Charles Bronson

Some dirt from himself: he claimed to have had his first sex at 5 1/2 years old ,started chewing tobacco at 7 and smoking at 9.

I remember he was devoted to Jill Ireland when she was ill. Not the dirt you were looking for but I thought I'd throw that in anyway.

Had Alzheimer's. He loved Jill Ireland deeply.

She dumped David McCallum (Ducky on NCIS)for Bronson.

He spent a lot of time hanging around, drinking in New Orleans - especially after Ireland died. By all accounts a great guy and total class act.

This isn't dirt but one of Bronson's earlier films was The Sandpiper with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and Jill Ireland played a long lost girlfriend of Mr. Spock on an episode of Star Trek.

Jill Ireland was a beautiful woman who died too soon.

Thought he was hot in those 50's pics he made ( "House Of Wax", etc.). He was very sexy. Old CB ("Death Wish,etc.)......not so much.

r4 Who wouldn't? The film "Chato's Land" is major jackoff material.

He had a hot body in "The Magnificent Seven" (on now on TCM), but the face was meh.

He was notoriously gruff and taciturn, rarely socializing with his co-stars on set, and any attempts by co-stars to engage him in conversation were usually met with a flippant remark. Jim Brown, his co-star in THE DIRTY DOZEN reported sitting next to him on a flight to London, with Bronson staring straight ahead the whole time, not saying a word. Liv Ullman, his leading lady in COLD SWEAT wrote in her memoirs that Bronson never spoke to her outside of the scripted dialogue during the entire shoot. Lee Remick, Bronson's co-star in TELEFON was terrified of him. And James Garner, also in THE DIRTY DOZEN called him a belligerent pain in the ass.

"I don't have any friends and I don't want any."

-- Charles Bronson, People Magazine, 1974

No mention of how sexy he was in "This property condemned?".

Bronson, ne Buchinsky, grew up in the coalfields of western Pennsylvania near Johnstown. He said that he family so poor that his mother recycled his sister's dresses and blouses for him to wear.

[quote]She dumped David McCallum (Ducky on NCIS)for Bronson.

Wow, I never knew this. One of my favorite movies is "The Great Escape," so this is interesting to me.

Anyone remember his Twilight Zone episode where he and Elizabeth Montgomery portrayed a sort of post-apocalypse Adam and Eve? There was almost no dialogue.

[quote]And James Garner, also in THE DIRTY DOZEN called him a belligerent pain in the ass.

Oops, not THE DIRTY DOZEN, but THE GREAT ESCAPE.

Jill Ireland did leave David McCallum for Bronson. Bronson used to buy her antique jewelry all the time.

[quote]Some dirt from himself: he claimed to have had his first sex at 5 1/2 years old

The little whore!

[quote]David was cast in another American film, also locationing[sic] in Munich, The Great Escape, to be produced and directed by John Sturges.

[quote]Bronson and the McCallums hit it off especially well. David had been a fan of Bronson's for years, recognizing him as one of the most outstanding American character actors. The McCallums and Charles Bronson soon found they had even more in common than acting. For Bronson, though rough-and-tumble looking, is actually a talented artist. He had painted and worked with clay sculpture for as far back as he could remember. The three were drawn into close friendship.

[quote]During the filming, Jill was suddenly taken quite ill. Her ailment was both serious and painful, and she was confined to bed for a portion of her stay in Munich. Out of kindness, on those days when David was filming and he was not, Bronson kept Jill company.

[quote]So it was in September, 1962, on location in Germany, that David and Jill McCallum first became indebted to Charles Bronson for his consideration and friendship.

He always stayed in good shape.

[quote]I remember he was devoted to Jill Ireland when she was ill. Not the dirt you were looking for but I thought I'd throw that in anyway.

Didn't he have a hollowed-out cane filled with Jill's ashes, or did I imagine that?

Yes, Patricia Neal gave it to him, R21

He comes from Russian Tatar stock. you can see it in his face.

Newlyweds Charles Bronson and his first wife Harriet in 1949.

This is from Billy Crystal's memoir "Still Foolin' 'Em." Seems the script of "City Slickers" was sent to Charles Bronson; it was thought he might be a good actor for the role Jack Palance eventually played. This is how he describes a phone call he received from Bronson:

"Hello," I said cheerfully.

