CHARLES BRONSON
AMERICAN TV and FILM STAR ACTOR
HAND SIGNED BY CHARLES BRONSON
STARRING IN THE FOLLOWING ICONIC FILMS: -
THE GREAT ESCAPE
DEATH WISH
THE MECHANIC
THE DIRTY DOZEN
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
HAND
SIGNED CANCELLED BANK CHEQUE
TO
THE VALUE OF $709.00
BANK OF AMERICA - LOS ANGELES -
CALIFORNIA
CHEQUE
No. 010201
MADE
PAYABLE TO “ Perpetual Savings & Loan ”
DATED: 10th NOVEMBER
1978
Note: This is an original/genuine/authentic hand signed cancelled bank
cheque by Charles Bronson which has been bank representative stamped
on the front
BANK OF AMERICA
LOS ANGELES - CALIFORNIA
and counter stamped on the reverse by the bank clearance representative
officials, this bank cheque is over 42+ years old.
Please refer to the attached photos for the cheque details, or if you
require further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me via EBAY
messenger service, whereupon I will endeavour to respond to any questions as
requested.
Note: This sale is for the hand signed cheque ONLY, as all
pictures/photos shown are readily available to download via the internet.
A Very Rare, Collectable and Unique Item.
Please
note, that the following text has been digitally overlaid
on
the Signed Cheque and therefore it is NOT displayed on,
or
associated with the original item.
“Hand Signed Autographs
For Sale Genuine / Original Hand
Signed Bank Cheque”
Charles Bronson Hand Signed
Charles Bronson (born Charles Dennis Buchinsky;
November 3, 1921 – August 30, 2003) was an American film and television actor.
He starred in
films such as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent
Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Rider on the
Rain, The Mechanic, and the Death Wish series. He was often cast
in the role of a police officer, gunfighter, or vigilante in revenge-oriented
plot lines. He had long collaborations with film directors Michael Winner and
J. Lee Thompson. In 1965, he was featured as Major Wolenski in Battle of the
Bulge.
Bronson was
born Charles Dennis Buchinsky in Ehrenfeld in Cambria County in the
coal region of the Allegheny Mountains north of Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
He was the 11th of
15 children born to a Tatar immigrant father and a Lithuanian-American mother.
His father, Walter Bunchinski (who later adjusted his surname to Buchinsky to
sound more "American"), hailed from the town of Druskininkai.
Bronson's mother, Mary (née Valinsky), whose parents were from Lithuania, was
born in the coal mining town of Tamaqua, Pennsylvania. He learned to speak
English when he was a teen; before that he spoke Lithuanian and Russian.
Bronson was the
first member of his family to graduate from high school. When Bronson was 10
years old, his father died. Young Charles went to work in the coal mines, first
in the mining office and then in the mine. He earned one dollar for each ton of
coal that he mined. He worked in the mine until he entered military service
during World War II. His family was so poor that, at one time, he reportedly
had to wear his sister's dress to school because of his lack of clothing.
In 1943, Bronson
enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces and served as an aerial gunner in
the 760th Flexible Gunnery Training Squadron, and in 1945 as a Boeing B-29
Superfortress crewman with the 39th Bombardment Group based on
Guam. Bronson flew 25 missions and received a Purple Heart for
wounds received in battle.
After the end of
World War II, Bronson worked at many odd jobs until joining a theatrical group
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He later shared an apartment in New York City
with Jack Klugman while both were aspiring to play on the stage. In 1950, he
married and moved to Hollywood, where he enrolled in acting classes and began
to find small roles. Bronson's first film role — an uncredited one —
was as a sailor in You're in the Navy Now in 1951. Other early screen
appearances were in Pat and Mike, Miss Sadie
Thompson and House of Wax (as Vincent Price's mute henchman
Igor).
In 1952, Bronson
boxed in a ring with Roy Rogers in Rogers' show Knockout. He appeared on
an episode of The Red Skelton Show as a boxer in a skit with Skelton
playing "Cauliflower McPugg". In 1954, Bronson made a strong impact
in Drum Beat as a murderous Modoc warrior, Captain Jack, who relishes
wearing the tunics of soldiers he has killed. Eventually captured, Captain Jack
is sent to the gallows.
