On August 30, 2003, the actor Charles Bronson, best known
for his tough-guy roles in such films as The Dirty Dozen
(1967) and the Death Wish franchise (1974), died at the age
of 81 in Los Angeles.
Bronson was born Charles Buchinsky on November 3, 1921,
in Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania, to Lithuanian immigrants. The
11th of 15 children, he worked in the Pennsylvania coal
mines as a teen and later served in the Army during World
War II. After the war, he worked a series of odd jobs and
took acting lessons. He had an uncredited part in the 1951
film You’re in the Navy Now, starring Gary Cooper, and a
small part (credited as Charles Buchinsky) in 1952’s Pat
and Mike, with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. In
the mid-1950s, he changed his name to Bronson because
he believed it wasn’t smart for an actor have a Russian-
sounding last name at a time when there was a strong anti-Communist sentiment in America. (history.com)
