Britain's most dangerous prisoner picked a fight with a dozen jailers using "slug tactics". Charles Bronson is Britain's most unpredictable prisoner (7 photos)

On November 3, 1921, in the USA, in the mining village of Ehrenfeld (Pennsylvania), a boy was born into a family of emigrants from Lithuania, the Buchinskis, who was named Karolis. It would seem that the boy, who was the eleventh of fifteen children in this poor family, had no chance of making it into the world. But despite fate and circumstances, thanks to natural talent and perseverance, he became an actor known to millions of viewers as Charles Bronson.

Hungry childhood

Bronson's paternal ancestors were Lipkas - Polish-Lithuanian Tatars. This ethnic group formed from the Tatars who came to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the Golden Horde and entered the service of Lithuanian princes. From his ancestors, Bronson inherited a narrow Mongoloid eye shape and black hair. Because of such a characteristic appearance, at the beginning of his acting career he was often invited to play the roles of Indians in Westerns.

The actor’s father, Walter Buchinskis (later he “corrected” his surname in the American style - Buchinsky), moved to the USA from the Lithuanian city of Druskininkai. Bronson's mother, Mary (née Valinskis), was born in America, but her parents were also from Lithuania.

Little Carlos learned to speak English when he was already a teenager, and before that he spoke Lithuanian and Russian at home. At the same time, his name also transformed into the more familiar “Charles” to the American ear. His father worked in a mine and died when Bronson was 10 years old. The family lived extremely poorly. But it was Charles who was luckier than other children - he was the only one in the family who graduated from school. Although, according to the actor himself, there were times when he had to wear his sister’s dress due to the lack of other clothes.

But even after finishing school, Charles had no prospects, and he too was forced to earn a living by working in the mine. As the actor later admitted, he was then paid one dollar per ton of coal. Spending a lot of time underground, Charles began to suffer from a fear of enclosed spaces. He was never able to get rid of claustrophobia until the end of his days.

Participation in World War II

It's hard to say how it would have turned out later life Bronson, if the war had not started. In 1943 he was called up to military service V armed forces USA. Charles served in the Air Force as a gunner on the B-29 bomber. In 1945, he took part in combat operations against Japan as part of the 61st Bomb Squadron. In total, Bronson flew 25 combat missions, was wounded and awarded a Purple Heart.

At the end of the war, the United States adopted the GI Bill of Rights. This law provided returning military personnel free training in college, as well as low-cost home loans and business loans. Charles decided to take advantage of this opportunity and began to study fine arts in order to then get a job as an artist in the theater. And then he decided to become an actor himself and began studying at the Pasadena Playhouse acting studio.

Acting career

Bronsnon (then Buchinsky) began his acting career in a theater studio in Philadelphia. Later the actor moved to New York. The young actor did not have enough money to live on, and he shared an apartment with his young colleague Jack Klugman (whose parents, by the way, also came from the Russian Empire). Since 1950, the actor began to be invited to films. At first, due to his characteristic appearance, Charles was offered roles of Indians, which were considered unpromising. But gradually, the actor began to be trusted to play more and more interesting and significant characters.

In the first 12 films he starred under his own real name. But in 1954, during the active work of the House Un-American Activities Committee, the actor’s agent suggested that “out of harm’s way” he change his Slavic surname to an American one. It is said that the actor came up with his nickname while walking through the majestic gates of the Paramount Pictures studio, which is located at the intersection of the streets located at the corner of Melrose Avenue and Bronson Street.

Bronson's further career began to develop quite successfully. He acted a lot in films and television, and real fame came to him after his role in the western “The Magnificent Seven,” for which he received $50,000. This film was a great success all over the world, including in the USSR.

In addition to America, Bronson also filmed a lot in Europe. In 1968, he starred in the western Once Upon a Time in the West, directed by Sergio Leone, who called Bronson "the greatest actor I have ever worked with." Leone had previously wanted to invite Bronson to main role in the film “A Fistful of Dollars,” but the actor then refused and Clint Eastwood starred in the western.

At the age of 52, he starred in the action film Death Wish. This role became the actor's calling card. The film had several sequels starring Bronson.

Bronson has received many film awards. The guy who had only a few cents in his pocket in the 40s became one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood. In 1975, he took 4th place in terms of fees, behind only Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand and Al Pacino.

