Charles Bronson
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| Charles Bronson | |
|---|---|
| Image:Bronson 1973.jpg Charles Bronson (1973) | |
| Birth name | Charles Dennis Buchinsky |
| Born | November 3 1921 Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania |
| Died | August 30 2003 (aged 81) Brownsville, Vermont |
| Spouse(s) | Harriet Tendler (1949-1967) Jill Ireland (1968-1990) Kim Weeks (1998-2003) |
Charles Bronson (born Charles Dennis Buchinsky, Lithuanian name Karolis Bučinskis,[1] November 3, 1921 – August 30, 2003) was an American actor of "tough guy", or "macho" roles. In most of his roles, he played a brutal police detective, western gunfighter, vigilante, boxer or Mafia hitman.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life and World War II service
Bronson was born in the notorious Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania coal-mining neighborhood of Scooptown in the Pittsburgh Tri-State area. He was 11th of 15 children born to a Lithuanian Tatar immigrant father and a Lithuanian-American mother.[2] His father was from the Lithuanian town of Druskininkai.
Bronson's father died when he was only 10, and he went to work in the coal mines like his older brothers until he was drafted for World War II. He earned $1 per ton of coal mined. His family was so poor that, at one time, he reportedly had to wear his sister's dress to school because he had nothing else to wear.[3] This story has been repeated in Celebrity Setbacks: 800 Stars who Overcame the Odds by Ed Lucaire (ISBN 0-671-85031-8) and in an edition of Ripley's Believe It or Not!.
In 1943, Bronson joined the United States Army Air Forces and served in the Pacific theater as a B-29 Superfortress nose gunner.[4] Assigned to the 61st Bomb Squadron of the 39th Bomb Group of the Twentieth Air Force, he flew bombing missions to Japan from North Field, Guam.[5] (A September 22 1974 Time magazine article inaccurately reported that Bronson drove a delivery truck in Kingman, Arizona as a member of the 760th Mess Squadron instead.[5])
[edit] Acting career
After the war, he decided to pursue acting, not from love, but rather because he was impressed with the amount of money that he might be able to make. Bronson was a roommate of Jack Klugman, another struggling actor at the time. Klugman later said of Bronson that he was good at ironing clothes. His first screen appearance, which was uncredited, was as a sailor in You're in the Navy Now in 1951. In 1952, he boxed in a ring with Roy Rogers in Rogers' show Knockout.
During the House Un-American Activities Committee proceedings, he changed his surname to Bronson as Slavic-sounding names were suspect. He took his inspiration from the Bronson Gate at Paramount Studios, situated on the corner of Melrose Avenue and Bronson Street. One of his earliest screen appearances was as Vincent Price's henchman in the 1953 horror classic House of Wax.
Bronson made several appearances on television in the 1950s and 1960s, including leading roles in three episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "And So Died Riabouchinska" (1956), "There Was an Old Woman" (1956), and "The Woman Who Wanted to Live" (1962). He also starred alongside Elizabeth Montgomery in The Twilight Zone episode "Two" (1961).
From 1958 to 1960, Bronson starred in the ABC detective series Man With A Camera. Bronson portrayed 'Mike Kovac', a former combat photographer freelancing in New York City. Frequently, Kovac was involved in assignments for the Police Department, which often put him in danger. Also on ABC, Bronson gained attention in 1963 in the role of Linc, the stubborn wagonmaster in the TV western The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, which also starred twelve-year-old Kurt Russell.
Although he began his career in the United States, Bronson first made a serious name for himself in European films. He became quite famous on that continent, and was known by two nicknames: The Italians called him "Il Brutto" ("The Ugly One") and to the French he was known as "le sacré monstre" ("holy monster"). Even though he was not yet a headliner in America, this overseas fame earned him a 1971 Golden Globe as the "Most Popular Actor in the World." That same year, he wondered if he was "too masculine" to ever become a star in the United States.[citation needed]
Bronson's most famous films include The Great Escape (1963), in which he played Danny Velinski, a Polish prisoner of war nicknamed "The Tunnel King", and The Dirty Dozen, (1967) in which he played an Army death row convict conscripted into a World War II suicide mission.
In the westerns The Magnificent Seven (1960) and the Sergio Leone epic Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), he played heroic gunfighters taking up the cause of the defenseless. Sergio Leone once called him "the greatest actor I ever worked with." Leone wanted Bronson for all three of what became known as the "Man with No Name" trilogy, but Bronson turned him down each time. In Hard Times (1975), he played a street fighter making his living in illegal boxing matches in Louisiana.
