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Nov 28, 2009, 4:57pm

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US actor Charles Bronson dies at 81
« Thread Started on Sept 1, 2003, 3:34pm »

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Charles Bronson, a former coal miner who rose from poverty to become the "tough guy" star of action movies such as "The Dirty Dozen" and "Death Wish", has died at 81 of pneumonia.

Bronson died late Saturday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles with his wife, Kim Weeks, by his side, his publicist Lori Jonas said Monday.

He had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease for two years and his health had rapidly deteriorated in the past few days, she said.

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".

Bronson was born Charles Buchinsky in Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania, on November 3, 1921. He was the 11th of 15 children in a Lithuanian immigrant family.

His father died when he was 10 and Bronson worked as a coal miner along with his brothers to support the family.

After military service in World War II, Bronson held a number of odd jobs before moving to California to study acting.

His rugged, chisled face earned him many "tough-guy" roles in movies such as the war dramas "The Great Escape" (1963) and "The Dirty Dozen" (1967).

He was once quoted as saying: "I guess I look like a rock quarry that someone has dynamited."

He first became a box-office draw in Europe with his role as a hired killer in Italian director Sergio Leone's 1968 "spaghetti western", "Once Upon a Time in the West" and in the 1968 French movie, "Adieu, l'Ami".

Perhaps his best known role was as an architect-turned-vigilante in the 1974 movie "Death Wish", which spawned four less successful sequels and drew the wrath of movie critics, who complained it was too violent. He also starred in several television movies.

Despite his carefully cultivated image of toughness, Bronson was known in his private life as a gentle man whose hobby was painting, the New York Times reported.

But he shied away from more nuanced roles, saying he believed in his characters' basic, uncomplicated integrity, the Washington Post said.

"When you see weakness in a hero, you are doing something to his identity," he once told The Post. "You take something away from the kids, the next generation, you steal away giving them anything to look up to."

Bronson's first marriage to Harriet Tendler Bronson ended in divorce. He was married to British actress Jill Ireland from 1968 until her death in 1990, co-starring with her in several films.

Bronson is survived by Weeks, his third wife, four children, two stepchildren and two grandchildren.

Jonas said a private funeral service would be held.

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