In 1954, during
the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) proceedings, he changed his
surname from Buchinsky to Bronson at the suggestion of his agent, who feared
that an Eastern European surname might damage his career. He reportedly took
his inspiration from the Bronson Gate at the studios of Paramount Pictures,
situated on the corner of Melrose Avenue and Bronson Street. He made several
appearances on television in the 1950s and 1960s, including a 1952 segment,
with fellow guest star Lee Marvin, of Biff Baker, U.S.A., an espionage
series on CBS starring Alan Hale, Jr.. Bronson had the lead role of the episode
"The Apache Kid" of the syndicated crime drama Sheriff of
Cochise, starring John Bromfield; Bronson was subsequently cast twice in 1959
in Bromfield's U.S. Marshal.
He guest-starred
in the short-lived CBS situation comedy, Hey, Jeannie! and in three
episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents: And So Died
Riabouchinska (1956), There Was an Old Woman (1956),
and The Woman Who Wanted to Live (1962). In 1959, he played Steve
Ogrodowski, a naval intelligence officer, in two episodes of the CBS military
sitcom/drama, Hennesey, starring Jackie Cooper. Bronson starred alongside
Elizabeth Montgomery in The Twilight Zone episode "Two" (1961)
and played a killer named Crego in Gunsmoke (1956). He appeared in
five episodes of Richard Boone's Have Gun – Will Travel (1957–1963).
In 1957, Bronson was cast in the Western series Colt .45 as an outlaw
named Danny Arnold in the episode "Young Gun".
In 1958, he was
cast in his first lead role in Roger Corman's Machine-Gun Kelly. He scored
the lead in his own ABC's detective series Man with a Camera (from
1958 to 1960), in which he portrayed Mike Kovac, a former combat photographer
freelancing in New York City.
Bronson was cast
in the 1960 episode "Zigzag" of Riverboat, starring Darren
McGavin.That same year, he was cast as "Dutch Malkin" in the 1960
episode "The Generous Politician" of The Islanders. In 1960, he
garnered attention in John Sturges' The Magnificent Seven, in which he was
cast as one of seven gunfighters taking up the cause of the defenseless. During
filming, Bronson was a loner who kept to himself, according to Eli Wallach. He
received $50,000 for this role. This role made him a favorite actor of many in
the since disbanded Soviet Union, such as Vladimir Vysotsky.
Two years later,
Sturges cast him for another Hollywood production, The Great Escape, as a
claustrophobic Polish prisoner of war nicknamed "The Tunnel King"
(coincidentally, Bronson was really claustrophobic because of his childhood
work in a mine). In 1961, he was nominated for an Emmy Award for his supporting
role in an episode entitled "Memory in White" of CBS's General
Electric Theater, hosted by Ronald Reagan. In 1963, Bronson co-starred in the
NBC Western series Empire. In the 1963–1964 television season he portrayed
Linc, the stubborn wagonmaster in the ABC western series, The Travels of
Jaimie McPheeters. In the 1965–1966 season, he guest-starred in an episode
of The Legend of Jesse James. In 1965, Bronson was cast as a demolitions
expert in an episode of ABC's Combat!. Thereafter, in The Dirty
Dozen (1967), he played an Army death row convict conscripted into a
suicide mission. In 1967, he portrayed Ralph Schuyler in the episode "The
One That Got Away" on ABC's The Fugitive.
Bronson made a
serious name for himself in European films. In 1968, he starred as Harmonica
in Once Upon a Time in the West. The director, Sergio Leone, once called
him "the greatest actor I ever worked with", and had wanted to cast
Bronson for the lead in 1964's A Fistful of Dollars. Bronson turned him
down and the role launched Clint Eastwood to film stardom. In 1970, Bronson
starred in the French film Rider on the Rain, which won a Hollywood Golden
Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The following year, this overseas
fame earned him a special Golden Globe Henrietta Award for "World Film
Favorite - Male" together with Sean Connery. In 1972 he began a string of
successful action films for United Artists, beginning with Chato's Land,
although he had done several films for UA before this in the 1960s (The
Magnificent Seven, etc.). One film UA brought into the domestic mainstream
was Città violenta, an Italian-made film originally released overseas in
1970.
