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:For the Wales|Welsh prisoner, see Charles Bronson
(prisoner). For the hardcore punk band, see
Charles Bronson (band). Also, another Charles
Bronson took a home movie at the John F. Kennedy
assassination|JFK assassination showing the south
façade of the Texas School Book
Depository|TSBD.http://www.fermentmagazine.org/jfk
2.htmlhttp://spot.acorn.net/jfkplace/03/MS/2-vr.ht
mlhttp://www.fas.org/sgp/advisory/arrb98/part10.ht
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Charles Bronson (born November 3, 1921; died
August 30, 2003) was an United States|American
actor of "tough guy" roles. In most of his roles
he starred as a brutal police detective, a Western
movie|western gunfighter, vigilante, boxer or a
Mafia hitman. He was blunt, physically powerful,
and had a look of danger that fitted such roles.

==Early life==
He was born as Charles Dennis Buchinski in the
notorious Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania neighborhood of
Scooptown, near Pittsburgh, one of 15 children of
Poland|Polish and Lithuanian immigrants. His
family was so poor that at one time he had
reportedly been forced to wear his sister's dress
to school because he had no other clothes.

In 1943, Bronson was drafted into the United
States Air Force|Air Force and served as a tail
gunner onboard B-29 Superfortress|B29 bombers.

Although Bronson was of Slavic descent, many
people thought he looked like a Chicano or
Mexican-American who was Mestizo (mixture of
Spanish and Indian ancestry).  Because of his
look, Bronson sometimes played characters who were
Mexican or who were part Indian.

==Acting career==
After the World War II|war, he decided to pursue
the profession of acting, not from any love of the
subject, but rather because he was impressed with
the amount of money that he could potentially make
in the business. 
During the Joseph McCarthy|McCarthy hearings he
changed his last name to Bronson as Slavic
peoples|Slavic names were suspect.  One of his
earliest screen appearances under his new name was
as Vincent Price's henchman in 1953 horror classic
House of Wax (1953 movie)|House of Wax.
In 1961 Bronson made an appearance with Elizabeth
Montgomery in The Twilight Zone, in the episode
"Two (The Twilight Zone)|Two."

Although he began his career in the United States,
Bronson first made a serious name for himself
acting in Europe | European films. 
He became quite famous on that continent, and was
known by two nicknames: The Italy|Italians called
him "Il Brutto" ("The Ugly") and to the
France|French he was known as "le monstre sacré,"
the "sacred monster." 
Even though he was not yet a headliner in America,
his 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 US.

Bronson's most famous films include The Great
Escape, (1963) in which he played Danny Velinski,
a Poland|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."  In Hard Times (1975 film)|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) which
spawned several sequels (also starring Bronson),
In Death Wish he played a Paul Kersey, a
prosperous liberal New York, New York|New York
architect until his wife was murdered and daughter
raped. 
He became 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, the
actor recommended that people not imitate his
character.

Bronson was married to actress Jill Ireland from
1968 until her death in 1990. She was his second
wife. He met her when she was still married to
actor David McCallum. At the time, Bronson (who
shared the screen with McCallum in The Great
Escape) bluntly told McCallum: "I'm going to marry
your wife." Two years later, he made good on his
boast and married Jill. 

Bronson died of pneumonia while suffering from
Alzheimer's disease at Cedars-Sinai hospital in
Los Angeles, California.  
At the time of his death, he was survived by his
wife Kim, four children, two stepchildren and two
grandchildren. 
A stepson, Jason McCallum Bronson, preceded him in
death after succumbing to a drug overdose in 1989.
With his death, Robert Vaughn is the only
surviving star of The Magnificent Seven.

==External links==
*imdb name|id=0000314|name=Charles Bronson