Short Biography

Charles Bronson (born Charles Dennis Buchinsky, November 3, 1921 – August 30, 2003) was an American actor best known for "tough guy" image, who starred in such classic films as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, The Evil That Men Do and the popular Death Wish series. He was most often cast in the role of a policeman or gunfighter. Bronson was born in the Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania coal-mining neighborhood of Scooptown in the Pittsburgh Tri-State area. He was the 11th of 15 children born to a Lithuanian Tatar immigrant father and a Lithuanian-American mother. His father was from the Lithuanian town of Druskininkai. Bronson`s father died when he was only 10, and he went to work in the coal mines like his older brothers until he entered military service during World War II. He earned $1 per ton of coal mined. His family was so poor that, at one time, he reportedly had to wear his sister`s dress to school because he had nothing else to wear. In 1943, Bronson joined the United States Army Air Forces and served as an aircraft gunner in the 760th Flexible Gunnery Training Squadron, and in 1945 as a B-29 Superfortress crewman with the 39th Bombardment Group based on Guam. He was awarded a Purple Heart for wounds received during his service.

His first marriage was to Harriet Tendler, whom he met when both were fledgling actors in Philadelphia. They had two children before divorcing. Bronson was married to British actress Jill Ireland from 1968 until her death from breast cancer at age 54 in 1990. He had met her when she was married to British actor David McCallum. At the time, Bronson (who shared the screen with McCallum in The Great Escape) reportedly told him, "I`m going to marry your wife." Two years later, Bronson did just that. She was his second wife. The Bronsons lived in a grand Bel Air mansion with seven children: two by his previous marriage, three by hers (one of whom was adopted) and two of their own (another one of whom was adopted). They also spent time in a colonial farmhouse on 260 acres in West Windsor, Vt. On August 30, 2003 Bronson died of pneumonia while suffering from Alzheimer`s disease at Los Angeles Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He had been in poor health since undergoing hip replacement surgery in August 1998. He is buried in Brownsville, Vermont, near his home of thirty years in West Windsor.

Who's Dated Who content is contributed and edited by our readers. Please report errors or omissions on this page.