Charles
Bronson (born Charles
Dennis Buchinsky; November 3, 1921 – August 30, 2003) was an American actor
who was often cast in roles of police officers, gunfighters, or vigilantes in
revenge-oriented plot lines. He had long-term collaborations with film
directors Michael Winner and J. Lee Thompson and appeared in 15 films with his second
wife, Jill Ireland. At the
height of his fame in the early 1970s, he was the world's No. 1 box office attraction,
commanding $1 million per film.
Bronson was born Charles Dennis Buchinsky, the eleventh of fifteen
children, into a Roman Catholic family of Lithuanian descent in Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania,
in the coal region of the Allegheny Mountains north
of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. His father, Valteris P. Bučinskis, a Lipka Tatar, who later adjusted his name to Walter Buchinsky
to sound more American, was from Druskininkai in southern Lithuania. Bronson's mother,
Mary (née Valinsky), whose parents were from Lithuania, was born in the coal
mining town of Tamaqua, Pennsylvania. Bronson
did not speak any English at home during his childhood in Pennsylvania, like
many children he grew up with. He recalled that even back when he was in the
army, his accent was strong enough to make his comrades think he came from
another country (despite Bronson having been born in the US). Besides English,
he could also speak Lithuanian, Russian and Greek. In a 1973 interview, Bronson
said that he did not know his father very well and "I'm not even sure if I
loved him or hated him." He said that all he could remember was that when
his mother said that his father was coming home, the children would hide. When Bronson was 10 years old, his father died
and he went to work in the coal mines, first in the mining office and then in
the mine. He later said he earned one dollar for each ton of coal that he
mined. In another interview, he said that he had to work double shifts to
earn $1 a week. Bronson later recounted that he and his brother engaged in
dangerous work removing "stumps" between the mines, and that cave-ins
were common. The family suffered extreme poverty during the Great
Depression, and Bronson recalled going hungry many times. His mother
could not afford milk for his younger sister, so she was fed warm tea instead. His
family was so poor that he once had to wear his sister's dress to school for
lack of clothing. Bronson was the first member of his family to graduate from
high school. Bronson worked in the mine until he enlisted in the United States Army Air
Forces in 1943 during World War II. He served in the 760th Flexible Gunnery Training
Squadron, and in 1945 as a Boeing B-29 Superfortress aerial gunner with the Guam-based
61st Bombardment Squadron within the 39th Bombardment Group,
which conducted combat missions against the Japanese home islands. He
flew 25 missions and received a Purple Heart for
wounds received in battle.