Charles Bronson (born Charles Dennis Buchinsky; November 3, 1921 - August 30, 2003) was an American actor of Lithuanian-American descent who rose from coal-mining poverty in Pennsylvania to become one of the world's biggest film stars of the 1970s. He built his reputation through supporting roles in ensemble classics like The Magnificent Seven (1960) and The Great Escape (1963), then found European stardom in Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), before conquering American audiences with the vigilante thriller Death Wish (1974). At the peak of his fame in the early 1970s he was the world's top box-office draw.
Television station TCM included Bronson in its Summer Under the Stars summer marathon for the first time - on August 16, 2025, it broadcast 12 of his films, including television premieres of Chato's Land and Death Wish.
Within Summer Under the Stars 2025, TCM premiered Bronson's films Chato's Land and Death Wish for the first time on television, both directed by Michael Winner.
The documentary essay Charles Bronson: American Samurai traced the actor's journey from Hollywood outsider to international superstar through European films of the late 1960s.
