Charles Bronson, whose tough-guy image gained popularity after the release of “Death Wish” in 1974, died Saturday of pneumonia at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He was 81.
Bronson was honored during the 2001 Malibu Film Festival for lifetime achievement in the arts. At the same time, his daughter, Katrina Bronson, won the festival’s Emerging New Director Award for her film “Indignation,” about a man transformed by the vulnerability of a little girl.
Born on Nov. 3, 1921 to a Lithuanian immigrant coal miner and an American-born Slav mother, Charles Buchinsky was the 11th of 15 children. He grew up in Ehrenfield, a coal-mining town in Pennsylvania.
After serving in the Army in the ’40s, Bronson enrolled in art school on a GI Bill. He made his film debut with a small role in “You’re in the Army Now,” playing a sailor who boxes in an inter-ship tournament. He progressed to larger roles in such films as “Pat and Mike,” “The House of Wax,” “The Magnificent Seven,” “The Dirty Dozen,” “The Great Escape” and “Death Wish,” which spawned four less successful sequels over 20 years.
Bronson’s first marriage to Harriet Tendler ended in divorce. In 1968, Bronson married actress Jill Ireland. The couple made 11 films together and remained married until her death from cancer in 1990 at age 54. Bronson married a third time in 1998, to actress Kim Weeks.
Bronson is survived by his wife, six children and two grandchildren.