The audience knows Charles Dennis Buchinski under the stage name Charles Bronson. This is perhaps the most spectacular cinematic cowboy of the 20th century.
Charles Bronson was born in 1921 in Ehrenfeld, USA.
His parents are Polish-Lithuanian émigrés who raised 15 children, and Charles had ten older siblings and four younger ones. Everyone spoke mostly Polish, and only Charles was the first to learn English and graduate from school.
At the age of 10, after the death of his father, he went to work at the mine. The family was not just poor - they experienced total poverty. This went on for a long time, and then World War II broke out, and Bronson went to the front.
He served as an air gunner in the Pacific Fleet and was awarded the Purple Heart medal for his courage.
Actor's career
After the war, a theater troupe came across his path, and he decided to try himself in acting. And when I saw the eyes of the audience for the first time, I realized that this was his business, his calling.
With a determined and ambitious character, Charles Buchinski decides to become a real star, and for this to get an acting education at a theater school in Pasadena, California.
Only in 1950, when he was almost 30 years old, Buchinski began acting in films. In the first 12 films, his real name appears in the credits, and then in all films he is already referred to as Bronson. The reason for this was the persecution of the communists in the United States, where every Slavic surname could be associated with communism.
Bronson's film debut began with the film "Now You Are in the Navy" (1950), with the role of a sailor. After that, they began to invite him to supporting roles, and during the filming, the actor gained the necessary experience.
A few years later came the main roles in the film "Kelly Machine Gun" and the TV series "The Man with the Camera". However, the real breakthrough in Bronson's career came after the release of The Magnificent Seven (1960). This brilliant western brought Charles a fee of $ 50 thousand, the unconditional love of the audience and world recognition.
An interesting fact - Bronson was one of the favorite actors of Vladimir Vysotsky.
The peak of Charles Bronson's fame came in the 1960s and 70s: during that period, the drama The Dirty Dozen was released, which won several Oscars, and the western Once Upon a Time in the Wild West, which became a cult. After these tapes, the actor began a bright streak - for each role he already received about a million dollars.
His role was to the liking of the audience, and Westerns and action films, in which Bronson starred, were insanely popular all over the world. For example, the action movie Death Wish was so successful that in 1994 the director filmed its sequel.
In the 80s, film work became more and more rare. One of the most famous films of that period with Bronson's participation was Ten Minutes Before Midnight.
Personal life
In life, Charles was monogamous: he married the beautiful Jill Ireland, and lived with her until her death - she was sick with cancer. For a long time, Bronson helped his wife fight the disease, spared no expense for treatment, refused to shoot, but this did not help.
His wife gave him two children, but they could not replace her.
Charles barely survived this grief, and since then his health has failed - the attachment to his wife was too strong. For several years he lived as a recluse, then it became known that Bronson was marrying his wife's personal secretary, Kim Weeks. The wedding took place in 1998.
Charles said that he constantly communicates with his ex-wife, that she tells him what to do and warns of danger. It was rumored that Bronson had a mental disorder. However, the diagnosis turned out to be even more severe - Alzheimer's disease.
Charles Bronson passed away in August 2003 in Los Angeles. After him there were his wonderful films and the Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
