charles bronson= gone
Out of context: Reply #33
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Charles Bronson, a Pennsylvania coal miner who drifted into films as a villain and became a hard-faced action star, notably in the popular "Death Wish" vengeance movies, has died. He was 81.
Bronson died Saturday of pneumonia at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
At the height of his career, Bronson was hugely popular in Europe, where the French knew him as "le sacré monstre" (the great monster) and the Italians as "Il Brutto" (the brute). In 1971, he was presented a Golden Globe as "the most popular actor in the world."
Like Clint Eastwood, whose spaghetti westerns won him stardom, Bronson had to make European films to prove himself.
At age 50, he returned to Hollywood a star.
His early life gave no indication of his later fame. He was born Charles Buchinsky on Nov. 3, 1921, in Ehrenfeld, Pa. He was the 11th of 15 children of a coal miner and his wife, both Lithuanian immigrants.
His father died when he was 10, and at 16 he followed his brothers into the mines. He was paid $1 per ton of coal and volunteered for perilous jobs because the pay was better. He also went to jail for assault and robbery.
Drafted in 1943, he served with the Air Force in the Pacific.