Background

Ethnicity: Charles was born to a Lithuanian father and a Lithuanian-American mother.

Charles Bronson was born on November 3, 1921, in Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the eleventh of fifteen children of Walter Buchinsky, a coal miner, and Mary (Valinsky) Buchinsky, a homemaker. The family was so poor, that, at one time, Charles reportedly had to wear his sister's dress to school, because he had nothing else to wear.

Education

Bronson grew up in Ehrenfeld, a dreary company town in southwestern Pennsylvania, run by the Pennsylvania Coal and Coke Company, and attended public schools there and in nearby South Fork. His father, Walter Buchinsky, died, when Charles was eleven years old, and he joined his brothers in the coal mines after his graduation from South Fork High School in 1940.

In his later years, namely in 1947, Bronson attended the Hussian School of Art in Philadelphia on the G.I. Bill of Rights. Then, after he decided to pursue acting career, Charles entered the Pasadena Playhouse School of the Theatre (later known as the Pasadena Playhouse College of Theatre Arts) in the fall of 1949. He took acting and speech classes at the educational establishment and remained there for a year only.

Career

In his early years, after the death of his father, Charles worked with his brothers in the coal mines. Bronson was liberated from the dust and claustrophobic circumstances of the coal mines by the World War II military draft in 1943. Assigned to Kingman Army Airfield in Kingman, Arizona, he drove a mess delivery truck before serving in the South Pacific as a tail gunner on a B-29 bomber.

After his discharge from the Army Air Forces in 1946, Bronson, who had drawn and painted since childhood, decided to try his hand at commercial art. While attending classes at the Hussian School of Art in Philadelphia on the G.I. Bill of Rights in 1947, he was recruited by members of a local repertory company to paint and design scenery for their productions at the Plays and Players Theater. Subsequently, he dropped out of art school, became a member of the company, and was given acting roles. With money he saved from a summer job on the amusement pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Bronson and an actor friend, Jack Klugman, rented a one-room apartment in New York City in the fall of 1948 and sought theatrical auditions. Although the more experienced Klugman had greater success in getting work, Bronson was encouraged by the few small parts he received and felt he was ready to make acting his full-time career.

Believing he needed more of an acting education and hoping for film work, Bronson moved to southern California and enrolled at the Pasadena Playhouse School of the Theatre (later the Pasadena Playhouse College of Theatre Arts) in the fall of 1949. He took acting and speech classes and performed in student productions, while Harriet Tendler, his then-wife, supported the couple by working in a department store. In anticipation of becoming a character player, Bronson curtailed his speech instruction after a year because he thought, that imperfect diction was a better fit for his rough-hewn, Slavic looks. Bronson made his screen debut in 1951, after one of his instructors suggested him for the small role of a Polish-American sailor in "You're in the Navy Now", a comedy, directed by Henry Hathaway, and starring Gary Cooper. His competent performance got him an agent and led to minor parts in a number of motion pictures in the early 1950's.

Among the films he appeared in as Charles Buchinsky or Buchinski were "The People Against O'Hara" (1951), "The Mob" (1951), "Pat and Mike" (1952), "House of Wax" (1953), "Apache" (1954) and "Vera Cruz" (1954). Early in his career he had the opportunity to learn from such stars, as Spencer Tracy, Broderick Crawford, Vincent Price and Burt Lancaster and to work with some of Hollywood's best directors, including Henry Hathaway, John Sturges, George Cukor, André de Toth and Robert Aldrich. Although Bronson failed to obtain a studio contract, he continued to secure secondary roles because he was always on time for work and knew his lines. Producers and directors were impressed by his professionalism and often took him on again.

