Yul Brynner

Yul Brynner's star image was built on cosmopolitan flair, shifting tales of origin, baldness, as well as film roles as foreign rulers, freedom fighters, army officials, gunslingers and secret agents of ever-shifting ethnicities. Whether Cossacks, marauding pirate captains or cross-dressing torch singers, Brynner's characters were invariably stand-outs.
This book explores his exotic and masculine star image and its transformations from lavish Orientalist Hollywood spectacles of the 1950s to 1960s European co-productions, 1970s action films and scifi. Extensively researched, it covers the actor's entire film catalogue, his rumoured yet unrealised projects, television work and stage appearances, as well as their international media reception. Thematically organised, the book inquires after racial casting politics, the construction of sex symbols, Brynner's humanitarian work and the recurring poses and gestures that characterised his performance style.

One of the world's foremost sexuality scholars provides an overdue analysis of one of the world's sexiest stars. Through the lens of cosmopolitanism, Paasonen delves into the star persona and spectacular acting style of Yul Brynner. This book challenges postwar masculinity studies' over-determination of authenticity and problematic associations with whiteness.

Susanna Paasonen has written a substantial and scholarly study of one of the major male stars of the 20th century that is as rigorously researched as it is engaging and witty. This book is a delight and an important contribution to the study of stardom and mid-century masculinity.

Susanna Paasonen is Professor of Media Studies at University of Turku, Finland. With an interest in studies of sexuality, affect and popular media culture, she is most recently the author of TechnoPharmacology (with Joshua Neves, Aleena Chia and Ravi Sundaram, 2022), Dependent, Distracted, Bored: Affective Formations in Networked Media (2021), Objectification: On the Difference of Sex and Sexism (with Feona Attwood, Alan McKee, John Mercer and Clarissa Smith, 2020) and Who's Laughing Now? Feminist Tactics in Social Media (with Jenny Sundén, 2020).

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.