Milestones: Oct. 21, 1985

DIED. Yul Brynner, 65, exotic, prepotent actor whose near total identification with the role of the dictatorial but endearing King of Siam, whom he portrayed in 4,625 performances of The King and I over 34 years as well as in the 1956 film, and for which he won a Tony Award and an Oscar, almost obscured his achievements as a movie performer, photographer and TV director; after a two- year battle with cancer; in New York City. He was born Taidje Khan on Sakhalin Island, off the coast of Siberia, to a Rumanian Gypsy mother and a Swiss-Mongolian father. Reared in Peking and Paris, he was a cabaret singer and circus acrobat before becoming an actor, arriving in the U.S. in 1941 and making his Broadway debut in the 1946 Lute Song. He brought his bald-pated, brooding persona to three dozen films, most notably The Ten Commandments (1956), The Brothers Karamazov (1958) and The Magnificent Seven (1960).