"Fuck you," he replied. I waited for the punch line. There wasn't one.

"Fuck you. I'm dead on page sixty-four. How dare you send this to me?"

I wasn't sure if he was joking or not.

"You have a lot of nerve", he went on. "I don't die in my films." I was about to remind him that he died in "The Magnificent Seven", but before I could he said it again: "Fuck you."

"Mr. Bronson, I'm sorry you feel that way. It's a great part."

"No, it's not. I'm dead on page sixty-fucking-four." And he hung up.

I wonder how he felt after Jack Palance won the Oscar for the role he turned down? That's my speculation, not Billy Crystal's. Billy Crystal did have this to say about Palance winning the award: "I could only imagine what Charles Bronson was thinking as he went to sleep that night"

Charles is hilariously out of his comfort zone playing the husband of a 16 year old in "Twinky"

Wow, I need to add him to my list of "Show Biz People I Thought Were Jewish, But aren't," along with Jimmy Kimmel, Jason Robards, Yul Brynner, Daniel Craig, Cyndi Lauper, Sam Waterston, Judy Garland....

He got his name from Bronson Ave. over at Paramount Studios on Melrose.

Spoiler Alert, R25!!!

Phyllis Kirk said that she had "no fond memories" of working with Charles Bronson. They both played alongside Vincent Prine in The House of Wax.

Indeed, in a scene i noticed that. I mean, her role in the movie was to be the poor but good and stunningly beautiful young woman. There is a scene where Vincent Price introduce her and some some other people to Charles Bronson who played his deaf-mute assistant and i felt that there was some kind of irony in her eyes. I'm sure that wasn't part of her role. The role didn't demand irony from her and she never gave that look again throughout the movie. It was just a fleeting glance but it didn't go unnoticed, at least i got it and i wondered why she gave that look. I was very curious about it, so after seeing the movie i went to read the IMDB trivia of this film and i discovered i was right. Phyllis wasn't fond of Charles Bronson.

Hot body.

Hmm.

ELVIS also disliked Charles's attitude.

Bronson portrayed Presley's boxing trainer in Kid Galahad, one of Presley's better acting vehicles. The Memphis Mafia was by Presley's side throughout the shoot, and longtime member and bodyguard Sonny West spoke about Bronson and Presley's relationship, "Elvis got his nose a little bent out of shape by Bronson. As Elvis did on all of his pictures, between takes Elvis often demonstrated his karate moves for the cast and crew. While the others at least acted impressed, Bronson never joined in the applause. That rankled Elvis big-time. "'That muscle-bound sonofabitch wouldn't know something good if it hit him right in the face'", Elvis angrily remarked to his t buddies. Yet West considered Bronson to be a true professional who never bad-mouthed Elvis. "Both of them were able to give the impression that the two had a tremendous chemistry on screen," West concluded. However Marty Lacker offered further analysis, saying "I also think in spite of what Elvis said to Charlie, I think he respected his acting ability, and he knew Charlie was a good actor. Elvis' remark was just a spur of the moment remark because he thought Charlie was dissing karate as foolishness but he got over it."

Charles Bronson did not speak to Elvis Presley and kept his distance while filming. It is written as well that both Elvis and Bronson had eyes on Joan Blackman, one of the leading ladies of 'Kid Galahad' and maybe that also made the relationship between them even more impossible. Bronson didn't think much of Elvis as a man. He thought he was just a poser and a fake. He wasn't impressed at all when Elvis was showing off his karate abilities. However, Elvis adored Bronson's work in Death Wish (1974), a highly-successful vigilante fantasy film.

(I had posted some of this info on the Death Wish thread, as well)

He was very sexy in 'Big House, U.S.A.'(1955)

His body oozed sexiness. He had a great, naturally masculine body.

R34 He was good looking in the 50's. He sure didn't age well though.

The movie Deathwish was autobiographical, based on his life.

“And So Died Riabouchinska” is a Hitchcock episode that is inspired by a Ray Bradbury story. Charles Bronson's co-star for this episode was Claude Rains. Hitchcock used Bronson three times for his TV series 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents'

Bronson was often cast as an American Indian, Hispanic or even Asian, as he had features that could be made-up to look like any of those.

I think his aloofness as an actor is a product of his time.

