The Real Story Of Hollywood’s Tough Guy

Charles Bronson was once called a grenade with the pin pulled. Well, on the set of “Mr. Majestyk,” the grenade exploded in the most terrifying way imaginable.

In the 1970s, Charles Bronson was the most famous man in Hollywood. While this iconic action star has gone down in cinema history for his devil-may-care quips and awe-inspiring stunts, his steely-eyed stare concealed an utterly brutal past.

Charles Dennis Buchinsky was born in Pennsylvania on November 3rd, 1921. Born to Lithuanian immigrants, he was their 11th child. Incredibly, his parents ended up having 15 kids in total. Sadly, they were far from a happy family. Bronson didn’t have many memories of his early childhood, but he did remember that when his father came home, he and his siblings would instinctively hide.

It’s not an understatement to say that Charles Bronson grew up in extreme poverty. According to Bronson himself, he shared socks with his brothers, and their father shaved their heads in the hope that they wouldn’t get lice. Growing up very poor in a large family and going into the workforce as a child was undoubtedly a very stressful situation for Bronson. This upbringing has often been used to explain one of Bronson’s worst habits: he took up smoking at the tender age of nine. It was a habit he maintained for the rest of his life and, sadly, contributed to his demise.

When Charles was 10, his father died. This loss not only deprived him of a parent, it also meant he had to work in the coal mines where his father had previously been employed in order to support the family. Bronson spent the entirety of his teenage years working in the coal mines. He later claimed that for every ton of coal that he mined, he was paid a single dollar.

In 1943, Bronson was drafted into the US forces as they fought World War II. Man, this guy can’t catch a break. He claimed that being drafted was the best thing that had ever happened to him. Not only did he get to leave the coal mines, but as he put it, he was well-fed, he was well-dressed for the first time in his life, and he was able to improve his English. That’s right, English wasn’t his first language. Growing up, his parents spoke Lithuanian at home, and he didn’t learn English until he was a teenager. However, he was far from a slacker. Bronson was the first person in his family to graduate from high school.

Following the war, Bronson worked a series of odd jobs to keep busy until one day in Atlantic City when a group of actors invited him to paint sets for them. While he was working in the theater, he did some acting on the side and eventually decided to pursue it as a career.

Bronson began his Hollywood career with his real surname, Buchinsky, but a dark time forced him to change it. In the 1950s, the Red Scare gripped the US. Encouraged by Senator Joe McCarthy, anti-communist witch hunts swept the country, targeting leftists and Eastern Europeans alike. To stand a chance, Bronson all but had to change his Lithuanian last name.

All actors have unique stories of how they finally managed to snag their first film role, and Bronson’s story is particularly bizarre. As a struggling young actor, he first appeared in the 1951 film “You’re in the Navy Now.” He only managed to get the role because of his ability to belch at will. Unfortunately, while it was good enough to get him the gig, it wasn’t good enough for him to get a credit.

In 1954, Bronson was in Mexico shooting “Vera Cruz,” a film about American gunslingers getting caught up in a conflict between the Mexicans and the French. One day during production, Bronson and one of his co-stars, Ernest Borgnine, needed to go into town. Because they happened to still have the horses from filming, they just rode into town from the set. Little did they know they were in for a chilling event. They were still dressed like Old West outlaws, prop guns included, and their timing couldn’t have been worse. They were spotted by a truck full of Mexican national authorities who didn’t know about the movie. Bronson and Borgnine ended up both being held at gunpoint until someone could be found to confirm who they really were.

