After a few scattered acting jobs in New York, Bronson enrolled in the Pasadena Playhouse in 1949. By 1951, he was in films, playing uncredited bits in such pictures as The People Against O'Hara (1951); You're in the Navy Now (1952), whcih also featured a young bit actor named Lee Marvin; Diplomatic Courier (1952) and The Clown (1953). When he finally achieved billing, it was under his own name, Charles Buchinsky (sometimes spelled Buchinski). His first role of importance was as Igor, the mute granite-faced henchman of deranged sculptor Vincent Price in House of Wax (1953).
The actor was billed as 'Charles Bronson' for the first time in Drum Beat (1954), although he was consigned to roles as slaves, American Indians, hoodlums, and
Multiplying his international box-office appeal tenfold with such films as Guns of San Sebastian (1967), Once Upon a Time in Mexico (1968), Cold Sweat (1970), and The Valachi Papers (1972), Bronson returned to Hollywood a full-fledged star at last. His most successful films of the 1970s were Death Wish (1974) and its sequels, a series of brutal "vigilante" pictures which suggested not so subliminally that honest people would ultimately have to dole out their own terminal justice to criminals.
In many of his '70s films, Bronson co-starred with his second wife Jill Ireland, with whom he remained married until she lost her fight against cancer in 1990. Bronson's bankability subsequently fell off, due in part to younger action stars doing with he used to do twice as vigorously, and because of his truculent attitude toward fans. He did little but television work after 1991's The Indian Runner (Sean Penn's directorial debut), with Death Wish V: The Face of Death (1994) his only feature since. Bronson's onscreen career would soon draw to a close with his role as law enforcing family patriatch Paul Fein in the made-for-cable Family of Cops series. On August 30th, 2003, Charles Bronson died of pneumonia in Los Angeles. He was 81. (This biography was taken from Yahoo! Movies. Click here to view it.)
NICKNAME: Il Brutto (Italy), Le Sacre Monstre (France)
HEIGHT: 5'11 (1.80m)
SPOUSE: Harriet Tendler (1949 - 1967) (divorced) 2 Children; Jill Ireland (October 1968 - May 1990) (her death) 1 daughter; Kim Weeks (December 1998 - August 2003) (his death)
- He has two children with his first wife, Tony and Suzanne. He then married Jill Ireland, who had two sons with her first husband, David McCallum. One adopted son (Jason) died in 1989. He and Ireland had a daughter named Zuleika.
- Perhaps the biggest late bloomer in Hollywood history, Bronson never got the marquee treatment he deserved until his late 40s. He was already 53 when the original Death Wish premiered.
- The name Bronson is said to be taken from the "Bronson Gate" at Paramount Studios, at the north end of Bronson Avenue.
- Spoofed in an episode of "The Simpsons" in which the Simpson family mistakenly travels to Bronson, Missouri, instead of Branson. In Bronson, such lines of dialogue as these are spoken by its citizens: "No dice.", "This ain't ovah."
- Changed his stage name in the early 50s in the midst of the McCarthy "Red Scare" for fear his last name (Buchinsky) would damage his career.
- Was drafted in 1943 for Service in the Air Force during World War 2. He was a truck driver and later a gunner on a B-29 bomber.
- Actor Dick Van Dyke would receive a lemon cake every Christmas from Bronson, who lived nearby in Malibu for 16 years.
- Director John Huston once summed him up as a "grenade with the pin pulled".
- In 1949 he moved to California, where he signed up for acting lessons at the Pasadena Playhouse.
- In 1954 on the Mexican set for the Western Vera Cruz, Bronson and Ernest Borgnine decided to go for cigarettes. This meant saddling up in costume, side arms and all, and riding to the nearest town. On the way, the pair was waylaid by a truck full of armed federales who mistook them for bandits and held them at gunpoint.
- I am not a Casper Milquetoast." Bronson told the Washington Post in 1985, citing the time he was visiting Rome and felt a gun in his side. "A guy in broken English asked me for money. I said, 'You give me money,' He turned around and he walked away."