Against a backdrop of cold war tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and congressional investigations of Communism, Bronson was advised to change his Russian-sounding surname in 1954. He renamed himself after a street in Hollywood (Bronson Avenue) and earned his first critical praise as a renegade Indian leader in "Drum Beat" (1954), starring Alan Ladd and directed by Delmer Daves. After more solid supporting work in "Big House, U.S.A." (1955), "Target Zero" (1955), "Jubal" (1956) and "Run of the Arrow" (1957), Bronson was given the chance to star in the B movies "Gang War", "Showdown at Boot Hill" and "Machine Gun Kelly" in 1958. The last of these low-budget films was well received overseas largely due to his strong portrayal of its vicious, but cowardly subject, and helped make him a cult figure in Europe in the 1960's.

Bronson was also a busy television actor throughout the 1950's, appearing on a host of dramatic programs, including "Medic", "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", "Gunsmoke", "The Millionaire", "M Squad" and "Have Gun-Will Travel". In the fall of 1958, he landed the starring role of Mike Kovac, a freelance photojournalist in New York City, who helps the police solve crimes, in "Man with a Camera", a weekly thirty-minute series on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) network. The show, which General Electric (GE) had sponsored to promote a new flashbulb, did well in the Nielsen television ratings, but was canceled in its second season after Polaroid came out with a new bulb, that rendered the GE product obsolete. Bronson also had featured parts on two short-lived series, "Empire" (1962) and "The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters" (1963-1964).

Bronson gave two of his most memorable big-screen performances in "The Magnificent Seven" (1960) and "The Great Escape" (1963), both directed by John Sturges. In the former, a Western, based upon the Japanese classic "The Seven Samurai" (1954), he displayed a mixture of toughness and tenderness as a gunman, who bonds with the children of a Mexican village he is hired to protect, and in the latter, a World War II prisoner-of-war film, he put his coal-mining experience to good use, playing Danny Velinski, the digger of escape tunnels. Bronson worked in several other highly touted Hollywood films later in the decade, but only "The Dirty Dozen" (1967), directed by Robert Aldrich, was successful. "The Sandpiper" (1965), "Battle of the Bulge" (1965) and "This Property Is Condemned" (1966) were commercial and critical disappointments. During this period, Bronson rejected European film offers, including leading roles in two Westerns, directed by the then-little-known Italian Sergio Leone. Two other American actors, Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef, accepted the parts in "A Fistful of Dollars" (1964) and "For a Few Dollars More" (1965) and became international stars.

Although he was prospering as a supporting actor, Bronson decided to seek leading roles and was more open to European overtures in the late 1960's. At the request of the French actor Alain Delon, a fan of "Machine Gun Kelly", he was hired to costar (with Delon) in "Adieu l'Ami" (1968), a complicated thriller, centering on the criminal activities of two veterans of the Algerian War of Independence. The British-French production was an enormous hit, as was "Once Upon a Time in the West" (1969), Sergio Leone's biggest and best "Spaghetti Western". Bronson dominated that film as a harmonica-playing stranger, who stalks a cold-blooded hired killer (Henry Fonda). He scored again in "Rider on the Rain" (1970), a suspense film in the Hitchcock tradition, directed by René Clément, as a mysterious American military investigator. Affectionately called Le Sacre Monstre (The Holy Monster) in France and Il Brutto (The Ugly One) in Italy, the muscular, craggy-faced, squinty-eyed American actor became a continental sensation in his late forties. "Red Sun" (1971), a Western, that costarred Delon and Japanese legend Toshirô Mifune, became a worldwide hit and extended Bronson's popularity to Asia.

Bronson's international blockbusters were not widely shown in the United States, and his new, American-financed films got only a mixed reception at home in the early 1970's. "Chato's Land" (1972), a collaboration with the British director Michael Winner, in which he played a half-breed Apache fugitive, who visits revenge upon a bloodthirsty posse, was largely ignored. "The Valachi Papers" (1972), for which he was paid $1 million and given 2 percent of the film's profit by the producer Dino De Laurentiis, became his first substantial hit as a lead actor in the United States. Although he won some praise for his depiction of the life of the famous mob informant from age twenty-five to age sixty, most critics compared the picture unfavorably to "The Godfather", Francis Ford Coppola's fictional gangster epic, which had been released earlier in the year.