For all his success in film, Charles Bronson was one of the great late bloomers in Hollywood. His breakout supporting role in “The Magnificent Seven” didn’t occur until he was 39. He didn’t become a movie star until the success of “Death Wish” when he was 53. “Death Wish” is probably the most quintessentially Charles Bronson film, but it’s often been criticized for its promotion of armed vigilantism. Bronson himself, however, was fully convinced that the film was pushing the opposite message. Even when his own agent urged him not to do “Death Wish,” Bronson steadfastly maintained that the film’s message was that “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”

Charles Bronson’s path to fame was uneven, to say the least. Though it took until his 50s for Bronson to get famous in the USA, he was an international star long before then. “The Magnificent Seven” and “The Great Escape” were box office failures in America but huge hits in places like Europe and Japan. Bronson’s career continued to be fueled by European and Japanese box office results even when his movies weren’t profitable in the US. More than money, Bronson became a figure of hero worship overseas.

Charles Bronson married Harriet Tendler while they were both aspiring actors. They had two kids before divorcing in 1965. He and his second wife, actress Jill Ireland, were first introduced in 1963 when Bronson was filming “The Great Escape.” Interestingly, they were introduced by Ireland’s then-husband and Bronson’s then-co-star, David McCallum. Bronson, who was already head over heels for Ireland, even jokingly told McCallum that he was going to marry his wife. Rude. They married in 1968, the same year that they first appeared together in the film “Villa Rides.” They would go on to star in 16 films together. Bronson and Ireland were deeply in love and remained together until 1990 when she lost a long battle with cancer.

One of Bronson’s most beloved films is “The Dirty Dozen.” Despite the film’s wild success, Bronson had an utterly brutal time on set. He was reportedly infuriated when the lead actor, Lee Marvin, disappeared from the set one day to get drunk. He also didn’t want his haircut and only gave in when he was threatened with a lawsuit. Bronson was further frustrated when he was the subject of a prank which rudely focused on the height difference between him and his much taller co-stars, Jim Brown and Donald Sutherland. Bronson didn’t like watching the film, either. He walked out halfway through because he thought the action sequences were too brutal.

Clint Eastwood’s work on Spaghetti Westerns is the stuff of cinema legend, but he only got one of his most famous parts because Charles Bronson turned it down. When the director Sergio Leone approached Bronson about starring in “A Fistful of Dollars,” he declined, saying it was the worst script he’d ever seen. Despite that, Bronson and Leone did work together on the 1968 film “Once Upon a Time in the West.” The director later called Bronson the greatest actor he ever worked with.

Often rugged, mysterious, or vaguely written, Bronson’s characters were men of action rather than words. This was by Bronson’s own design, especially as he got more clout over the course of his career. He was a man of few words himself; he couldn’t stand to watch his own movies, and he disliked interviews.

One of Bronson’s most successful films, both critically and commercially, was 1975’s “Hard Times.” Despite being 53 when he made it, Bronson was in excellent shape and did most of his own stunts. According to director Walter Hill, Bronson received close to a million-dollar salary. The film cost between two and four million to make, and it proceeded to make nearly 30 million at the box office. Despite that wild success, there was a lot of trouble on the set during production. Bronson’s co-star, James Coburn, was reportedly very upset at playing second fiddle, even though the two had worked together before. It was allegedly because Bronson had acquired a reputation as a B-movie star.

Bronson had his own set of problems on the set of “Hard Times.” When director Walter Hill criticized Jill Ireland’s acting, Bronson was incensed. He reportedly refused to shake Hill’s hand and never worked with him again. However, some film historians think there was a stranger reason behind Bronson’s treatment of Hill. During his life, Bronson avoided shaking hands. At the time, people accused him of being arrogant; however, the truth was that Bronson feared germs and tried to avoid infection as often as possible. It’s even been suggested that he might have had undiagnosed OCD.

Another fear which plagued Bronson all his life was his fear of fire. This influenced several important decisions, with a notable example occurring during the filming of “Death Wish.” In 1974, Bronson arranged for himself and his family to stay in hotel rooms that never rose higher than the second floor. He was convinced that if there was a fire and they were higher than the second floor, he or one of his family members might not make it out.

