Charles Bronson Was Born 105 Years Ago Today, and the Coal Miner's Son Became Hollywood's Toughest Quiet Man

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Charles Bronson was born on November 3, 1921, so he would be 105 today. He came into the world as Charles Buchinsky in a Pennsylvania mining town, one of a very large family, and he worked in the mines himself as a young man before serving as a gunner in the US Army Air Forces in the Second World War. Nothing about that early life suggests a film star, and he never looked like the usual leading man.

Photo: Herald American, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

He started with small parts in the 1950s, often as a heavy, and moved up through westerns and war films. The Magnificent Seven in 1960 gave him a strong supporting role as Bernardo O'Reilly, and The Great Escape in 1963 made him memorable as the tunnel digger Danny Velinski, who has a fear of enclosed spaces. The Dirty Dozen in 1967 kept him in the front rank of that generation's tough-guy actors.

Photo: RAI, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The turning point came in Europe, where Once Upon a Time in the West in 1968, directed by Sergio Leone, gave him the part of the silent man with the harmonica. In France and Italy he became a major star, and by the early 1970s he was a top draw in American cinema as well.

Poster: United Artists, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Death Wish in 1974, in which he played an architect turned vigilante, was the film that defined his late career. It was controversial then and it remains so, and it led to several sequels. I find him most interesting in the films where he says the least, because his face does the talking.

Photo: Hans van Dijk for Anefo, CC BY-SA 3.0 nl, via Wikimedia Commons

He died in August 2003. Which Bronson film would you start with? I would suggest The Great Escape, because it is the one that shows how much warmth was hiding behind the stare.