His film debut came in 1951's "You're in the Navy Now," which in later years he would claim he nabbed by being the only actor who could belch on cue.
A short stint in New York City, where he roomed with fellow aspiring actor Jack Klugman, preceded his relocation to California, where he studied at the famed Pasadena Playhouse. They eventually made him a member of the troupe, where he found his true calling as an actor. While renting beach chairs on the Atlantic City boardwalk, he met vacationing actors from Philadelphia, whom he convinced to allow him to paint scenery for their plays. After the war, Bronson worked at various menial jobs in New York and New Jersey. In 1943, he was drafted into the United States Army Air Force, where he served as a B-29 Superfortress crewman. Despite this hardship, and the fact that Bronson spoke no English until he was in his teens, he was the first member of his family to graduate from high school. His father died when Bronson was 10, forcing him to work in the mines to support his family. His childhood was marked by dire poverty according to one story, Bronson was forced to wear his sister's dress to school because the family could not clothe all the children. The eleventh of 15 children born to his Lithuanian parents, he was reportedly born Charles Dennis Buchinsky, though other sources cited his name as Karolis Bucinskis, Casimir Businskis and Charles Buchinski. 3, 1921 in the Scooptown section of Ehrenfield, a coal-mining town in Pennsylvania. Stories about Charles Bronson's early years varied from source to source, though all were in agreement that he was born Nov. Bronson's death in 2003 closed the book on one of Hollywood's longest-running and most reluctant tough guys. In private, he chafed at being an action star, but would continue to mow down bad guys well into the early 1990s in low-budget thrillers that were far beneath his talents.
Having been brought up in poverty, he understood struggle, and his most memorable films allowed him to depict that raw need. However, Bronson's best roles allowed a glimmer of humanity in the steely exterior of his heroes his "Tunnel King" in "Great Escape" was claustrophobic, while the bare knuckles boxer in "Hard Times" (1973) wore desperation like the cheap duster that covered his broad shoulders. In films like "The Mechanic" (1972) and "Chino" (1973), Bronson's characters toed the line between human and supernatural force with their seemingly impossible command of stealth and their own physicality. A man of few words both on screen and off, Bronson needed no makeup or special effects to portray men who brought swift vengeance against those who disturbed their peaceful, solitary lives. An iconic star in international films for over four decades, Charles Bronson's granite features and brawny physique provided believable intensity in such blockbuster films as "The Magnificent Seven," (1960) "The Great Escape" (1963), "The Dirty Dozen" (1967) and "Death Wish" (1974).