Born to a family that included two physicians, Julian Bruner (Minassian) was a renowned surgeon and family practitioner based in Des Moines, Iowa.

Bruner interned at a hospital in Los Angeles, where he delivered Marilyn Monroe.

During World War II, as a US Army surgeon, Dr. Bruner pioneered a hand-surgery system which came to be known as the Bruner Method. His innovations, which included the Bruner Table for hand surgery, binoculars for surgical use, and the procedure known as the Bruner Zigzag Incision, earned him election to the Royal College of Surgeons, in 1973.

Bruner died in 1997, at the age of 96.