(New York Daily News published this on Sept. 1, 2003. This was written by Bill Hutchinson.)
Charles Bronson, the Pennsylvania coal miner’s son who rose to movie stardom as a Hollywood macho man, has died at the age of 81.
Bronson died Saturday of pneumonia at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he was taken last month after suffering organ failure.
The veteran actor’s wife of four years, Kim Weeks, was at his bedside when he died, Lori Jonas, his longtime spokeswoman, said last night.
Bronson had been so ill with Alzheimer’s disease that a relative recently told The Sun of London, “He doesn’t know he was an actor, let alone a big star.”
With his hardscrabble face and squinty eyes, Bronson made more than 100 feature films, including “Machine-Gun Kelly” in 1957, “The Magnificent Seven” in 1960, “The Great Escape” in 1963, “The Battle of the Bulge” in 1965 and “The Dirty Dozen” in 1967.
But he was probably best known for his role as vigilante Paul Kersey in the “Death Wish” movies.
From 1974 to 1994, Bronson made a living in four “Death Wish” sequels playing Kersey, who started out avenging the murder of his wife, then took on any criminal who gave him lip, including a New York City gang in “Death Wish 3.”
But with the box-office success came controversy, especially after Bernhard Goetz shot four young men who he claimed tried to mug him on the IRT in December 1984.
Bronson always defended the films.
“I think they provide satisfaction for people who are victimized by crime and look in vain for authorities to protect them,” Bronson said in a 1987 interview. “But I don’t think people try to imitate that kind of thing.”
Born Charles Buchinsky in Ehrenfeld, Pa., Bronson, one of 15 children, followed his father’s footsteps and became a coal miner at the age of 16. In 1943, he was drafted and served in the Air Force as a tail gunner on a B-29 bomber during World War II.
‘You ought to be an actor’
The idea of becoming an actor came simply enough, he said.
“I ran into a guy once who said, ‘Hey, you ought to be an actor.’ I said, ‘Okay.'”
He began studying the craft at the Pasadena Playhouse in 1950, and landed his first film role a year later in “You’re in the Navy Now,” starring Gary Cooper.
While he never won an Academy Award, Bronson – who also made movies in France, Spain and Italy – was honored in 1971 with a Golden Globe as “the most popular actor in the world.”
Bronson was married three times; the love of his life was actress Jill Ireland, who died of cancer in 1990 after Bronson put his career on hold to nurse his wife of 21 years. He called her his “golden girl.”
The actor is survived by his wife, Kim; six children, and two grandchildren. Funeral services will be private.
