When a guy stars in five movies called 'Death Wish' over 20 years you know you aren't dealing with a guy who eats cupcakes and sips tea for breakfast. Plus, growing up as 11th of 15 children in a small mining town must have helped. Of Polish ancestry, Charles Buchinsky looked to have a bleak future ahead of him shovelling coal, which he started doing at the age of 10 after his father died. To repeat, he was shovelling coal at the age of 10. Once again, World War II came through, pulling Bronson from the coal mines and into active service as an aerial gunner, where he would receive a Purple Heart. After the war he'd find work here and there, gradually working towards an acting career. His first small role would come in 1951 but soon there was no looking back. He changed his surname to Bronson at his agent's suggestion, fearing an Eastern European surname would be bad for future roles in the Red Purge of Hollywood. His gruff, leathered face and all action/no talk persona made him a natural as the tough guy in all types of westerns, gangster and army movies. In 1958 he played the lead in Roger Corman's 'Machine Gun Kelly' and two years later was one of the Magnificent Seven, where he developed the reputation of being an on-set loner. He was so ballsy that on the set of The Great Escape he told fellow co-star David McCallum to his face that he was going to marry David's wife, Jill Ireland. He did just that six years later and they remained married for 20 years until her death of breast cancer. He was also considered 'too tough-looking' by John Carpenter to take on the role of Snake Plissken in Escape From New York, which went to Kurt Russell instead. To repeat, he was considered too tough to be Snake Plissken. That happened. Oh yeah SPOILER ALERT of all the original Dirty Dozen, he was the only one to survive. He then ascended to Valhalla, which is something I totally didn't make up. Feel free to adjust your rankings or make your case for others in the comments below.
Been there, done that but not too well. Continually financially restrained. Now (and still) lives in Western Canada and talks some hockey and parenting on ogieoglethorpe.blogspot.ca and watching trailers on 2minutemovies.blogspot.ca.
