The King and I (1956 film) autobiographical, although various elements of them have been called into question. The film stars Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner. The film was a critical and commercial success, and was nominated for nine Academy Awards, winning five, including Best Actor for Brynner. Another film adaptation of the same musical, the animated film "The King and I", was released in 1999. Strong-willed, widowed schoolteacher Anna Leonowens arrives in Bangkok from Wales with her young son Louis after being summoned to tutor the many children of King Mongkut. The two are introduced to the intimidating Kralahome, King Mongkut's confidant and Siam's prime minister.
Anna Leonowens the Long Island Historical Society, she lectured on subjects including "Christian Missions to Pagan Lands" and "The Empire of Siam, and the City of the Veiled Women". "The New York Times" reported: "Mrs. Leonowens' purpose is to awaken an interest, and enlist sympathies, in behalf of missionary labors, particularly in their relation to the destiny of Asiatic women." She joined the literary circles of New York and Boston and made the acquaintance of local lights on the lecture circuit, such as Oliver Wendell Holmes, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin", a book whose anti-slavery