, all Yul's screen appearances have had a touch of cruelty in them, and more than a touch of masculine domination. Perhaps this is another reason why women find him so devastatingly attractive. Both in British and American studios, the secretaries, canteen workers and studio technicians find it difficult to keep their eyes off him when he is around. In one studio recently, an order went out that all photographs of Yul were to be kept under lock and key, it seems that the lab assistants found them so fascinating that the photographs were disappearing in large numbers!
What is his secret?
BUT who would have thought, even two years back, that a man with a head as shiny as an egg, would have made our hearts flutter? We just wouldn't have believed. it. But now, is it so hard to understand after all?
He makes us feel romantic, he makes us feel that we are women and that, as well as his "tremendous acting ability, is Yul Brynner's secret. ------------ VYVYENNE NEWCOMBE
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