Yul Brynner, an American actor of theater and film with Russian roots, was born on July 11, 1920, in Vladivostok under the name Yul Borisovich Brynner. He later recounted that he was born in a gypsy camp in Sakhalin. His father Boris studied mineralogy at St. Petersburg University, where he met his future wife, conservatory student Maria Dmitrievna Blagovidova, daughter of the Penza doctor Dmitry Yevgrafovich Blagovidov and Anna Timofeevna Kareeva. They married in 1914, and in 1920 they had a son Yul, named after his grandfather.

After the revolution, the family moved to Harbin and then to Paris. In 1941, Yul's mother was diagnosed with leukemia, and he took her to the USA for treatment. Yul also hoped to enroll in an acting course with Mikhail Chekhov, which he managed to do. To pay for his mother's treatment, Yul worked hard: he was a driver, a bouncer, and performed romances and gypsy songs. During this time, he met actress Virginia Gilmore, who already had experience in film, although she was only a year older. Virginia quickly fell in love with Yul, and they lived together until his death, with her surviving him by only six months.

In 1948, Yul and Virginia became the hosts of the first television talk show "Mr. and Mrs.,” which aired on CBS daily for 13 weeks.

In April 1983, during a tour in San Francisco, Yul Brynner was diagnosed with lung cancer. He had been a heavy smoker since the age of 12, smoking up to three packs of cigarettes a day. After his death, his short message about the dangers of smoking, filmed shortly before his death at the request of the American Cancer Society, was repeatedly shown on television. It first aired on the day of his death, October 10, 1985.