Yul Brynner was a Smoker

After his lung cancer had progressed to the terminal stage, he taped a public service message urging others to quit smoking. At his request, the message was aired after his death, preceded by the announcement "Ladies and gentlemen, the late Yul Brynner.
Being a very heavy smoker for decades it's doubtful that he would have lived long past the normal retirement age of 65. We’re talking about 3 to 5 packs of cigarettes daily and most likely unfiltered so he was getting the full nicotine effect.
Certainly I don't think that many people could afford to smoke that many today so you might argue that price increases have had an effect on the amount that people smoke.
So who was Yul Brynner? The son of Boris Bryner, a Swiss-Russian engineer and inventor, and Marousia Blagovidova, the daughter of a Russian doctor. He was born in their home town of Vladivostok on 11 July 1920, and named Yuli after his grandfather Jules Bryner. When Yuli's father abandoned the family, his mother took him and his sister Vera to Harbin, Manchuria, where they attended a YMCA school. Although being sent to a an exclusive school to further his education he chose to skip out and become a musician playing guitar in nightclubs and being befriended by the Russian Gypsies who became like family for him. By 1941 he had migrated to the U.S. to study acting and tour with Michael Chekhov'S theatrical troupe.
Although he portrayed a wide variety of roles from Egyptian Pharaohs to Western Gunfighters and a starring role in the "The 10 Commandments" with Charlton Heston. We all know and remember Yul for his role in "The King and I" in 1956 and winning the Oscar for Best Actor. Having a full head of hair did not stop him from shaving his head for a starring role which had such impact he continued to keep it shaven the rest of his career.
When he developed lung cancer in the mid-1980s, he left a powerful public service announcement denouncing smoking as the cause, for broadcast after his death. The cancer and its complications, after a long illness, ended his

Yul Brynner Smoking