Curio: Yul Brynner's Photographic Journey

Alexa here. Yul Brynner has always been a favorite of mine, maybe because The King and I was the first musical I ever saw. Or maybe because my old Ukrainian great-grandmother swore he was the spitting image of her brother. Or maybe it was just his mellifluous voice and shiny dome. But it wasn't until I spotted the recent press on an exhibit of his photographs in New York that I was aware he was such an avid photographer.

In honor of the 25th anniversary of his death, a new, four-volume book celebrates his life in pictures. Edited by his daughter Victoria, Yul: A Photographic Journey includes four volumes: "Lifestyle", "Life On Set", "1956" (the pivotal year when he starred in The King and I, The Ten Commandments and Anastasia) and "Man of Style" (containing portraits of Brynner by famous photographers). I was most taken with his portraits of other actors. Here's a sampling. You can order a copy of the set here.

I really wish more actors would take up photography! Jeff Bridges is another example of an actor who kills time between takes with his camera. But maybe today's paparazzi culture has lessened the desire to document life on set.

Curio: Ingrid Bergman, 1945 Cover Girl

Alexa here. I was inspired by Jose's post on birthday girl Ingrid Bergman to share this vintage Motion Picture magazine of mine from 1945. Ingrid graces the cover, promoting her latest effort in Spellbound, just shy of her 30th birthday.

The interview inside, from the set of Alfred Hitchcock's film, was written in breathless prose by "famous movie reporter" Sidney Skolsky. (A little trivia: Sidney coined the name "Oscar" for the Academy Award.) Here are some gems from his piece:

Ingrid Bergman, on the screen, looks like what an actress should look like. Even more so than the Turners, the Grables, the Fayes. Yet, in everyday life, it is common knowledge that many, even fans, pass her by without recognizing her. She uses almost no makeup at all, except a little lipstick and a slight dab of powder.

She will do practically anything to cooperate except pose for cheesecake art. She says, "I'm not a dancer."

She doesn't care for sweetness and light in her roles and she has an innate dread of being typed. She was happy that Lana Turner played the role of the sophisticated lady-like wife in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, while she played the role of the bad woman.


She likes the popular music of the juke-box variety and even made a special trip to a club to listen to Frank Sinatra. She likes Frankie-boy but still prefers Crosby. She loves to chew gum.

She is a person who sweetly and quietly gets her way. She will not play the role of Sarah Bernhardt.

She is ticklish in the ticklish places.

She is a forthright person and doesn't behave like an actress. One day at the studio she hooked bumpers with another car. A studio policeman found her tugging and heaving at them with all her might. She practically had the cars untangled before he could get to her. "Darndest thing I ever saw," the studio policeman said. "First film star I ever knew that didn't mind getting her hands dirty, or didn't cuss out the other fellow for leaving his car in the way."

Here's Looking at You.

Jose here.



Ingrid Bergman passed away on a day like today, 28 years ago. It was also her 67th birthday.
You have to be one classy human being, to pass away on the day you were born in. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to be disrespectful, what I'm trying to say is that this unfortunate coincidence works as a perfect metaphor to encompass the gracefulness, elegance and tact that Ms. Bergman embodied.

Ever so concise, effortlessly direct and charmingly pragmatic, she made a career for herself based on quite economical acting.
Tell me, is there any other actor who never appeared to make a false step onscreen? Even in not so good films like Anastasia and Under Capricorn, there is not a single thing Ms. Bergman did that did not seem authentic.
Disguising her broken heart in Casablanca she makes fools out of Humphrey Bogart, Paul Henreid and us. In Autumn Sonata she makes us despise her coldness but wonder what made her this way and in the haunting Europa '51 she becomes almost saintlike without losing her humanity.

Tonight, when, and if, you're watching the Emmys, remember that in her very last performance, she played Golda Meir in the made for television special A Woman Called Golda.
There with the same effortlessness she relied on throughout her legendary career she plays a woman who made leading an entire country, in the midst of economic, political and societal turmoil, seem like the easiest thing in the world.
It might not be my favorite performance of hers but watching it and realizing that the actress behind the makeup was terminally ill, has much to say about the way in which Bergman devoted herself to the character.
It was never about her.

May she rest in peace.