The American actor with the furrowed face has starred in around 100 films since the 1950s and has established himself as a Hollywood star. His international breakthrough came in 1968 with the western “Play me the song of death”. In his westerns and action films, he mostly embodied the tough, taciturn and merciless fighter. Not only his roles and the tough actions justified his success, but also his well-trained body. His most popular films also include “Between Twelve and Three”, “A Man Sees Red” and “The Sea Wolf”, in which his pathos and masculine facial expressions made him the ideal type of anti-hero…
Charles Bronson, real name Charles Dennis Bunchinsky, was born on November 3, 1921 in Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania, the son of a miner.
Bronson grew up in modest circumstances, he was the fifth of 15 children. He worked in a coal mine during World War II to support his family. Bronson’s career goal was already acting. So he first appeared in commercials. He celebrated his first successes as an actor in the strips “This Man Knows Too Much”, “Maasai”, “Revolver Kelly” and in the hit film “The Magnificent Seven”. In 1962, Bronson starred alongside Elvis Presley in Kid Galahad. He didn’t make his breakthrough in America, but first in Europe, where he starred in the 1968 French thriller “The Bulls Don’t Sing Friends” and the Italo-Western “Play Me the Song of Death”. Bronson became an international superstar and went down in film history with his role as the silent harmonica player in “Play Me the Song of Death”. A tough guy, Bronson became one of the biggest movie stars by the late 1960s.
In 1971, this success was honored with the “Golden Globe” for the “most popular actor in the world”. Not only his roles and the tough actions justified his success, but also his well-trained body. No actor in the 1970s had such high salaries as Bronson, who collected up to $ 100,000 a day of shooting. He reached a peak with the film “Between Twelve and Three,” for which he raked in $1.5 million plus 50 percent of the net profit. Bronson’s greatest success came in 1974 when he starred in the controversial thriller A Man Sees Red. By 1994, four sequels to the film had been staged, each starring Charles Bronson: The Man Without Mercy, Death Wish III, The White Eye, and Death Wish 5. Bronson often worked with director Jack Lee Thompson, making a total of seven films together, including Cabo Blanco and Murphy’s Law.
Bronson was last seen with his wife, Jill Ireland, in The Assassination. Four years later she died of cancer. Bronson and Ireland were married for 22 years and appeared on camera together 15 times. After the death of his wife, Bronson made few appearances, including 1991’s Santa Claus and The Sea Wolf. In 1996 he appeared in the action thriller “Revenge – Now more than ever…”. In doing so, he stayed true to the genre in which he enjoyed so much success. Bronson became the father of seven children. In 1998 he married television producer Kim Weeks, who was 40 years his junior. He was in front of the camera for the last time in 1998 as a homicide inspector in the series “Family of Cops”.
Charles Bronson, who had Alzheimer’s disease, died of pneumonia in Los Angeles on August 30, 2003, at the age of 81.
Filmography
1951 – Pat and Mike
1952 – The Firejumpers of Montana
1952 – Courier to Trieste
1953 – The Cabinet of Professor Bondi
1953 – Purgatory
1954 – This man knows too much
1954 – The Lone Eagle
1955 – blood money
1956 – The man without fear
1957 – Hell of 1000 martyrs
1958 – A man in his prime
1958 – Revolver Kelly
1959 – When the blood boils
1960 – The Magnificent Seven
1961 – Massacre at dawn
1962 – Kid Galahad – Hard fists, hot love
1963 – Broken Chains
1964 – …and slammed him down
1965 – The Last Battle
1965 – This girl is for everyone
1966 – The Dirty Dozen
1967 – Pancho Villa rides
1968 – The Hell of San Sebastian
1986 – With cops, friends don’t sing
1986 – Play me the song of death
1969 – Who Came Out of the Rain
1970 – The American
1970 – Cold Sweat
1971 – Rivals under the red sun
1971 – The Lonely One
1972 – Cold Breath
1973 – A man walks over dead bodies
1974 – I am the law
1974 – A man sees red
1975 – Between Twelve and Three
1976 – Nevada Passport
1977 – Telephone
1978 – A man cleans up
1979 – Cabo Blanco
1980 – The border wolf
1981 – The Man Without Mercy
1982 – A Man Like Dynamite
1983 – The Liquidator
1985 – Death Wish 3
1986 – Murphy”s Law
1986 – The assassination attempt
1987 – The white of the eye
1989 – Kinjite – Deadly Taboos
1991 – … and Santa Claus does exist!
1993 – The Sea Wolf
1995 – Freezing Rage
1996 – Revenge – Now more than ever
How old is Charles Bronson?
81 years
Is Charles Bronson alive?
Date of death: August 30, 2003
Place of death: Los Angeles, California, United States
How old was Charles Bronson when he died?
On August 30, 2003, the actor Charles Bronson, best known for his tough-guy roles in such films as The Dirty Dozen and the Death Wish franchise, dies at the age of 81 in Los Angeles.
