LOS ANGELES, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- Actor Charles Bronson, who sought rugged, tough-guy characters in movies, and suffered from Alzheimer's disease, died in Los Angeles. He was 81.
Not considered to have leading man good looks, Bronson was described to have "made the most of his unconventional features."
Often playing men who had been pushed too far, Bronson achieved stardom in "Death Wish," a 1974 revenge fantasy about an architect who turns vigilante when his wife and daughter were raped.
"I can play the character better because of my experience -- because of the things I've been through," he told the Washington Post in 1977.
Born Charles Buchinski, in Ehrenfeld, Pa., to Lithuanian immigrant parents, he was the only one of 15 children to finish high school. His father died when he was 10, and he helped support the family as a coal miner.
After serving in World War II, he studied acting. He appeared in numerous movies but won accolades for roles in "The Magnificent Seven" and "The Great Escape."
After divorcing Harriet Tendler with whom he had two children, he wed actress Jill Ireland in 1958, who had two sons. They had a daughter and an adopted son who died in 1989. Ireland died in 1990. He married Kim Weeks in 1998.
