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  #1  
Old 09-01-2003, 08:11 AM
CrimsonTide4 CrimsonTide4 is offline
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RIP Charles Bronson

Tough-Guy Actor Charles Bronson Dies at 81
43 minutes ago Add Entertainment - Reuters to My Yahoo!


By Arthur Spiegelman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Coal miner turned tough-guy actor Charles Bronson (news), a star of more than 60 films including the popular "Death Wish" series in which he played a one-man army, has died at the age of 81, a spokeswoman said on Sunday.


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Slideshow: Actor Charles Bronson Dies at 81




The craggy-faced Bronson died of pneumonia on Saturday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, publicist Lori Jonas said.


The actor reportedly had Alzheimer's disease (news - web sites) and had been in hospital since suffering serious organ failure earlier this month.


Bronson was famed for his tough guy films, especially the "Death Wish" series in which he played Paul Kersey, who was pushed over the edge by a brutal assault on his family in the original "Death Wish" in 1974.


In that film, Kersey prowled New York and meted out vigilante justice to wrongdoers, drawing critical condemnation but enthusiastic support from audiences.


Bronson told Reuters' Robert Basler in a 1985 interview that he knew what entertained him in a film, and it was not Charles Bronson.


"I am not a fan of myself."


In that interview, Bronson was promoting "Death Wish 3," a film he said was "nearly the same as the two Death Wishes that came before." "Death Wish 3" was filmed several months after New Yorker Bernard Goetz shot four men whom he said had accosted him on a subway and found himself dubbed the "Death Wish Vigilante" in the tabloids.


But Bronson says he had signed to do the picture "a year and a half before anybody heard of Bernard Goetz" and protested that he knew very little about the subway vigilante.


A COAL MINER'S SON


Bronson, whose original name was Charles Buchinski, was one of 15 children of a Lithuanian coal miner in Pennsylvania. He worked as a miner after graduating high school and it was only going into the army during World War II that got him out of the mines. After the war he learned acting at the Pasadena Playhouse and his first film role was in 1950 playing a sailor in "You're in the Navy Now," starring Gary Cooper (news).


Bronson in 1972 was named the biggest box office star by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and in 1979 he received the Gold Star Award as the film industry's top international star.


In Italy, where Bronson shot many of his movies, he was called "Il Brutto" -- "The Ugly One."


But his rugged appearance helped earn him applause in such films as "The Magnificent Seven" (1960), "The Great Escape" (1963) and "The Dirty Dozen" (1967).


His reputation as a quietly tough-talking hero was confirmed in such movies as "Mr. Majestyk" (1974) and the three "Death Wish" films.


"A dozen years or so ago, mine was the kind of face nobody wanted to see in the movies," he once said.


"At least, not the good guy's face. But times have changed. I seem to have the right face at the right time."





Frank Konisberg, who produced a Bronson film, said, "He has a mythic American quality that somehow shines through. He's a working class hero."

Bronson, called a gentle person by friends, also starred as an Israeli general in television's "Raid on Entebbe" (1977) and appeared in the films "Borderline" (1980), "Death Hunt" (1981) and "From Ten to Midnight" (1982).

Although steadfast in his defense of action-packed, audience-pleasing movies, Bronson expressed some frustration with his roles.

"I have often thought how lovely it would be," he once said, "to lean on a mantelpiece with a cocktail in my hand and let the dialogue do the acting."

Bronson's first wife was Harriet Tendler. In 1969, he married actress Jill Ireland, who died in 1990 after a long struggle against breast cancer (news - web sites). He is survived by his third wife, Kay, and six children.
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  #2  
Old 09-01-2003, 10:44 AM
moe.ron moe.ron is offline
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Wow, I didn't realized he was 81. I thought he was in his late 60s. Magnificent 7 was his best flix imho. RIP.
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Old 09-01-2003, 05:29 PM
Tom Earp Tom Earp is offline
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Arya, Mag 7 One of my favs along with Dirty Dozen!

Credit to Charles and his troubles With Jill's Cancer!

He was a Mans Man and did not go for the HollyWeird Crap!

RIP, "Mr. Bronson"!
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  #4  
Old 09-01-2003, 10:59 PM
Honeykiss1974 Honeykiss1974 is offline
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I didn't know he had Alzheimer's disease.
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Old 09-01-2003, 11:03 PM
bethany1982 bethany1982 is offline
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Bronson was great! I would never have guessed his age.
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  #6  
Old 09-02-2003, 03:04 AM
thesweetestone thesweetestone is offline
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Unhappy

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