Charles Bronson filmography

Known for his "granite features and brawny physique,"[1] he gained international fame for his starring roles in action, western, and war films; initially as a supporting player and later a leading man.

Born to a Lithuanian-American coal mining family in rural Pennsylvania, Bronson served in the United States Army Air Forces as a bomber tail gunner during World War II.

He worked several odd jobs before entering the film industry in the early 1950s, playing bit and supporting roles as henchmen, thugs, and other "heavies".

The role brought him to the attention of mainstream critics, and led to sizable co-lead parts as an Irish-Mexican gunslinger in The Magnificent Seven (1960), a claustrophobic tunneling expert in The Great Escape (1963), a small-town Southern louche in This Property Is Condemned (1966), and a prisoner-turned-commando in The Dirty Dozen (1967).

He played a vengeful, Harmonica-playing gunman in Sergio Leone's epic Spaghetti Western Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), an offbeat detective in Rider on the Rain (1970), real-life Mafia turncoat Joe Valachi in The Valachi Papers (1972), and starred opposite Alain Delon in Adieu l'ami (1968) and Red Sun (1971).