Personal life

The actor's first wife was the young actress Harriet Tendler, whom he met in 1947 in Philadelphia at the dawn of his acting career. Harriet later admitted in her memoirs that she was an 18-year-old virgin when she met 26-year-old Charlie Buchinsky. And on the first date, Charles only had 4 cents in his pocket. Two years later, the couple married, although the bride's father, a successful Jewish dairy farmer, opposed the marriage. He did not consider a boy from a poor Catholic family as a groom. But he resigned himself and supported the young people financially. The couple had two children, but they divorced in 1965.

The reason for the divorce was actress Jill Ireland, whom Bronson met on the set of the film “The Great Escape.” It was love at first sight. Jill at this time was married to actor David McCallum, Bronson's partner in this film. But that didn't stop Charles. He told McCallum bluntly: “I will marry your wife.”

Six years later he fulfilled this promise. The couple got married on October 5, 1968 and did not separate until their deaths. It was one of the strongest and most exemplary marriages in Hollywood. Jill became the meaning of life for Bronson. They lived in a mansion in Los Angeles with seven children: two from his first marriage, three from Jill's first marriage (one of whom was adopted) and two of their own (one of whom was also adopted).

Bronson tried to spend as much time as possible with his wife. To do this, he even negotiated conditions with the producers so that in the films in which he was invited, there would be a role for Jill. In total, they starred in 14 joint films.

Bronson purchased a 260-acre (1.1 km2) farm in West Windsor, Vermont, where Jill bred horses and for the equestrian training of their daughter Zuleika, their only child.

Happy life this big family was devastated by the terrible news - Jill was diagnosed with breast cancer. May 18, 1990, aged 54, after long struggle with illness, Jill Ireland died at their home in Malibu.

In December 1998, Bronson married for the third time to Kim Weeks, a former Dove Audio studio employee. This marriage lasted only five years. IN recent years Bronson's health deteriorated markedly in recent years, and he died of pneumonia on August 30, 2003, at the age of 81.

Nicolas Winding Refn, a promising director, has recently managed to fully express himself, impressing the festival jury and ordinary spectators with the unique style and visual aesthetics of his works. Most people know him from the crime drama with Ryan Gosling, a film about a devilishly handsome driver who drives his car through the neon-filled city streets at night and delivers justice. It is not surprising that it was “Drive” that won such love among viewers and critics, instantly gaining cult status, since it is a film in which Röfn’s directorial style was already fully formed. But the Danish director has another work that deserves attention. And this " Bronson».

As the director himself said, art is not always about liking/disliking. The success and quality of a film is not measured by its box office receipts and ratings. It happens that the root of a good movie is its ability to arouse among the audience a desire to discuss and argue. If a film touches you, it means " has already gotten into your head" Of course, this may not apply to all films, but for films like Bronson, this approach works.

This is almost a chamber story, literally a one-man show. An actor who plays the role of another actor. Because main character, Michael Pitterson, lived almost his entire life in the guise of his “alter ego”, Charles Bronson. With his help, he was able to fulfill his main dream - to become famous. The whole story, all the screen time is focused only on the main character and him alone. With all this, in the film the director does not even try to evaluate Bronson’s personality in any way, leaving the viewer alone with only the bare core of the character. There is no backstory, no conclusions - the director simply shows us what kind of person Charles Bronson was, what he said, what he did and what he experienced.

Separately, I would like to talk about those technical and plot techniques “ Bronson”, which seemed to me the most interesting.

The most fascinating and simply important thing in a story about a person is how his image is built. One of the elements that is immediately noticeable in the opening scene is Bronson's animalistic ways. At the very beginning of the film we see that the main character, naked, dirty and covered in blood, is locked in solitary confinement similar to a cell. He throws himself at the bars, growls, and rushes at the guards who entered the cell. In another scene, you can hear the phrase that the orderly throws psychiatric hospital, where Bronson is being sent, " This ain't prison. We're lion tamers here." The main character seems to compare himself to a lion; in one of the scenes at the beginning of the film he talks about his new camera as follows " The accommodation was more than worthy of my royal self." This is not just a phrase that once again indicates how Charlie Bronson craved fame. This is a statement that the main character is the personification of the king of beasts.

But at the same time the main character child. The school bully who grew out of his childhood clothes, but didn't change at all as a person. He has no strong motivation or convictions. He himself does not understand what he needs. He always wants to be the center of attention. He dreams of fame, but he has no ambitions. He is noisy, he screams, he grimaces, he often and profusely swears, he fights with everyone and loves to protest.