It might be surprising to consider, but Bronson was one of the most bankable actors of his lifetime. When discussing “Mr. Majestyk,” a producer once stated that Charlie was making $20,000 a day for a six-day week, plus 10% of the net, plus $2,500 a week walking-around money. But he did also have seven kids, so…

In the late 70s, Bronson auditioned to play the Man of Steel in the Richard Donner-helmed film “Superman.” Bronson was in his mid-50s at the time, so you kind of have to admire his confidence. He ultimately lost the role, but not because of his age; because he was too “earthy,” which I think is just a polite way of saying ugly.

If there was one thing which Bronson didn’t like to do, it was discussing the deeper meanings of his films with interviewers. However, he broke from both those traditions after “Death Wish 3” was released. When he saw the final product, he was stunned. The film was packed with extra shots of gore that director Michael Winner had filmed when Bronson wasn’t on set. It was the last time that the pair ever worked together.

Despite his reputation as being tight-lipped and stoic, Bronson was known to tell anecdotes about his rough past to journalists. He talked about fistfights which led to arrests for assault and his skill at throwing knives. However, Bronson’s stories were eventually revealed to be false, or at the very least exaggerations. Bronson had never been locked up, and he didn’t have a reputation for getting angry away from film sets. He’d just been adding to the mythos around his onscreen persona.

Charles Bronson was one of those people lucky or unlucky enough to live to see a movie about his own life. Upon the loss of his second wife, Jill Ireland, in 1990, her memoirs were adapted into a film. Most people would be touched to see a film being made about their late wife’s brave battle with cancer. Unfortunately, Bronson was not one of those people. He was so ticked about the adaptation that he even threatened to take the filmmakers to court.

More than eight years after losing his beloved second wife, Bronson married for a third and final time. Kim Weeks had previously known Bronson through her work with his wife Jill. They were married for five years until Bronson’s own final days.

Through the latter half of his career, Charles Bronson became increasingly frustrated by the fact that he was typecast in aggressive B-movie roles. He finally broke from the mold when he appeared in Sean Penn’s 1991 directorial debut, “The Indian Runner.” Bronson surprised film critics with a very nuanced and peaceful performance. Sadly, despite the positive reviews, “The Indian Runner” was a box office failure, and it was Bronson’s final film to get a theatrical release.

For all his successes as an actor, critically or commercially, Bronson was largely ignored when it came to film awards. Throughout his career, he only garnered three awards and two nominations. Of those five mentions, one was for the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one was a Primetime Emmy nomination, and another was the Henrietta Award at the Golden Globes for World Film Favorite—with a caveat: he had to share it with Sean Connery.

Even though Bronson was the ultimate tough guy, he had a sensitive side too. He loved art and was an avid painter. As film critic Roger Ebert noted, Bronson enjoyed talking about his painting more than his acting during interviews. However, he didn’t want his paintings to sell just because he was a movie star. To hide his identity, he painted under his original last name, Buchinsky. The ruse worked; according to Bronson, he managed to sell several paintings on the strength of the art alone.

Charles Bronson acted in the action-adventure film “Breakout” alongside famed Hollywood filmmaker and actor John Huston. Following their work together, Huston famously quipped that Bronson was like a grenade with the pin pulled. Well, on the set of “Mr. Majestyk,” let’s just say that the grenade exploded. Bronson once infuriated an entire film crew on the set of the 1974 film “Mr. Majestyk.” At the time, Bronson himself was in a bad mood when the production was delayed on its first day of filming. A transport truck carrying cars was late to the set, prompting Bronson to exclaim that what the company needed was a European crew. Word quickly got around the set, and the film’s director, Richard Fleischer, had to persuade the entire crew not to quit the film en masse. Even when they remained, Bronson was astounded by the grudge they held for his insulting remarks.

In the summer of 1998, an aging Bronson underwent a hip replacement and retired from acting. After the operation, at the age of 81, he died on August 30th, 2003, from a combination of respiratory failure and metastatic lung cancer. Far from letting the extraordinary challenges of his early life hold him back, Bronson overcame them and swaggered his way into Hollywood legend.

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