ABSTRACT
Playing alongside Marlon Brando in George H. England's film The Ugly American (1963), the aristocratic Kukrit Pramoj, later to be Prime Minister of Thailand (1975 76), charmed audiences around the world with his beautiful portrayal of the wicked, aggrieved, plotting leader of the fictitious country of Sarkhan. His poise and charming arrogance, his masterly manipulation, and his severe judgment thrilled cloistered western audiences, who mostly knew of "Asians" only as speakers of pidgin English possessing childlikc simplicity or, conversely, as brutal, militaristic fiends.