Needless to say, the visual component of this film deserves special admiration? The frames are incredibly cleverly integrated and therefore full of symbolism. Each frame, no matter how wide the shot, seems limited, cramped. Wherever Bronson appears, there are always vertical stripes in the background that show that this man is in captivity and, probably, not only in physical sense. Everything is thought out to the smallest detail.

It must be said that ideas and moods are mainly conveyed through images. Despite the fact that the film is replete with loud statements, it seems, as is the case with other works of Nicolas Windin Refn, that he is rather silent. This is probably due to the fact that the director suffers from dyslexia. As he himself said in an interview, he could not learn to read until he was 13, and therefore images became the most significant way of storytelling for him. For a similar reason, you can often see bright colors in his films - he is colorblind and cannot distinguish shades, only contrasting colors.

« Bronson“ this is not a pass-through blockbuster, but it is no longer a purely festival movie “not-for-everyone.” It departs in its structure from the classical idea of ​​what a film should look like, but at the same time it will be understandable to a wide audience. There is good action here, good humor with a pretense of British flavor, and an impeccably played charismatic hero in the foreground. It will be of interest to both those who are interested in the director’s work in general, and those who just want to spend a pleasant evening watching a good movie.

Charles Bronson is a great actor, known for such films as "A Passenger in the Rain", "Red Sun", "The Magnificent Seven" and many others.

Charles Bronson played more than 120 roles, going down in the history of world cinema as one of the outstanding actors. In this article we will take a closer look at this wonderful and talented person.

Brief biography of Charles Bronson

Born in 1921, Charles Bronson's real name is Charles Dennis Buchinsky. He began to call himself Charles Bronson due to the aggravation of anti-communist views in the United States of America.

It’s just that his real surname was similar to the Slavic one, so he decided to take a pseudonym for himself.

Family and childhood

The boy grew up in large family Polish-Lithuanian emigrants. He was the 11th child of his parents. His childhood was difficult and brought him little joy.

When Charles was 10 years old, his father died, leaving the family without a breadwinner. Because of this, the future actor had to start working very early.

Personality formation

Initially, Charles Bronson never dreamed that he would one day become famous actor. In his youth he had to participate in the Second World War.

Charles Bronson

He was an air gunner in the Pacific Fleet.

During his service, Bronson repeatedly demonstrated bravery and courage, for which he was awarded the Purple Star.

After the end of the war, Charles could not decide for a long time on his future profession. At first he worked in different places, but did not stay anywhere for long.

One day he tried himself as a theater actor in a troupe from Philadelphia. In this field he managed to achieve great success.

He soon received recognition from the audience who came to the performances, as a result of which Bronson studied at a theater school and began looking for serious roles.

The beginning of a film career

Charles Bronson made his debut on film set in 1951 in the war film “You're in the Navy,” playing the role of a sailor.

After that, he starred in films such as "Museum wax figures", "Miss Sadie Thompson" and "The Stagecoach Security Guard".

And although all these roles were not the main ones, they helped the actor gain invaluable experience. Only in the 50s of the 20th century, Bronson managed to attract the attention of the public by playing in several famous films and TV series.

Star roles

In 1960, the actor starred in one of the most famous westerns, The Magnificent Seven. This film made him truly popular all over the world.

For his performance in the film, Charles Bronson received, at that time, a fabulous fee of $50,000.

After this film was shown in, he called Bronson his favorite actor.

Two years later, another successful film, The Great Escape, was released, starring Charles Bronson, in which he played a Polish prisoner. He masterfully embodied the image of a man suffering from claustrophobia.

His performance was so alive and truthful that it seemed as if he was actually facing this problem in reality.

In the 60s, the demand for Charles Bronson was extremely high. Films with his participation were released one after another. The drama “The Dirty Dozen” received several Oscar awards, and the western “Once Upon a Time in the West” became truly iconic in society.

Charles Bronson films of the 70s and 80s

In the 70s, Bronson continued to be one of the most sought-after actors. The following films with his participation are released one after another:

• "Cold Blooded Killer"
• "White Buffalo"
• "The Last Bullet"
• "Enemy at the Door"
• "Death Wish"
• "Horses of Valdez"
• "Rain Passenger"
• "Escape"
• "Red Sun"

In the 80s, due to health problems, Charles began to appear in films less frequently. However, during this period of time he managed to star in one of the famous films, “Ten Minutes to Midnight.”

Bronson's personal life

1962 Bronson met Jill Ireland, who was married at that time, on the set. This girl won his heart at first sight, so the actor decided to win her at all costs.