He is also remembered for Death Wish (1974), the most popular film of his long association with director Michael Winner. This movie spawned several sequels (in which he also starred). In the Death Wish series, he played Paul Kersey, a successful New York architect, a liberal until his wife (played by Hope Lange) is murdered and his daughter raped. Kersey becomes a crime-fighting vigilante by night - a highly controversial role, as his executions were cheered by crime-weary audiences. After the famous 1984 case of Bernhard Goetz, Bronson recommended that people not imitate his character.
During the 1980s, he made numerous films with smaller production companies, most notably Cannon Films. Ultra-violent films such as The Evil That Men Do and 10 To Midnight were blasted by critics, but provided him with good-paying work throughout the 80s. Bronson's last starring role in a theatrically released film was 1994's Death Wish V: The Face of Death.
Bronson was married to British actress Jill Ireland from 1968 until her death from breast cancer at age 54 in 1990. He had met her when she was married to British actor David McCallum. At the time, Bronson (who shared the screen with McCallum in The Great Escape) reportedly told him, "I'm going to marry your wife." Two years later, Bronson did just that. She was his second wife.
[edit] Death
On August 30, 2003 Bronson died of pneumonia while suffering from Alzheimer's disease at DHMC in Lebanon NH. He had been in poor health since undergoing hip replacement surgery in August 1998. He is buried in Brownsville, Vermont, near his home of thirty years in West Windsor.
[edit] Trivia
| Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- Was considered for the lead role in The French Connection which later went to Gene Hackman.
- Considered to play the role of Snake Plissken in the classic Escape from New York, but director John Carpenter thought he was too tough looking and too old for the part. Kurt Russell later won the role.
- Was considered and read for the part of the eponymous hero of Superman, which later went to Christopher Reeve.
- Turned down the part of Billy Madison's father in Billy Madison.
- The Canadian speed/thrash metal band Razor dedicated their 1988 album Violent Restitution to Bronson.
- A tribute to him was at the end of Kill Bill: Volume 2 in the credits. It says "R.I.P. Charles Bronson"
- The hardcore band Charles Bronson sampled many clips from a variety of Charles Bronson movies.
- Great nephew, Justin Bronson, was scheduled to star in a remake of Death Wish in 2008
- Charles Bronson (or Bronson) has become popular in Scotland as an alternative name for cocaine. Origin may derive from cocaine previously being referred to as Charley.
- Rapper Mister Scoops made several dedications to Charles Bronson, and coined the phrase "It's Bronson".
- Not unlike the anecdotical use of Chuck Norris, Charles Bronson is used to attribute certain incidents and procedures as being handled in a harsh and unstructured way. Most notably, deployment by Charles Bronson is a common inside term among system administrators for rolling out information systems in a hurried and improvised way, not following best practices due to management-induced time constraints.
- He does not appear as a bit part in the Gary Cooper film "Ten North Frederick"(1958), as it says in many of his filmographies.
- in the film Blame It on the Bellboy (1992) the woman realizing she is dating the wrong Horton she states "If i wanted a killer i would date Charles Bronson!"
[edit] Complete filmography
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[edit] TV movies
- This Rugged Land (1962)
- Guns of Diablo (1964)
- Luke and The Tenderfoot (1965)
- The Meanest Men in the West (1967)
- The Bull of the West (1971)
- Raid On Entebbe (1976)
- Act of Vengeance (1985)
- Yes Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus (1991)
- Donato and Daughter (1993)
- The Sea Wolf (1993)
- A Family of Cops (1995)
- Breach of Faith: A Family of Cops 2 (1997)
- Family of Cops 3 (1999)
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ [1]
- ^ Charles Bronson dies at 81. cnn.com (September 1 2003).
- ^ Richard Severo (September 1 2003). Charles Bronson, 81, Dies; Muscular Movie Tough Guy. New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-12-14.
- ^ [http://39th.org/39TH/aerial/61st/crew-woc.html "Old Overcast" 61st Squadron]. Official Home of the 39th Bomb Group (VH) Association (39th.org). Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
- ^ a b Corrections (to Bronson's obituary). New York Times (September 18 2003). Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
[edit] External links
- List of Hollywood Republicans
- Charles Bronson website
- Charles Bronson at the Internet Movie Database
- Charles Bronson website
- Charles Bronson website
- Japanese fansite
- Legends of Charles Bronson on Webtertainment.tv Sketch Comedy Shorts
- Charles Bronson Appearances on Tough Guys Webcomic
The Death Wish Pentalogy | |
|---|---|
| Films | Death Wish · Death Wish II · Death Wish 3 · Death Wish 4: The Crackdown · Death Wish V: The Face of Death |
| Related topics | Charles Bronson |
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Categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since May 2007 | Articles with trivia sections from September 2007 | American film actors | Western film actors | Spaghetti Western actors | Hollywood Walk of Fame | United States Army soldiers | American military personnel of World War II | Lithuanian-Americans | 1921 births | 2003 deaths | Deaths from Alzheimer's disease | Tatars | Action film actors