Bronson's most
famous role came when he was 52, in Death Wish (Paramount, 1974), the
most popular film of his long association with director Michael Winner. He
played Paul Kersey, a successful New York architect. When his wife is murdered
and his daughter sexually assaulted, Kersey becomes a crime-fighting vigilante
by night. This successful movie spawned various sequels over the next two
decades, in all of which Bronson appeared. After the highly publicized 1984
case of Bernhard Goetz, Bronson recommended that people not imitate
his character.
In 1974, he had
the title role in the Elmore Leonard film adaptation Mr. Majestyk, as an
army veteran and farmer who battles local gangsters. For Walter
Hill's Hard Times (1975), he starred as a Depression-era street
fighter making his living in illegal bare-knuckled matches in Louisiana. He
earned good reviews. Bronson reached his pinnacle in box-office drawing power
in 1975, when he was ranked 4th, behind only Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand,
and Al Pacino. His stint at UA came to an end in 1977 with The White
Buffalo.
He was considered
for the role of Snake Plissken in Escape from New York (1981), but
director John Carpenter thought he was too tough looking and too old for the
part, and decided to cast Kurt Russell instead. In the years between 1976 and
1994, Bronson commanded high salaries to star in numerous films made by smaller
production companies, most notably Cannon Films, for whom some of his last
films were made. Many of them were directed by J. Lee Thompson, a collaborative
relationship that Bronson enjoyed and actively pursued, reportedly because
Thompson worked quickly and efficiently. Thompson's ultra-violent films such
as The Evil That Men Do (TriStar Pictures, 1984) and 10 to
Midnight (1983) were blasted by critics, but provided Bronson with
well-paid work throughout the 1980s. Bronson's last starring role in a
theatrically released film was 1994's Death Wish V: The Face of Death.
His first marriage
was to Harriet Tendler, whom he met when both were fledgling actors in Philadelphia.
They had two children before divorcing in 1965. She wrote in her memoir that
she "was an 18-year-old virgin when she met the 26-year-old Charlie
Buchinsky at a Philadelphia acting school in 1947. Two years later, with the
grudging consent of her father, a successful, Jewish dairy farmer, she wed the
Catholic Lithuanian and former coal miner; supporting them both while Charlie
pursued their acting dream. On their first date, he had four cents in his
pocket — and went on, now as Charles Bronson, to become one of the highest
paid actors in the country." Bronson was then married again to British
actress Jill Ireland from October 5, 1968, until her death in 1990. He had met
her in 1962, when she was married to Scottish 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". The Bronsons
lived in a grand Bel Air mansion in Los Angeles 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). After they married, she often played his
leading lady, and they starred in fourteen films together.
In order to
maintain a close family, they would load up everyone and take them to wherever
filming was taking place, so that they could all be together. They spent time
in a colonial farmhouse on 260 acres (1.1 km2) in West Windsor,
Vermont. Jill Ireland raised horses and provided training for their daughter
Zuleika so that she could perform at the higher levels of horse showing. The
Vermont farm, "Zuleika Farm", was named for the only natural child
between them. During the late 1980s through the mid-1990s Bronson regularly
spent winter holidays vacationing with his family in Snowmass, Colorado.
On May 18, 1990,
aged 54, after a long battle with the disease, Jill Ireland died of breast
cancer at their home in Malibu, California. In December 1998, Bronson was
married a third time to Kim Weeks, a former employee of Dove Audio who had
helped record Ireland in the production of her audiobooks. The couple were
married for five years until Bronson's death in 2003.
Bronson's health
deteriorated in later years, and he retired from acting after undergoing
hip-replacement surgery in 1998. He suffered from Alzheimer's disease in his
final years. Bronson died of pneumonia at age 81 on August 30, 2003 at
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was interred at Brownsville
Cemetery in West Windsor, Vermont.
