Actor Charles Bronson dies
Craggy, tough-guy actor Charles Bronson has died at the age of 81.
The veteran of over 100 westerns and films, Bronson was well known for his roles as the quiet, tough-talking hero.
Bronson was one of the major action stars of the 1960s and 1970s along with Clint Eastwood and Steve McQueen, with whom he starred in the 1960 western The Magnificent Seven, a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai.
Born Charles Buchinski November 3, 1921, in Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania, Bronson worked in coal mines along with other members of his Lithuanian immigrant family. After military service in World War II, Bronson studied acting in California.
The reclusive star’s most high profile role came in the hit Death Wish series about a vigilante.
In 1972 he was named the biggest box office star by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and received the Gold Star Award as the film industry’s top international star in 1979.
He and his second wife, actress Jill Ireland, who died of cancer in 1990, were among Hollywood’s richest couples at the height of their careers.
Bronson is survived by his third wife, Kim Weeks, and three children.