Death Wish Bronson Dies

American actor Charles Bronson, made famous by Michael Winner's Death Wish films has died in LA at the age of 81. The actor, who was one of the first in Hollywood to command $1 million dollars a film, succumbed to pneumonia after a short illness. Born Charles Buchinsky in Pennsylvania in 1921, Bronson was of coal-mining stock and true to family form joined his father and brothers down in the mines at the age of 16. His delivery from a life of coal-hauling came in 1943 when he was drafted into the American army. After the war, Bronson joined a Philadelphia acting troupe - sharing the stage with Katharine Hepburn in one particular play Pat and Mike. In 1954 Charles Buchinsky became Charles Bronson. Four years later he received his first starring role in Machine Gun Kelly and from there carved out a niche for himself as a rough-hewn action star with roles in The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape and The Dirty Dozen. However Bronson's looks weren't exactly leading man material. 'I guess I look like a rock quarry that someone has dynamited,' was the actor's dead-pan take on his look. It took the intervention of one Michael Winner to make the actor's career by offering him the lead in his film Death Wish. The movie's subject