Filmography
Actor
Year |
Title |
Role |
Director |
Genre |
1951 |
The Mob |
Jack - Longshoreman (uncredited) |
Robert Parrish |
Crime thriller |
The People Against O'Hara |
Angelo Korvac (uncredited) |
John Sturges |
Crime drama |
|
You're in the Navy Now |
Wascylewski (uncredited) |
Henry Hathaway |
War comedy |
|
1952 |
Bloodhound of Broadway |
Phil Green, a.k.a. "Pittsburgh Philo"
(uncredited) |
Harmon Jones |
Musical |
Battle Zone |
Private (uncredited) |
Lesley Selander |
War |
|
Pat and Mike |
Henry 'Hank' Tasling (as Charles Buchinski) |
George Cukor |
Comedy |
|
Diplomatic Courier |
Russian Agent (uncredited) |
Henry Hathaway |
Mystery thriller |
|
My Six Convicts |
Jocko (as Charles Buchinsky) |
Hugo Fregonese |
Comedy drama |
|
The Marrying Kind |
Eddie - Co-Worker at Plant (uncredited) |
George Cukor |
Comedy drama |
|
Red Skies of Montana |
Neff (uncredited) |
Joseph M. Newman |
Adventure |
|
1953 |
Miss Sadie Thompson |
Pvt. Edwards (as Charles Buchinsky) |
Curtis Bernhardt |
Musical |
House of Wax |
Igor (as Charles Buchinsky) |
André de Toth |
Horror |
|
Off Limits |
Russell (uncredited) |
George Marshall |
Comedy |
|
The Clown |
Eddie, Dice Player (uncredited) |
Robert Z. Leonard |
Drama |
|
Torpedo Alley |
Submariner (uncredited) |
Lew Landers |
Drama |
|
1954 |
Vera Cruz |
Pittsburgh |
Robert Aldrich |
Western |
Drum Beat |
Kintpuash, aka Captain Jack |
Delmer Daves |
Western |
|
Apache |
Hondo (as Charles Buchinsky) |
Robert Aldrich |
Western |
|
Riding Shotgun |
Pinto (as Charles Buchinsky) |
André de Toth |
Western |
|
Tennessee Champ |
Sixty Jubel aka The Biloxi Blockbuster (as
Charles Buchinsky) |
Fred M. Wilcox |
B-movie drama |
|
Crime Wave |
Ben Hastings (as Charles Buchinsky) |
André de Toth |
Crime drama |
|
1955 |
Target Zero |
Sgt. Vince Gaspari |
Harmon Jones |
War drama |
Big House, U.S.A. |
Benny Kelly |
Howard W. Koch |
Crime thriller |
|
1956 |
Jubal |
Reb Haislipp |
Delmer Daves |
Western |
Man with a Camera |
Mike Kovac |
William A. Seiter |
Crime Drama |
|
1957 |
Run of the Arrow |
Blue Buffalo |
Samuel Fuller |
Western |
1958 |
Gang War |
Alan Avery |
Gene Fowler Jr. |
Drama |
When Hell Broke Loose |
Steve Boland |
Kenneth G. Crane |
War |
|
Machine-Gun Kelly |
Machine Gun Kelly |
Roger Corman |
Crime biography |
|
Showdown at Boot Hill |
Luke Welsh |
Gene Fowler, Jr. |
Western |
|
1959 |
Never So Few |
Sgt. John Danforth |
John Sturges |
War |
1960 |
The Magnificent Seven |
Bernardo O'Reilly |
John Sturges |
Western |
1961 |
Master of the World |
John Strock |
William Witney |
Sci-fi |
A Thunder of Drums |
Trooper Hanna |
Joseph M. Newman |
Western |
|
1962 |
X-15 |
Lt. Col. Lee Brandon |
Richard Donner |
Aviation drama |
Kid Galahad |
Lew Nyack |
Phil Karlson |
Musical |
|
1963 |
The Great Escape |
Danny Tunnel King |
John Sturges |
War |
4 for Texas |
Matson |
Robert Aldrich |
Western comedy |
|
1965 |
Guns of Diablo |
Linc Murdock |
Boris Sagal |
Western |
The Sandpiper |
Cos Erickson |
Vincente Minnelli |
Drama |
|
Battle of the Bulge |
Wolenski |
Ken Annakin |
War |
|
The Bull of the West |
Ben Justin |
Jerry Hopper/Paul Stanley |
Western |
|
1966 |
This Property Is Condemned |
J.J. Nichols |
Sydney Pollack |
Drama |
The Meanest Men In The West |
Charles S. Dubin |
Harge Talbot Jr. |
Western |
|
1967 |
The Dirty Dozen |
Joseph Wladislaw |
