Lark Brynner :He said his father “was proud of his performance and very proud of being in the film he regarded it as the biggest film ever made, forever

The Ten Commandments: How Yul Brynner prevented Charlton Heston from overshadowing him
Yul Brynner was incredibly proud to star in The Ten Commandments, one of the few of his movies that he truly loved.

Back in the Golden Age of Hollywood, Yul Brynner was best known for starring as King Mongkut in The King and I, both on stage and in the classic movie. Aside from that classic, the Russian-born former circus acrobat’s career highlights included the likes of The Ten Commandments, Westworld and The Magnificent Seven. Hating to be upstaged by co-stars such as Steve McQueen in the latter, the slight actor went out of his way to make sure his star power shone through in whatever he was working on.

Back in 1956, Brynner was cast as Pharaoh Rameses II in Cecil B DeMille’s three and half hour biblical epic, The Ten Commandments – which hit US cinemas 66 years ago today.

During the early part of filming, he was still starring in the stage version of The King and I and would spend the day on Egyptian shots before flying back to New York for the evening’s performance.

The committed actor was to co-star opposite Charlton Heston as Moses, who the director had cast because of his resemblance to Michelangelo’s statue of the Hebrew prophet. In fact, the star would go on to play the artist in 1965’s The Agony of the Ecstasy.

Now Heston towered over Brynner at 6’3 to his co-star’s 5’7, but the latter was not going to be overshadowed.

Brynner may be primarily associated with The King and I given that he played the role of Mongkut 4,625 times on stage. However, according to his son Rock, The Ten Commandments had a special place in his heart. He said his father “was proud of his performance and very proud of being in the film. He regarded it as the biggest film ever made, forever.”

This shouldn’t be too surprising given that The Ten Commandments was a mammoth success.

Nominated for seven Academy Awards, it is one of the biggest movies ever made grossing $122.7 million at the box office on a $13 million budget.

Adjusted for inflation that’s around $2.493 billion, making the biblical epic the eighth highest-grossing film of all time.
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