Working at the coal mine as a kid, Charles Bronson was convinced he was ‘the lowliest of all forms of a man’

His skills and talents were almost immediately clear: one teacher noticed them early on and soon referred the young Bronson to director Henry Hathaway. This eventually resulted in him being cast in his very first film: the 1951 You’re in the Navy Now.

While he frequently went unnoticed for his early work, by 1954 his work in Vera Cruz and, four years later, as the lead in Machine-Gun Kelly, had won him praise from reviewers.

Early on, Bronson worked as a painter, cook, mason, and onion-picker in addition to his acting gigs. In the 1950s, he also legally changed his name from Buchinsky to Bronson out of concern that his Russian-sounding name wouldn’t be well-received during the time when communism was strongly opposed.

But it wasn’t until 1974 that he got his big break, as Paul Kersey in Death Wish, a vigilante architect whose wife and daughter are attacked. Due to the film’s success, multiple sequels were made throughout the ensuing decades.

Following his performance as the renowned drifter James Coburn in Hard Times, Bronson continued to rise to fame.

It took him some time to get used to being a celebrity, and Bronson is reported to have been tormented by his gloomy upbringing.

He specifically avoided those who were invasive or made him feel threatened, according to co-star Andrew Stevens. On the other side, Bronson was known to be open, endearing, and humorous when he was relaxed and at ease

With his first wife, Harriet Tendler, whom he was married to from 1949 to 1965, Bronson had two children.