| c 1921 - 2003 Charles Bronson
After a few scattered acting jobs in New York, Bronson enrolled in the Pasadena Playhouse. By 1951, he was playing bit parts in films such as ‘You're in the Navy Now’ and ‘The Clown’. His first role of importance was as Igor in ‘House of Wax’. He was billed as Charles Bronson for the first time in ‘Drum Beat’, although he was still often stereotyped as a hoodlum or a convict. His first starring role was in 1958's ‘Gang War’, but he first achieved major recognition for ‘Machine Gun Kelly’ the same year. Bronson achieved his first fan-following with the TV series, ‘Man With a Camera’, and appeared as one of 'The Magnificent Seven' in 1960. However, his next few roles tend tended to fit the mould of ‘supporting villain’ and, in 1968, he moved to Europe, hoping to find bigger and better opportunities. After success in such films as ‘Guns for San Sebastian’, ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’, and ‘Cold Sweat’, Bronson returned to Hollywood, a full-fledged star at last. His most successful films of the 1970s were ‘Death Wish’ and its sequels, a series of brutal "vigilante" pictures. In many of his 1970s films, Bronson co-starred with his second wife, Jill Ireland. Unfortunately she lost her fight against cancer in 1990. He appeared in ‘The Indian Runner’ in 1991 and ‘Death Wish 5: The Face of Death’ in 1994, but has since done mostly television work. He died from pneumonia at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on 30 August 2003. Early Roles 1951 - 1959 Bronson`first film role - an uncredited one - was as a sailor in You`re in the Navy Now Screen appearances were in Pat and Mike, Miss Sadie, Thompson and House of Wax as Vincent Price`s henchman Igor. 1952 Bronson boxed in a ring with Roy Rogers in Rogers`show Knockout. He also appeared on the "Red Skelton Show" as a boxer in a skit with Red as his character of "Cauliflower" McPugg. 1954 He made a strong impact in Drumbeat supporting Alan Ladd. He played a murderous Apache warrior, Captain Jack, who enjoys wearing the tunics of soldiers who he has killed. Eventually captured by Ladd and sent to the gallows, Jack dies as he has always lived, fearlessly. During the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) proceedings, he changed his surname from Buchinsky to Bronson as Eastern European names sounded suspicious in an era of anti-Soviet sentiment. He to his inspiration from the Bronson Gate at Paramount Studios, situated on the corner of Melrose Avenue and Bronson Street. 1960`s Charles Bronson gained attention in 1960 with his role in John Sturges' western The Magnificent Seven, where he played one of seven gunfighters taking up the cause of the defenseless, which was based on Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. Two years later, Sturges cast him for another popular Hollywood production The Great Escape as a claustrophobic Polish prisoner of war nicknamed "The Tunnel King" (coincidentally, Bronson was really claustrophobic because of his childhood work in a mine). 1962 Bronson in the role of Lew Nyack, a veteran boxing trainer who helped Walter Gulick (Elvis Presley) buff up his skills for the big fight with Sugarboy Romero in the movie, "Kid Galahad" (a remake of a 1937 film with Edward G. Robinson and Humphrey Bogart in those roles). 1963 Bronson co-starred with Richard Egan in the NBC Western series Empire, set on a New Mexico ranch. In the 1963–1964 season he portrayed Linc, the stubborn wagonmaster in the ABC series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, where he starred together with Dan O'Herlihy and then twelve-year-old Kurt Russell. In the 1965-1966 season, he guest starred in an episode of The Legend of Jesse James, starring Christopher Jones in the title role. European Roles: 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 a "monstre sacré" ("holy monster"). 1968 He starred as Harmonica in Once Upon a Time in the West. The director, Sergio Leone, once called him "the greatest actor I ever worked with", and had wanted to cast Bronson for the lead in all three of his previous westerns, now known as the Dollars trilogy. Bronson turned him down each time and the roles instead launched Clint Eastwood to film stardom. Even though he was not yet a headliner in America in 1970, he helped the French film Rider on the Rain win a Hollywood Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The following year, this overseas fame earned him a special Golden Globe Henrietta Award for "World Film Favorite - Male" together with Sean Connery. This was the most prestigious of the few awards he ever received. At the time, the actor wondered if he was "too masculine" to ever become a star in the United States. 1974–1994 One of Bronson's most memorable roles came when he was over the age of 50, in Death Wish (1974), the most popular film of his long association with director Michael Winner. He played Paul Kersey, a successful New York architect. When his wife (played by Hope Lange) is murdered and his daughter raped, Kersey becomes a crime-fighting vigilante by night. It was 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. This successful movie spawned sequels over the next 20 years, in which Bronson also starred. His great nephew, Justin Bronson, was scheduled to star in a remake of Death Wish in 2008, but the film has not yet seen the light of day. | ||||||||||
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