Yul Brynner's Lasting Anti-Smoking Message and What Lung Cancer Really Is

The message he recorded to be played after he died

Yul Brynner played the King of Siam in The King and I for more than 4,600 Broadway performances. UPI reported that he died of complications of lung cancer on October 10, 1985, at a New York hospital. He was 65, with his wife and four children beside him.

He had spent his last year preparing something, and within hours of his death networks aired interviews he had recorded earlier that year. UPI quoted him on ABC's Good Morning America in January: "If I could take back that smoking, we wouldn't be talking about any cancer. I smoked, and I smoked a lot since I was a kid just to appear macho." UPI reported he had at one time smoked five packs of cigarettes a day.

He knew exactly what he wanted the recording to be. "I really wanted to make a commercial when I discovered that I was that sick, and my time was so limited, to make a commercial that says simply, 'Now that I am gone, I tell you: Don't smoke.'"

On 60 Minutes, he put it this way: "I am talking to you now that I'm gone. And I'm telling you right now, without any question in my mind ... that you must stop smoking. Don't think it's too late. Don't think it's too early, that you can still get away with some of it. Just get rid of it."

That is his account, in his words. The rest of this page is the evidence.

What smoking does, in numbers

The National Cancer Institute puts the toll plainly. Cigarette smoking and exposure to tobacco smoke cause about 480,000 premature deaths a year in the United States. Of those, about 36 percent are from cancer, 39 percent from heart disease and stroke, and 24 percent from lung disease, and NCI adds that death rates among smokers run about three times higher than among people who never smoked.

One finding cuts against intuition. NCI reports that since the 1960s, a smoker's risk of lung cancer or COPD has actually increased compared with nonsmokers, even as cigarettes consumed per smoker went down. The type has shifted too, with squamous cell carcinoma declining and adenocarcinoma rising sharply, and NCI attributes both shifts to changes in cigarette design and composition and in how deeply smoke is inhaled.

Brynner smoked in enormous quantity, and nothing about modern cigarettes makes them any safer.

Secondhand smoke is not a lesser category

NCI notes that the EPA, the National Toxicology Program, the Surgeon General, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer all classify secondhand smoke as a known human carcinogen. Inhaling it causes lung cancer in nonsmoking adults.

The scale is specific, since about 7,300 lung cancer deaths occur each year among adult nonsmokers in the United States from secondhand smoke exposure. NCI cites the Surgeon General's estimate that living with a smoker raises a nonsmoker's chance of developing lung cancer by 20 to 30 percent.

Quitting works, and the timeline is short

Brynner's line was "don't think it's too late." NCI's evidence supports that literally.

Within a few weeks of quitting, NCI reports improved circulation, less phlegm, and less coughing and wheezing, and within several months people can expect substantial improvements in lung function. Within a few years, they have lower risks of cancer, heart disease, and other chronic diseases than if they had kept smoking.

The mortality numbers are the strongest part, because NCI reports that smokers who quit before age 40 reduce their chance of dying prematurely from smoking-related disease by about 90 percent. Those who quit between 45 and 54 cut that chance by about two-thirds.

Quitting matters even after a cancer diagnosis. NCI states that for patients with some cancers, quitting at the time of diagnosis "may reduce the risk of dying by 30% to 40%." It also helps the body respond to treatment, lowers the risk of pneumonia and respiratory failure, and may lower the risk of recurrence.

NCI points people to Smokefree.gov for free quit plans, apps, and text programs.

When to get checked

CDC lists these as lung cancer symptoms. See a clinician if any lasts more than two or three weeks, and sooner if you smoke or used to.

• A cough that is new, or an old cough that has changed
• Blood in what you cough up, even one streak
• Chest pain, especially on a deep breath
• Breathlessness doing what was easy last year
• Wheezing that was not there before
• Pneumonia twice in a year, or that will not clear
• Unplanned weight loss, or weeks of hoarseness

Screening, and who qualifies

CDC states the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation. Yearly low dose CT scanning is advised for people aged 50 to 80 who have a 20 pack year or greater smoking history and who smoke now or quit within the past 15 years. A pack year means an average of one pack a day for a year, so two packs a day for ten years reaches 20.

NCI describes what the trial evidence showed. Yearly low dose CT for three years found more early lung cancer than chest x-rays and lowered lung cancer deaths among current and former heavy smokers. NCI also names the harms: false alarms that lead to procedures nobody needed, some overdiagnosis, and repeated radiation.

Note that quitting does not remove you from screening eligibility for 15 years, and former smokers are the group most likely to assume screening no longer applies to them.

What lung cancer is, and how it is treated now

NCI divides lung cancer into non-small cell and small cell types. Non-small cell is the larger group, and it is made up of adenocarcinoma at roughly 40 percent, squamous cell carcinoma at roughly 25 percent, and large cell carcinoma at roughly 10 percent.

Treatment has changed since 1985 in one fundamental way, because tumor tissue is now tested for specific gene changes. NCI reports that EGFR variants "strongly predict the improved response rate and progression free survival of patients who take EGFR inhibitors," that ALK fusions appear in 3 to 7 percent of cases, and that BRAF, ROS1, RET, NTRK, MET, KRAS, and HER2 are also targets. Immunotherapy, which NCI describes as treatment that "helps a person's immune system fight cancer," is now standard in many situations.

SEER, the federal cancer surveillance program, reports five-year relative survival for lung and bronchus cancer at 65.5 percent for localized disease, 38.2 percent for regional spread, and 10.5 percent once distant, for people diagnosed in the years 2016 to 2022. It records 51 percent of cases as already distant when found. For 2026 the American Cancer Society projects 229,410 new cases and 124,990 deaths, a projection SEER reprints.

Those are group figures. Brynner's point was about the part statistics do not decide.

Sources

• https://www.upi.com/Archives/1985/10/10/Yul-Brynner-leaves-anti-smoking-message/5681497764800/
• https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/tobacco/cessation-fact-sheet
• https://www.cancer.gov/types/lung/hp/non-small-cell-lung-treatment-pdq
• https://www.cancer.gov/types/lung/patient/non-small-cell-lung-treatment-pdq
• https://www.cancer.gov/types/lung/patient/lung-screening-pdq
• https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/lungb.html
• https://www.cancer.org/research/cancer-facts-statistics.html
• https://www.cdc.gov/lung-cancer/screening/index.html
• https://www.cdc.gov/lung-cancer/symptoms/index.html