Robert Aldrich |
War |
1968 |
Farewell, Friend |
Franz Propp |
Jean Herman |
Crime adventure |
Villa Rides |
Rodolfo Fierro |
Buzz Kulik |
War |
|
Once Upon a Time in the West |
Harmonica |
Sergio Leone |
Western |
|
1968 |
Guns for San Sebastian |
Teclo |
Henri Verneuil |
Western |
1969 |
Twinky (aka Lola) |
Scott Wardman |
Richard Donner |
Comedy romance |
You Can't Win 'Em All |
Josh Corey |
Peter Collinson |
War |
|
1970 |
Rider on the Rain |
Col. Harry Dobbs |
René Clément |
Mystery thriller |
Violent City |
Jeff Heston |
Sergio Sollima |
Thriller |
|
1971 |
Cold Sweat |
Joe Martin |
Terence Young |
Thriller |
Someone Behind the Door |
The Stranger |
Nicolas Gessner |
Crime drama |
|
Red Sun |
Link Stuart |
Terence Young |
Western |
|
1972 |
The Valachi Papers |
Joe Valachi |
Terence Young |
Crime |
Chato's Land |
Pardon Chato |
Michael Winner |
Western |
|
The Mechanic |
Arthur Bishop |
Michael Winner |
Thriller |
|
1973 |
The Stone Killer |
Lou Torrey |
Michael Winner |
Crime drama |
Chino |
Chino Valdez |
John Sturges, Duilio Coletti |
Western |
|
1974 |
Mr. Majestyk |
Vince Majestyk |
Richard Fleischer |
Crime drama |
Death Wish |
Paul Kersey |
Michael Winner |
Crime thriller |
|
1975 |
Breakheart Pass |
Deakin |
Tom Gries |
Western adventure |
Breakout |
Nick Colton |
Tom Gries |
Adventure drama |
|
Hard Times |
Chaney |
Walter Hill |
Drama |
|
1976 |
From Noon Till Three |
Graham |
Frank D. Gilroy |
Western comedy |
St. Ives |
Raymond St Ives |
J. Lee Thompson |
Crime drama |
|
1977 |
Raid on Entebbe |
Brig. Gen. Dan Shomron |
Irvin Kershner |
Drama |
The White Buffalo |
Wild Bill Hickok (James Otis) |
J. Lee Thompson |
Western |
|
1978 |
Telefon |
Major Grigori Bortsov |
Don Siegel |
Spy |
1979 |
Love and Bullets |
Charlie Congers |
Stuart Rosenberg |
Crime drama |
1980 |
Borderline |
Jeb Maynard |
Jerrold Freedman |
Drama |
Caboblanco |
Gifford Hoyt |
J. Lee Thompson |
Drama |
|
1981 |
Death Hunt |
Albert Johnson |
Peter R. Hunt |
Western adventure |
1982 |
Death Wish II |
Paul Kersey |
Michael Winner |
Crime drama |
1983 |
10 to Midnight |
Leo Kessler |
J. Lee Thompson |
Crime thriller |
The Evil That Men Do |
Holland / Bart Smith |
J. Lee Thompson |
Thriller |
|
1985 |
Death Wish 3 |
Paul Kersey |
Michael Winner |
Crime drama |
1986 |
Murphy's Law |
Jack Murphy |
J. Lee Thompson |
Thriller |
Act of Vengeance |
"Jock" Yablonski |
John Mackenzie |
Crime drama |
|
1987 |
Assassination |
Jay Killion |
Peter R. Hunt |
Thriller |
Death Wish 4: The Crackdown |
Paul Kersey |
J. Lee Thompson |
Crime drama |
|
1988 |
Messenger of Death |
Garret Smith |
J. Lee Thompson |
Crime thriller |
1989 |
Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects |
Lieutenant Crowe |
J. Lee Thompson |
Drama |
1991 |
The Indian Runner |
Mr. Roberts |
Sean Penn |
Drama |
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus |
Francis Church |
Charles Jarrott |
Drama |
|
1993 |
The Sea Wolf |
Capt. Wolf Larsen |
Michael Anderson |
Adventure |
Donato and Daughter |
Sgt. Mike Donato |
Rod Holcomb |
Drama |
|
1994 |
Death Wish V: The Face of Death |
Paul Kersey |
Allan A. Goldstein |
Thriller |
1995 |
A Family of Cops |
Paul Fein |
Ted Kotcheff |
Thriller |
1997 |
Family of Cops 2 |
Paul Fein |
David Greene |
Crime drama |
1999 |
Family of Cops 3 |
Paul Fein |
Sheldon Larry |
Drama |