"Report: Cambria native Charles Bronson is ailing
By FRANK SOJAK, THE TRIBUNE-DEMOCRAT August 22, 2003
Charles Bronson, a Cambria County native and the region’s biggest screen star since Johnny “Tarzan” Weismuller, is seriously ill.
The San Francisco Examiner said Bronson, who has Alzheimer’s disease, suffered serious organ failure earlier this month and has been in the hospital since. The Examiner’s story said Bronson’s doctors estimated the actor had days to live and Bronson’s wife, Kim, reportedly was making arrangements to take him home.
Bronson, 81, told his wife he wanted to die at his Golden State home, the newspaper said.
Born Charles Buchinsky and one of 15 children of a Lithuanian coal miner in Ehrenfeld, Bronson went to work in the mines upon graduating from high school.
He saw combat action as a tail gunner over Europe in World War II. After the war he participated in the acting apprenticeship program at Pasadena (Calif.) Playhouse. Bronson got a break in 1950 when he was picked to play a sailor in “You’re in the Navy Now,” starring Gary Cooper. He continued in small roles and a television series, “Man With a Camera,” then played the title role in the 1957 film “Machine Gun Kelly.”
Bronson, best known for his tough guy images, has made and contributed to such classic films as “The Magnificent Seven,” “The Dirty Dozen,” both in the 1960s, and the “Death Wish” series.
Critics say his career really took off when he made “The Magnificent Seven” in 1960. In the late 1960s, Bronson spent several years making films in Europe, where he became a box-office draw. He returned to the United States and reached true stardom in 1974 when he starred in the film “Death Wish.” The film was a revenge fantasy about an architect who turned vigilante when his wife and daughter were raped.
Kevin Hagopian, a lecturer in media studies at Penn State University and an American film history expert, said Bronson is important as an actor for beginning his career as a contract player in the old studio system.
Under that system, Bronson was under contract with several studios and played minor roles in big-budget films. Hagopian said Bronson typically played villains. He said Bronson hit his stride with the “The Magnificent Seven” and really began to focus on feature roles in “The Battle of the Bulge” in 1965, and 1967’s “The Dirty Dozen.” In those films, he developed a persona that he would be identified with the rest of his life, that of a deadpan, violent character who was also sympathetic, Hagopian said.
Clint Eastwood also emerged around the same time as Bronson. With the “Death Wish” series, Bronson settled on a character that represented attitudes that audiences responded to well, Hagopian said. “It was Bronson’s gift that he knew exactly what audiences wanted to see,” Hagopian said. “He is a great star.” In the second half of the 20th century, John Wayne was the No. 1 box office draw – but Bronson and Eastwood were for a time neck-and-neck for second."
©Tribune Democrat 2003 "