Steve McQueen begged Yul Brynner’s forgiveness on his deathbed

Today is the anniversary of the iconically idiosyncratic star, who passed away in 1985. There has never been anyone quite like Yul Brynner, from his extraordinary life before stardom, to his many lovers of both sexes and his many, many Hollywood feuds. While McQueen antagonised all of his co-stars on the set of 1960’s The Magnificent Seven, his battling with Brenner became legendary when he discovered his usual tactics would not work.

Brynner infamously liked everyone else to be still and silent when he was speaking his lines so McQueen would purposefully remove his hat to shade his eyes or fiddle with his gun, learning to do fancy flourishes for just that reason.

In group scenes, like when the Seven cross a river on horseback, McQueen would lean down to scoop up water with his hat – pulling focus from everyone else. A bold move in a cast that included another tough guy, Charles Bronson.

The shaved and shiney-headed Brynner eventually shouted: “If you don’t stop that I’m going to take off my hat, and then no one will look at you for the rest of the film.”

The film made McQueen a star but the bad blood with Brynner continued until his dying days, when he was struck down by cancer in 1980. In his final months, he wanted to clear the air before he died and called his former Magnificent Seven co-star to thank him, saying: “You coulda had me kicked off the movie when I rattled you but you let me stay and that picture made me, so thanks”.

Brynner apparently told him, “I am the king and you are the rebel prince: every bit as royal and dangerous to cross.” 

He forgave McQueen, as had another Magnificent Seven co-star James Cogburn. Charles Bronson, meanwhile, remained on good terms with McQueen throughout his life as their wives, Jill and Neile, were friends.

Brynner would die five years after McQueen, from lung cancer. The star who hated being upstaged would have been horrified to know that the news of his death had to share top billing in the headlines with the passing of Orson Welles on the same day.