After 6 years, Jill became his wife. They lived together for more than 20 joyful and happy years. In their marriage they had two children.

However, their happiness was overshadowed by the fact that Jill Ireland fell ill with cancer. For several years she struggled with this disease, but she was never able to overcome it. Jill died in 1990 at the age of 54.

Recent years

After the death of his wife, the actor’s health deteriorated even further. He starred in only a few films, and then completely withdrew from public life.

However, Charles Bronson lived to be 81 years old and died on August 30, 2003 from pneumonia in medical center Cedars Sinai, where he received treatment for several weeks.

Criminal Charles Bronson

U famous criminal Michael Gordon Peterson, considered Britain's most violent prisoner, had Charles Bronson as his favorite actor.

Michael Gordon Peterson

He liked his game so much that he even took the pseudonym of his idol.

In total, this bandit served more than 30 years behind bars, having served in more than 120 prisons. One of his most notorious crimes was the robbery of a post office in 1974.

Peterson made history for a variety of reasons. He constantly violated prison rules and fought with guards and fellow inmates.

However, along with all this, his interest in art did not weaken.

As surprising as it may sound, he is also known as an artist and poet. Amazingly, Bronson-Peterson managed to repeatedly sell his works, receiving quite a good profit for them.

In 2013, the film “Bronson” was filmed, which showed the story of Charles-Michael. Tom Hardy played the main role in this film. This actor even visited the criminal in prison, making good impressions of him.

"Fitness in solitary confinement"

Despite the fact that Michael spent most of his life behind bars, he was constantly in excellent health. physical fitness. By the way, this is clearly visible from his photographs.

Prisoner Charles Bronson was able to show his talent in the field of writing. He wrote a book called Fitness in Solitary Confinement. In this work, the author tells readers how to make your body muscular without spending money on purchasing different exercise equipment.

The book presents detailed diagram workouts scheduled by day. The author claims that such a system is suitable for any person, regardless of his physical training. “Fitness in Solitary Confinement” became a very popular and best-selling book in England.

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The real name of the criminal is Michael Gordon Peterson. He was born on December 6, 1952 in Luton. His childhood was no different. The boy went to a regular school and hung out with his peers. There was no one in his family tragic events, there was no violence. There wasn’t even a friend who could influence a person’s psyche like that. Michael did well at school and was respectful of his elders. The boy had a lot of friends with whom he got along well. But one day, after the family moved to a new place of residence, the boy lost all his old friends. Michael's aunt believes it all started when he fell in with the “wrong” company.

Michael Gordon Peterson // Photo: kino-teatr.ru

Youth years

New city and new company forced young man change the name to a more consonant one. So, Michael took the name of the famous Hollywood actor Charles Bronson. Over time, he began to take part in fist fights and engage in illegal activities. For some time he provided escort services.

When he was only 19 years old he got married. In marriage, he very quickly had a son. This event became a kind of shake-up for the man. For some time he became a law-abiding citizen and an exemplary family man. He started to build up muscle mass and got a job at the circus. Things were going pretty well in the family. The couple was very happy, and Michael also acquired a rather toned figure. However, the passion for adventure and free life After a while, it still got the better of reason. At age 22, Peterson committed an armed attack on a local post office. For the crime he is sent to prison for seven years. It is from this moment that his prison story begins.

Peterson committed an armed attack on a local post office // Photo: norcom.ru

The Prison Life of Charles Bronson

If the man, like most prisoners, behaved approximately, then at the end of 7 years he would be released. Moreover, she was expecting him there loving wife and son. However, in prison he “went off the rails.” From time to time he got up to various “pranks” as a result of which he has been in prison for 30 years in a row. He has become such a difficult prisoner that every now and then he is sent to a neighboring prison. In total, he has already visited 120 of them. At the same time, he was kept in solitary confinement for most of this time.

Despite all the releases he also had. After his first sentence, he was released almost 14 years later. But literally the next day he committed another robbery. This time he was imprisoned for 4 years. At the end of his sentence, he left and began preparing to carry out an armed attack.

Mental disorders

Bronson when he's in once again was arrested for the crime and declared insane. He was sent to psychiatric clinic. He himself did not consider himself mentally ill at all and argued that he, a healthy and balanced person, was sent to a hospital in vain. Michael claimed that he was treated very poorly at the clinic. Antipsychotic drugs were forcibly administered, which almost always caused muscle spasms. He said that the clinic's medical staff beat him.

