![]() He had the grizzled look and presence on camera that lent itself to casting in crime stories, westerns, and noir dramas. Buchinsky went with Bronson, a name fitting for the stoic strongmen he was increasingly depicting on screen.Īs Charles Bronson, he was increasingly cast in TV as well as film roles. However, with McCarthyism on the rise, it became necessary for Buchinsky to distance himself from his Eastern European roots and choose a less Slavic stage name. The director, Andre DeToth, used him again in Riding Shotgun (1954) and Crime Wave (1954). He was noteworthy in House of Wax (1953) as Vincent Price’s deaf-mute sidekick Igor. Buchinsky began getting small credits in 1951, appearing in 10 films in two years. The Tendler family supported them both while they were trying to break into show business. Despite Tendler being from a successful dairy farming family, and Buchinsky being a penniless coal miner, they obtained her family’s consent to marry and were wed in 1949. ![]() In 1947, Buchinsky met Harriet Tendler, a fellow fledgling actor, at a Philadelphia acting school. After the war concluded, Buchinsky was discharged and worked many odd jobs before joining a theatrical group in Philadelphia. Buchinsky flew 25 missions in total, receiving a Purple Heart due to wounds sustained in battle. They were responsible for conducting combat missions against the Japanese home islands. He flew with the Guam-based 61st Bombardment Squadron, within the 39th Bombardment Group. In spite of his Pennsylvania roots, he still spoke English with a strong enough accent that his comrades thought he was an immigrant. He continued to work in the mine until 1943, when he responded to the call for able-bodied men to join the war effort, and enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces at the age of 21.Ĭharles Buchinsky served in the 760th Flexible Gunnery Training Squadron, and went on to be a nose gunner on one of World War II’s most famous aircraft, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. In spite of this, Charles graduated high school, the first of his family to do so. Charles once had to wear his sister’s dress to attend school. The Buchinsky family was extremely poor, often going hungry, and lacked for decent clothes. He worked first in the mine office, then in the mine, earning a paltry $1 for every ton of coal he extracted. Raised mainly by his mother and elder siblings, Charles’ father died when he was ten, which meant that Charles needed to contribute to the family’s upkeep. The Buchinsky family lived in Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania, in the coal region of the Allegheny Mountains, and spoke Lithuanian, Russian, and Greek. ![]() He grew up speaking three languages at home, but none of them English. The 11th of 15 children, Charles was born in 1922. However, his time as the silver screen’s top draw was preceded by a very humble childhood.Ĭharles Bronson Went to War to Escape the Coal Mine Charles Dennis Buchinsky (or Bronson) who served in the US Army Air Force between 19, went on to be one of Hollywood’s pre-eminent tough guys, the face of the Death Wish film franchise.
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