10 War Movie Actors Who Were Actually There
3. Charles Bronson
Although Charles Bronson ended his career as an exemplar of some gloriously schlocky action cinema (exemplified in his various collaborations with director Michael Winner), its beginning stages were largely defined by entries in the Western and war genres. Both played to Bronson's strengths as a muscular albeit unconventional leading man, but the latter benefitted uniquely from being able to draw upon the actor's wartime experiences.
From 1943 to 1945, Bronson served as a gunner in a B-29 Superfortress during the campaign against Japan in the Pacific, taking part in 25 missions over the course of his service before VJ Day arrived in August '45.
While Bronson didn't star in any WWII-set films that positioned him in a bomber crew, he was prolific in the genre in its heyday from the 1950s through to the end of the subsequent decade, starting with efforts like When Hell Broke Loose (a fictionalised depiction of the Nazi Werewolf plan) and Never So Few (a Frank Sinatra-led picture that focused on OSS operatives in Burma), before reaching a critical and commercial peak with John Sturges' The Great Escape and Robert Aldrich's The Dirty Dozen.
Of these, Bronson's turn in The Great Escape stands out arguably as his finest hour. Here, he played an American bomber crewman interned as a prisoner of war who endeavours valiantly to dig escape tunnels underneath the camp they're being held. More than just drawing upon Bronson's combat experience, these suspenseful tunnel sequences also recalled his days as a miner during the Great Depression, where he conducted dangerous work under perilous conditions.