BRONSON, CHARLES

born Nov. 3, 1922, Ehrenfeld, Pa., U.S. original name Charles Buchinsky American motion-picture and television actor. Bronson was one of 15 children of a Lithuanian coal miner, became a miner himself at the age of 16, and during World War II served in the air force as a tail gunner. In California after the war, the leathery-faced, muscular actor played tough-guy leads in B films such as Machine Gun Kelly (1958) and appeared in several television series. More memorable roles followed in The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Great Escape (1963), The Dirty Dozen (1967), and Rider on the Rain (1969). A series of European-made gangster and western films made him famous on that continent as le sacre monstre and Il Brutto, earning him the Golden Globe Award in 1971 as the most popular actor in the world. He returned to Hollywood to make such successful motion pictures as Death Wish (1974) and its several sequels, Hard Times (1975), and Caboblanco (1981).