“Clarke Gable, who had been left out in the sun for too long.”
Film Critic
Introduction
Known for his granite features and athletic physique, Charles Bronson was an American actor who could play the good and bad guys in his sleep. The post-box eyes and distinctive soft voice mirrored a man to whom life hadn’t dealt a fair hand. As a child, he was shot by a railroad policeman after robbing a company store and trying to escape on a freight train or blind baggage, as it was aptly dubbed. He was shot in the chest, but the bullet fell out, leaving him with a lifelong scar. The policeman got two dollars for his feat. It was a poor childhood, but you made the best of what you had—spending joyous hours jumping thirty feet off a bridge that overlooked a river and a train track into dusty coal freight box cars—a unique but hazardous form of jumping.
The Lone Wolf
Born in 1921 in Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania. Charles Dennis Buchinsky was the 11th of 15 children from a Roman Catholic family of Lithuanian descent. Growing up in a cold water shack, English wasn’t spoken at home and Charles became one of the first generation who spoke English, Lithuanian and Russian fluently. A boy who rarely saw his father and his only memory of him was the fact that they hid every time he came home. When his father died from cancer in 1933, his son went to work in the coal mine office and then the mine. Earning one dollar for every ton of coal mined, the work was arduous and dangerous with frequent shaft collapses as he and his brother removed coal stumps. Work that left Charles with many bodily scars and a lifelong fear of enclosed spaces.
Growing up during the Great Depression, the family had little food and had to drink black tea because his parents couldn’t afford milk to feed him as a baby. Bronson was forced to wear his sister’s dress to school. Yet despite these early woes, Charles became the first member of the family to graduate from high school and worked in the mines until he enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces in 1943. He served in the 760th Flexible Gunnery Training Squadron and flew combat missions over the Japanese-occupied islands of Guam. Flying 25 missions and receiving the Purple Heart for wounds encountered in battle.
Life in Film
Moving to Philadelphia, Charles did various odd jobs before getting a job as a set painter with a theatrical company. A love that he would continue throughout his life, becoming a fine artist in his own right. Changing his surname to Bronson for fear of the McCarthy witch-hunt that hunted out Communists, Charles shared a flat with Jack Klugman and moved to Hollywood, enrolling for acting classes at the Pasadena Playhouse. His first film role came in the 1951 film, You’re in the Navy Now, a forgettable film but he was soon spotted after his great performance in the 1953 film, House of Wax with Vincent Price, starring as Igor. Playing a mute, he learnt sign language for the role. A film that grossed $23 million at the box office. In a long and illustrious career, Bronson was best when he played his dark characters, bad but with an empathetic undertone. Brilliant in films like The Magnificent Seven, Once Upon a Time in the West, a part that Clint Eastwood turned down, The Great Escape, This Property is Condemned, The Dirty Dozen, Rider on the Rain, St. Ives, The Death Wish films and The Indian Runner. He even auditioned for the part of Superman.
The Real Charles
Bronson was known for having a flared temper. He once grabbed a Swiss director by the throat on the last day of filming because he considered him to be thick and not understanding his interpretation of the script. An actor who always insisted on doing his own stunts. Yet his marriage to Jill Ireland calmed him down in later years. She sat calmly during his episodes and waited for it to pass. A very loving marriage that ended only when Jill died from breast cancer in 1984. This was the second of Bronson’s marriages, the first being Harriett Tendler and the third Kim Weeks. A man who was an aloof father but a shrewd investor, worth over $75 million from films and property. Charles died in 2003, aged 81 from lung cancer.