The slick and violent action films "The Mechanic" (1972), "The Stone Killer" (1973) and "Mr. Majestyk" (1974) were modest successes for Bronson, but the controversial "Death Wish" (1974), produced by De Laurentiis and directed by Winner, brought him superstardom in his own country. He gave arguably his finest performance as Paul Kersey, a grief-stricken Manhattan architect, who reluctantly takes to the streets with a concealed gun after his wife's murder and daughter's rape and metes out frontier justice to the criminal element. Released at a time, when urban crime rates were on the rise, the picture made $20 million. While critics deplored the film as manipulative and reactionary, filmgoers openly cheered whenever Kersey dispatched a mugger.

"Death Wish" proved to have been the high point of Bronson's career. He gave sturdy performances in "Breakout" (1975), "Hard Times" (1975), "Breakheart Pass" (1975), "St. Ives" (1976), "From Noon Till Three" (1976), "Telefon" (1977) and "Borderline" (1980), but none of these pictures came close to matching the success of his greatest hit.

In the 1980's and early 1990's, Bronson starred in four ultraviolent "Death Wish" sequels (1982, 1985, 1987, 1994) of steadily diminishing quality and the equally blood-soaked police thrillers "Murphy's Law" (1986) and "Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects" (1989). Although he remained popular overseas, the aging Bronson began to lose audiences at home to a new generation of action stars. Following Jill Ireland's (his second wife) death from breast cancer in 1990, he touchingly portrayed husbands, who suffered personal losses in "The Indian Runner" (1991) and the made-for-television movie "Yes Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus" (1991).

Bronson's final film roles were as police commissioner Paul Fein in a well-received trio of crime/drama TV movies "Family of Cops" (1995), "Breach of Faith: A Family of Cops II" (1997) and "Family of Cops III: Under Suspicion" (1999).

Achievements

• Charles Bronson was a notable actor, who gained prominence for his roles as a tough guy. He was often cast in the role of a police officer, gunfighter or vigilante in revenge-oriented plot lines. His lengthy career and dozens of film credits made him a critical figure in the development of the action-adventure film. His steely-eyed stare and his signature moustache were themselves cultural icons. Bronson is best remembered for his roles in such films, as "The Magnificent Seven" (1960), "The Great Escape" (1963), "The Dirty Dozen" (1967), "The Mechanic" (1972) and "Death Wish" (1974).
  
  At the height of his fame in the early 1970's, Bronson was the world's number one box office attraction, commanding $1 million per film.
  
  Charles received the Henrietta Award, the Golden Boot Award and the Purple Heart, a United States military decoration. Moreover, he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance in a Supporting Role by an Actor in a Single Program for "General Electric Theater" (1953) and the Laurel Award for Male Supporting Performance for "Once Upon a Time in the West" (1968).
  
  On December 10, 1980, Charles was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame with one star.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • Death Wish

    (A New York City architect becomes a one-man vigilante squ...)

    1974
  • The People Against O'Hara

    (Jim Curtayne, formerly a successful defense attorney, who...)

    1951
  • Red Sun

    (In 1870, a gang robs a train and steals a ceremonial Japa...)

    1971
  • Vera Cruz

    (During the Mexican Rebellion of 1866, an unsavory group o...)

    1954
  • Once Upon A Time in the West

    (A mysterious stranger with a harmonica joins forces with ...)

    1968
  • Murphy's Law

    (An action-packed thriller, starring Charles Bronson as Ja...)

    1986
  • Yes Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus

    (Inspired by the famous 1897 editorial, that has become a ...)

    1991
  • Chato's Land

    (In 1870's New Mexico, a half-breed kills a bigoted sherif...)

    1972
  • Big House, U.S.A.

    (Jerry Barker finds a lost boy, whose rich father is extor...)

    1955
  • The Indian Runner

    (A Vietnam vet comes home to his small town and finds hims...)

