THE KING AND EYE

Amateur lensman Yul Brynner's masterly portraits of friends such as Elizabeth Taylor, Charlie Chaplin, and Ingrid Bergman inspired a collection of his work

Arts

VICTORIA BRYNNER

Like most children of divorced parents, I considered each moment spent with my father to be precious. Though I loved to watch him perform, I was even more fascinated by his camera case and the "toys" inside, which he carried from location to location. To my father, photography was a passion. He shot Ingrid Bergman during Anastasia, Deborah Kerr on T/ie King and I, Anthony Quinn on The Buccaneer, Charlie Chaplin in the South of France, and Sophia Loren during the making of Houseboat. Elizabeth Taylor once said, "Yul had such charm that you felt complimented when he took your picture."

When I was 10, we spent the summer in Cadaques, Spain, where he was starring in The Light at the Edge of the World, with Kirk Douglas and Samantha Eggar. When he had free time, he taught me about lenses, films, and exposures. Samantha Eggar was the subject of our first collaboration. As we approached the set, he became quieter and quieter. I followed, waiting unnoticed behind some curtains while he slowly brought the actress closer and closer with his long lens. She could, I believed, surely feel his presence in the shadow, but he moved subtly, like a tiger, with his force under tight control. Between scenes he took charge, asking her to lean forward, close her eyes, breathe, open her eyes, look up, look away. I was mesmerized. I wanted to be the beautiful movie star caught in the web of his attention.

All photographs reproduced through arrangement with Harry N. Abrams, Inc., which will publish Yul Brynner: Photographer in October in conjunction with an exhibition to open at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills in December.

"Yul had such charm that you felt compimented when he took your picture " said Elizabeth Taylor.

The last time he shot me, before his death in 1985, was at our home in Normandy. It had become a summer ritual, his taking my picture. In the previous year I had finally grown from gawky girl to teenager and I will not forget the generosity with which he marked that passage.