Charles Bronson Died #onthisday #history
7"a grenade with the pin pulled"
Charles Bronson’s (born Charles Dennis Buchinsky; November 3, 1921 – August 30, 2003) father died when he was 10, and his family was destitute. As a child he often wore his sisters’ hand me downs to school. At 16 he followed his brothers into the coal mines in Scooptown, PA, to support the family. He was paid $1 per ton of coal and volunteered for perilous jobs because the pay was better.
Was drafted into the US Army in 1943 and assigned to the Air Corps. At first he was a truck driver, but was later trained as a bomber tail gunner and assigned to a B-29. He flew 25 missions and received, among other decorations, a Purple Heart for wounds incurred in battle. He was based at Guam, Tinian and Saipan. He reportedly enjoyed the experience because the work was easier than in the mines and he was fed and clothed.
Bronson was scarred by his early deprivation and his early struggle as an actor. A 1973 newspaper profile said that he was so shy and introverted he could not watch his own films. Bronson was described as "still suspicious, still holds grudges, still despises interviews, still hates to give anything of himself, still can't believe it has really happened to him." He was embittered that it took so long for him to be recognized in the U.S., and after achieving fame he refused to work for a noted director who had snubbed him years before.
Critic Roger Ebert wrote in 1974 that Bronson does not volunteer information, does not elaborate, and has no theories about his films. He wrote that Bronson threatened to "get" Time magazine critic Jay Cocks, who had written a negative review he viewed as a personal attack and, unlike other actors who projected violence on film, Bronson seemed violent in person
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