    1991
  • Family of Cops

    (A police detective's oversexed daughter is charged with m...)

    1995
  • Love and Bullets

    (Arizona cop is sent to Switzerland to bring in the girlfr...)

    1979
  • House of Wax

    (An associate burns down a wax museum with the owner insid...)

    1953
  • The Great Escape

    (Allied prisoners of war plan for several hundred of their...)

    1963
  • Hard Times

    (The adventures of a drifter, turned illegal prize-fighter...)

    1975
  • The Magnificent Seven

    (Seven gunfighters are hired by Mexican peasants to libera...)

    1960
  • Machine Gun Kelly

    (The criminal exploits of Public Enemy number 1, George "M...)

    1958
  • Breakout

    (A bush pilot is hired for fifty thousand dollars to go to...)

    1975
  • Messenger of Death

    (A Denver reporter investigates the mass murder of a famil...)

    1988
  • Rider on the Rain

    (A United States Army colonel in France tries to track dow...)

    1970
  • The Mechanic

    (An aging hitman befriends a young man, who wants to be a ...)

    1972
  • Mr. Majestyk

    (A melon farmer battles organized crime and a hit man, who...)

    1974
  • Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects

    (A brutal Los Angeles police Lt. is determined to bust up ...)

    1989

Politics

Bronson was a supporter of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.

Views

Charles was very active in raising funds for the John Wayne Cancer Institute.

Quotations: "I guess I look like a rock quarry, that someone has dynamited."

"Acting is the easiest thing I've done, I guess that's why I'm stuck with it."

"I look like the kind of guy, who has a bottle of beer in my hand."

"I don't have friends, I have thousands of acquaintances. No friends. I figured I had a wife and children."

"Audiences like to see the bad guys get their comeuppance."

"The fear really hits you. That's what you feel first. And then it's the anger and frustration. Part of the problem is how little we understand about the ultimate betrayal of the body, when it rebels against itself."

"Maybe I'm too masculine. Casting directors cast in their own, or an idealized image. Maybe I don't look like anybody's ideal."

"I am not a fan of myself."

"Nobody stays on top forever. Nobody!"

"We don't make movies for critics, since they don't pay to see them anyhow."

"I am only a product, like a cake of soap, to be sold as well as possible."

Personality

As a kid, Charles was described as a loner, he used to spend most of his time alone, walking in the woods.

A 1973 newspaper profile said that Charles was so shy and introverted, that he could not watch his own films. Bronson was also described as a suspicious man, who held grudges, despised interviews and hated to give anything of himself. Bronson was embittered, that it took so long for him to be recognized in the United States and after achieving fame he refused to work for a noted director, who had fired him years before.

Charles spoke fluent Russian, Lithuanian and Greek.

Physical Characteristics: In 1998, Charles had hip replacement surgery. Being a heavy smoker for most of his life, he suffered from severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in later years.

Although pneumonia and/or Alzheimer's disease have been cited as his cause of death, neither appears on his death certificate, which cites "respiratory failure", "metastatic lung cancer", with, secondarily, "chronic obstructive pulmonary disease" and "congestive cardiomyopathy" as the causes of death.

Quotes from others about the person

• "Bronson oozed male life-force, stoic toughness, capability, strength. He always projected the charisma of ambiguity: was he an ugly handsome man or a handsome ugly man? You were never sure, so further study was obligatory. He never became a great actor, but he knew exactly how to dominate a scene quietly." - Stephen Hunter, a novelist, essayist and film critic
  
  "Bronson did not have to go into any big thing about what he does or how he does it, because he had a quality, that the motion-picture camera seems to respond to. He had a great strength on the screen, even when he's standing still or in a completely passive role. There is a depth, a mystery - there is always the sense, that something will happen." - Michael Winner, a film director and producer

Connections

Charles met his first wife, Harriet Tendler, at a Philadelphia acting school in 1947. Two years later, on September 30, 1949, the couple married. Their marriage produced two children. It was in March 1965, that Charles and Harriet divorced.