Robert Mitchum,Henry Fonda,even Steve McQueen, saw their work as actors to be completely separate from their personal lives. And their personal lives were none of the public's business. And other actors were part of the public, in their eyes.

Just the opposite of the woefully-undertalented fame-whores of today.

He's never mentioned as one of the hot male actors, despite the body. Guess it is the butter face.

Didn't watch much of his stuff, but 10 To Midnight and Murphy's Law were kind of cheesy camp.

I think he has BDF.

I liked him in House of Wax. I found his role interesting. He certainly amused me.

He wanted me to fuck him after shooting our bed scene in Red Sun. I told him he'd probably have more luck with Ursula.

He was too short to be hot.

R43, he was really masculine though, unlike many tall sissy men who despite their height are closer to femininity.

Big pushy demanding bottom. Kept saucily rubbing his ass against Vincent Gardenia's crotch during the filming of "Death Wish."

You'd have to consult his proctologist to get the inside dirt.

There's a chapter about him in Hollywood PI. He and the wife went to great lengths to try to help their addicted kid who was hanging with Brando's son.

Only good things to say about CB.

What are you talking about, R45. This is utter nonsense. Bronson loved to fuck. He was a top guy. Isn't that obvious? You know some people are what they seem to be!

Woof

Smiling

Robert Mitchum threatened to knock him out, and Bronson got scared!!!

He was in a TV series in the late 50s/early 60s called MAN WITH A CAMERA.

I had never heard about this show until a few weeks ago, when I caught an ep on some obscure channel on ROKU.

In the ep, he has a boxing scene with a bad guy & CB takes off his shirt. WOW....he had abs down to his beltline & was wall to wall muscle. Very unusual for that era.

He topped Vincent Price while working on House of Wax.

When he was young he looked like the child of John Garfield and Josh Brolin.

One of the few people who got to kick his ass on screen was...Katharine Hepburn. In "Pat and Mike".

Since Bronson and Hepburn died in the same year I was hoping that Oscar "In Memoriam" montage would have showed that clip.

He wasn't as big at the box office in the 70s as Burt Reynolds or Clint Eastwood but he did have a following then. "Breakheart Pass" is one of his better movies of that period. It's a murder mystery set aboard a train in the old west or "Murder on the Occident Express" .

Love his interactions with those little kids in "The Magnificent Seven" and his last scene.

Just had the pleasure of seeing "Chato's Land" after many years. Bronson had it all working well in this film: great body, hyper-masculine face, minimum of dialogue, moved sinuously in some scenes. The loincloth and primitive UGG boots certainly added to the appeal. Would've paid plenty for a nude modeling session.

Keanu Reeves murdered one of his characters...along with Ellen Burstyn.

[quote] She dumped David McCallum (Ducky on NCIS)for Bronson.

While they were making The Great Escape Bronson told McCallum he intended to take his wife (Jill). I have to imagine David thought this was a joke.

I loved "From Noon Till Three." I thought it was the height of sophistication. I had been traumatised by watching Death Wish the year before so I felt especially grown up. I was finally old enough to enjoy a Charles Bronson movie.

But it wasn't enough. My next high came from watching Foul Play. I thought Chevy Chase was insufferable, but with Goldie, I could finally watch a Chevy Chase movie.

And let's face it, Billy Crystal was no prize without Meg Ryan or a Carol Kane. And Jake Gyllenhaal, he was practically a tadpole back then.

I eventually started to watch late era Jack Nicholson. Oh, I told myself, that movie was really Helen Hunt's fault, Oscar notwithstanding .

And what is Greg Kinnear but a giant bowl of non-dairy cottage cheese. But when Nicholson ruined Diane Keaton for me...

Wait, can the neighbors hear me?

Did he play a Russian in The Great Escape?

There is an old rumour that David McCallum used to slap Jill Ireland around and that was why she left him. Charles really loved her.

Bronson portrayed a gay artist in The Sandpiper (1965). He played a painter who was Elizabeth Taylor's close friend.

The role was one of the first sympathetic gay characters in a major U.S. movie. It was a small part, but at least he wasn't killed in the end.

Once pulled up next to him at a red light In Hwood. He waved back!

....

He was cast in his first role, 'You're in the Navy Now', because he could belch on cue.