Anna Leonowens Yul Brynner. The then ambassador of Thailand to the US gave another reason for Thailand's disapproval of "The King and I": its ethno-centric attitude and its barely hidden insult on the whole Siamese nation as childish and inferior to the Westerners. In 1972, Twentieth Century Fox produced a non-musical American TV series for CBS, "Anna and the King", with Samantha Eggar taking the part of Leonowens and Brynner reprising his role as the king. Margaret Landon charged the makers with "inaccurate and mutilated portrayals" of her literary property and sued unsuccessfully for copyright infringement. The series was not a success
Anna Leonowens enterprise was not a financial success, it established her reputation as an educator. In 1862, Leonowens accepted an offer made by the consul in Singapore, Tan Kim Ching, to teach the wives and children of Mongkut, King of Siam. The king wished to give his 39 wives and concubines and 82 children a modern Western education on scientific secular lines, which earlier missionaries' wives had not provided. Leonowens sent her daughter Avis to school in England, and took her son Louis with her to Bangkok. She succeeded Dan Beach Bradley, an American missionary, as teacher to the Siamese court. Leonowens