Michael wrote letters of complaint incessantly. He often ran away from the ward and went to the roof of the building. The clinic workers could not remove the man from there for a long time, but when they removed him, they sent him to the ward and tied him up. Michael, recalling those times, said that he spent more time on the roof than Santa Claus himself. Perhaps the clinic staff got tired of running after their patient, and she recognized him as completely healthy.

Sitting in solitary confinement, he began to write poems and draw pictures // Photo: favera.ru

As a result, Michael went back to the penal colony. There, sitting in solitary confinement, he began to write poems and draw pictures. Moreover, he received prizes more than once for his work. His work was published in printed publications. For this he received some allowance. He donated all the proceeds to charity. Most likely, the media found out about him thanks to his art teacher. Despite the fact that the teacher provided a favor to the prisoner, Michael one day took him hostage. He was not happy that the teacher criticized his work too much. He tied his victim to a chair and began throwing homemade bladed weapons at him. He also bullied me in other ways. As a result, the teacher received deep psychological trauma, and Michael received a life sentence.

In the UK, the staff of one of the prisons had difficulty breaking down the aggression of their ward, who is considered the most dangerous prisoner in the United Kingdom. Charles Bronson attacked his guards using the old stratagem- before the “attack” he smeared himself with oil to make it more difficult to twist.

On Friday, Charles Bronson was placed in solitary confinement at Wakefield Prison because he had once again demonstrated a violent temper and dangerous propensity for violence, The Daily Mail writes. Before this, the prisoner was barely overcome by twelve jailers at once, from whose embrace he slipped away like a lizard.

The insidious criminal thickly smeared his body with oil, and then attacked the prison guards naked when he was not far from the gym. As a result, he inflicted several serious injuries on the guards before the special forces squad, alerted, neutralized the troublemaker.

It is no coincidence that Bronson is considered the most dangerous of the caught criminals. He has spent 36 years in prison and during this time he has committed more than a dozen attacks on guards, including hostage-taking. In particular, in 1999, Bronson captured prison teacher Phil Danielson in Hull. For 40 hours, he held his victim hostage, making various demands.

Charles was sent to prison in 1974 for life on charges of robbery.

Let us add that Bronson’s real name is Michael Gordon Peterson, and he decided to change his first and last name in 1987 after watching the serial film “Death Wish” with actor Charles Bronson in the title role.

During his time in prison, the newly minted Charles Bronson was charged with a huge number of serious charges, including threatening to kill, imprisonment, causing grievous bodily harm, and so on. All this led to Bronson spending most of his time in solitary confinement.

Bronson is especially dangerous because he is in excellent physical shape and maintains his tone. The prisoner is able to do push-ups at an intensity of 172 times per minute.

In 2009, even the film “Bronson” was shot, dedicated to the legendary prisoner. Tom Hardy played the main role in this film.

Charles Bronson himself also does not waste time doing nothing but physical training. He writes books and, in particular, published a manual called Solitary Fitness (“Fitness in solitary confinement”). In this book, Bronson gives tips on how to stay in shape even in prison and "be prepared for any situation."

It is noteworthy that the officials limited themselves to a dry commentary in connection with the curious incident that occurred. “The prisoner was involved in a minor incident on the territory of the (prison) sports complex,” explained a spokesman for the penitentiary department.

"House with Monsters"

Wakefield Dungeon, where Bronson is currently being held, has a sinister reputation due to its inmates. It is even sometimes called "the house with monsters." In particular, the terrible pedophile maniac Roy Whiting, who killed 8-year-old Sarah Payne in 2000, whiles away his days here. This crime alarmed the entire society, which demanded the creation of a unified database of sex offenders and the publication of their lists.

American David Bieber is also serving a life sentence in Wakefield. He moved to the British Isles in 1996 after being wanted for murder and attempted murder in his home country. On December 26, 2003, a fugitive bodybuilder and drug dealer shot dead Leeds police officers when they discovered during a document check that Bieber's passport was fake.

One of the wounded policemen, Neil Roper, managed to escape with a bullet in his stomach and shoulder, and Bieber killed his partner Ian Broadhurst in cold blood with a control shot to the head, despite pleas for mercy.

This massacre in Leeds caused a powerful public outcry, since for eight years not a single police officer was killed in the UK. Bieber was put on a national wanted list and caught in a Gateshead hotel room just before New Year's, at three o'clock in the morning on December 31, 2003.