In 1962, Charles met his future second wife, Jill Ireland, who, at that time, was married to David McCallum. Bronson, who shared the screen with McCallum in "The Great Escape", reportedly told him "I'm going to marry your wife". Charles and Jill married on October 5, 1968. They brought up seven children, including two from Charles's previous marriage, three from Jill's previous marriage to David McCallum (one of whom was adopted) and two of their own (one of whom was adopted as well). The Bronsons lived in a grand Bel Air mansion in Los Angeles.

To maintain a close family, Charles and Jill would load up everyone and take them to wherever filming was taking place, so that they could all be together. The family also spent time in a colonial farmhouse in West Windsor, Vermont, where Jill raised horses and provided training for her and Charles's daughter, Zuleika, so that she could perform at the higher levels of horse showing. The Vermont farm, "Zuleika Farm", was named for the only biological child, produced by their marriage.

It was on May 18, 1990, that Jill Ireland died after a long battle with breast cancer.

In December 1998, Bronson wed his third wife - Kim Weeks. The two were married until Charles's death in 2003.

Father:

Walter Buchinsky

Walter Buchinsky was a coal miner.

Mother:

Mary (Valinsky) Buchinsky

Mary (Valinsky) Buchinsky was a homemaker.

child:

Zuleika Bronson

Zuleika Bronson owns "Zuleika Farm", which her father presented to her. She is a daughter of Charles Bronson and Jill Ireland.

child:

Tony Bronson

Tony Bronson is a son of Charles Bronson and Harriet Tendler.

child:

Susan Bronson

Susan Bronson is a daughter of Charles Bronson and Harriet Tendler.

ex-wife:

Harriet Tendler

Harriet Tendler is an American actress. Charles and Harriet met, when both were fledgling actors in Philadelphia.

late wife:

Jill Ireland

Jill Ireland was an English-born American actress and singer. She collaborated in fifteen films with Charles Bronson.

Wife:

Kim Weeks

Kim Weeks is an American actress, who is known for her work on "Family of Cops" (1995), "Breach of Faith: A Family of Cops II" (1997) and "Family of Cops III: Under Suspicion" (1999).

adopted child:

Katrina Holden Bronson

Katrina Holden Bronson is an American film director, screenwriter and actress. She is an adopted daughter of Charles Bronson and Jill Ireland.

stepchild:

Val McCallum

Val McCallum is an English-Scottish guitarist and singer-songwriter. He is a biological child of David McCallum and Jill Ireland, Charles's second wife.

stepchild:

Jason McCallum

Jason McCallum was an adopted child of David McCallum and Jill Ireland, Charles's second wife. He died of a drug overdose on November 7, 1989.

stepchild:

Paul McCallum

Paul McCallum is a retired Canadian football punter and placekicker. He is a biological child of David McCallum and Jill Ireland, Charles's second wife.

colleague:

Michael Winner

Michael Winner was a British film director, producer and restaurant critic for The Sunday Times.

colleague:

J. Lee Thompson

J. Lee Thompson was a British film director, active in London and Hollywood, best known for such movies, as "Ice Cold in Alex", "Cape Fear" and "The Guns of Navarone".

References

• Charles Bronson's Website
• American Legends: The Life of Charles Bronson This book on Charles Bronson includes pictures, the actor's own quotes about his life and career, among other things.
  2016
• Charlie and Me This work represents Hollywood memoir by the first wife of actor Charles Bronson, which details their high profile marriage and divorce and her life as the "ex" Mrs. Famous, who reinvents herself as a talk radio host.
  2010
• Charles Bronson A profile of the rugged, taciturn actor follows his struggle to raise himself from the abject poverty of his childhood, his long career in minor roles and his final breakthrough to stardom.
  1982
• The films of Charles Bronson Book by Jerry Vermilye.
  1980