Charles Bronson

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Charles Bronson born Charles Dennis Buchinsky November 3 1921 August 30 2003 was an American actor He was known for his roles in action films and his granite features and brawny physique Bronson was born into extreme poverty in Ehrenfeld Pennsylvania a coal mining town in the Allegheny Mountains Bronsons father a miner died when Bronson was young Bronson himself worked in the mines as well until joining the United States Army Air Forces in 1943 to fight in World War II Bronson had sizeable costarring roles in The Magnificent Seven 1960 The Great Escape 1963 This Property Is Condemned 1966 and The Dirty Dozen 1967 Bronson also performed in many major television shows and was nominated for an Emmy Award for his supporting role in an episode of General Electric Theater Actor Alain Delon who was a fan of Bronson hired him to costar with him in the French film Adieu lami 1968 That year he also played one of the leads in the Italian spaghetti Western Once Upon a Time in the West 1968 Bronson continued playing leads in various action Western and war films made in Europe including Rider on the Rain 1970 which won a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film During this time Bronson was the most popular American actor in Europe Early life and war service Bronson was born November 3 1921 in Ehrenfeld Pennsylvania a coal mining region in the Allegheny Mountains north of Johnstown He was the 11th of 15 children born into a Roman Catholic family of Lithuanian descent The very large family slept in shifts in their coldwater shack The coal car tracks that ran out of the mines mouth passed just a few yards away His father Walter Buchinsky né Vladislavas Valteris Paulius BučinskasBučinskis was a Lipka Tatar from Druskininkai in southern Lithuania Bronsons mother Mary née Valinsky whose parents were from Lithuania was born in Tamaqua Pennsylvania in the Anthracite Coal Region Bronson said English was not spoken at home during his childhood like many other firstgeneration American children he grew up with He once recounted that even as a soldier his accent was strong enough to make his comrades think he was a foreigner Besides English he could speak Lithuanian and Russian Marriages His first marriage was to Harriet Tendler whom he met when both were fledgling actors in Philadelphia They had two children Suzanne and Tony before divorcing in 1965 Bronson died at age 81 on August 30 2003 at CedarsSinai Medical Center in Los Angeles Bronson was married to English actress Jill Ireland from October 5 1968 until her death in 1990 Death Bronson died at age 81 on August 30 2003 at CedarsSinai Medical Center in Los Angeles Although pneumonia and Alzheimers 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 He was interred at Brownsville Cemetery in West Windsor Vermont CLR