BRONSON, Charles

(1921–2003)

   Born Charles Dennis Buchinsky, Bronson was one of the toughest guys on the screen from the 1950s to the 1970s. His deep, craggy face; flat, gravelly voice; squinty eyes that made him seem to be perpetually gazing into the sun; and, especially, light, muscular frame held Bronson in good stead as a solid action hero. His four best Westerns are often considered to be Robert Aldrich’s Vera Cruz (1954), John Sturges’s The Magnificent Seven(1960), Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), and Buzz Kulik’s Villa Rides (1968). Harmonica, the eerily mysterious harmonica player-gunfighter in Once Upon a Time in the West, is generally deemed Bronson’s best role.