He joined the Philadelphia Play and Players Troupe, painting scenery and acting a few minor roles.Īt the Pasadena Playhouse school, Bronson improved his diction, supporting himself by selling Christmas cards and toys on street corners. He was attracted to acting not, he claimed, because of any artistic urge he was impressed by the money movie stars could earn. Having seen the outside world, he vowed not to return to the squalor of Scooptown. Army Air Corps in the Pacific, reportedly as a tail gunner on a B29. He might have stayed in the mines for the rest of his life except for World War II.ĭrafted in 1943, he served with the U.S. Like other toughs in Scooptown, he raised some hell and landed in jail for assault and robbery. He was paid $1 per ton of coal and volunteered for perilous jobs because the pay was better. Charles' father died when he was 10, and at 16 Charles followed his brothers into the mines.
