Charles Bronson Movies

Charles Bronson played vigilante Paul Kersey five times in the Death Wish movies from 1974 to 1994.
Charles Bronson played vigilante Paul Kersey five times in the Death Wish movies from 1974 to 1994.

Want to know the best Charles Bronson movies?  How about the worst Charles Bronson movies?  Curious about Charles Bronson’s box office grosses or which Charles Bronson movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Charles Bronson movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which got the worst? Well, you have come to the right place…. because we have all of that information.

Welcome to my Charles Bronson (1921-2003) Ultimate Movie Rankings career movie page. My first visit when I started researching Charles Bronson was to his IMDb page. I found that he had 160 acting credits from 1949 to 1999. That is over 3 projects a year for 50 years…a pretty impressive total. After throwing out 78 television performances and 12 uncredited bit parts that left 70 movies to research. I have ranked 61 of his movies from best to worst in this page.

So, I know what you are thinking…. where are the other 9 Charles Bronson movies? Well, I was unable to find box office numbers for 4 of his 1950’s quickie low budget films. And 4 of his movies he made in Europe from 1968-1972 never really got much of a release in North America….so they were not included. 

This page will rank Charles Bronson movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos and movies that were not released in theaters were not included in the rankings.

Charles Bronson in 1968's Once Upon A Time In The West
Charles Bronson in 1968’s Once Upon A Time In The West

Charles Bronson Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.

Charles Bronson Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort Charles Bronson movies by the co-stars of his movies
  • Sort Charles Bronson movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Charles Bronson movies by yearly box office rank
  • Sort Charles Bronson movies how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Charles Bronson movie received.
  • Sort Charles Bronson movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score.  UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.

Charles Bronson Adjusted World Wide Box Office Grosses

Charles Bronson in 1963's The Great Escape
Charles Bronson in 1963’s The Great Escape

10 Possibly Interesting Facts About Charles Bronson

1. Charles Bronson(1921-2003) was born Charles Dennis Buchinsky.

2. Charles Bronson was one of 14 children born to a Lithuanian immigrant in Pennsylvania. Bronson started working in coal mines as a teenager before serving in World War II. He won a Purple Heart for wounds he received in combat.

3. Charles Bronson changed his name in 1955 due to concerns about the House Un-American Activites Committee(he thought it sounded too Russian). In some of his early successes like Apache, Vera Cruz and House of Wax he is listed in the credits as Charles Buchinsky.

4. Charles Bronson used the same approach to stardom as Clint Eastwood. Both started out in television, both went to Europe to make movies, both become international stars in Europe, and then both came back to the United States as stars. Bronson was actually offered the Man With No Name role in A Fistful of Dollars….but he passed and the role went to Eastwood. Meanwhile when Eastwood passed on Once Upon A Time In The West….the role went to Charles Bronson.

5. Roles that Charles Bronson turned down or was seriously considered for: Superman (Christopher Reeve part), Escape from New York (Kurt Russell part), A Fistful of Dollars (Eastwood part), Jaws (Robert Shaw part) and The French Connection (Gene Hackman part). The role that made Bronson a star in the United States, Death Wish, was originally written for Henry Fonda. Fonda was disgusted with the script and turned down the role.

6. Charles Bronson was married three times in his life. His marriage to Harriet Tendler(1949-1967) and his second marriage to Jill Ireland(1968-1990 her death) produced two children each. His final marriage was to Kim Weeks from 1998 until his death in 2003. He was the step father to David McCallum’s (NCIS) two children as well.

7. Charles Bronson and his wife, Jill Ireland, appeared in a total of 15 movies together. Besides her work along side of Bronson, Ireland is best remember as Spock’s love interest in the classic Star Trek episode…This Side of Paradise.

8. Charles Bronson was known as “le monster sacre” to the French movie going public. Le monster sacre means the sacred monster.

9. Here is a great trivia question…..Who is the only person to be a member of the Magnificent Seven and the Dirty Dozen…. not to mention he played one of the three roles that actually escaped the Great Escape….Mr. Charles Bronson.

10.  Check out Charles Bronson’s career compared to current and stars of the past on my Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time Table.

10A. The missing 9 Charles Bronson movies: 1954’s Crime Wave, Tennessee Champ. 1955’s Big House USA, Target Zero. 1958’s Showdown at Boot-Hill, Gang War, When Hell Broke Loose, 1970’s Lola, You Can’t Win Them All. 1971’s Someone Is Behind the Door. I will continue to search for some North America box office numbers for these movies so they can be included in this page.

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99 thoughts on “Charles Bronson Movies”

  1. Bruce, I really like Charles Bronson in spite of his often one dimensional acting. He wasn’t big on showing motion was he, but he makes a great tough guy. My favourite of his movies is The Great Escape but I also quite enjoyed the first Death Wish movie. The Dirty Dozen is one I’ve seen a few times too.

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  2. Charles Bronson was one of my favourite actors in me yoof, watched some of his films at the cinema and many of them on video.

    Looking at your charts, The Dirty Dozen no.1 on the moviescore meter, no problems with that, a fun war movie I’ve watched ‘dozens’ of times. The House of Wax was a big hit in its time, the most successful horror movie of the 50’s not surprised to see it so high on your chart.

    I’ve seen 37 of the 55 films listed, 7 from the box office top 10 and 9 from the critics 10.

    I’ve seen 4 from the 15 missing movies list.

    My favourite Bronson film? Can’t decide, top favourites include – The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, Battle of the Bulge, The Dirty Dozen and Once Upon a Time in the West.

    Enjoyed the trivia, Bronson as Superman? hoho Fonda as Paul Kersey? heh heh

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  4. Oh! What great fun this was! So much info about Charles Bronson and his movies. Stuff I didn’t know. One of 14!!! children, neck and neck with Clint Eastwood in Europe, and something completely forgotten, he was married to Jill Ireland – — for 30years. Thank you! Oh, my favorite movie? From Till Three. Great fun. No blood.

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  5. Hey, another good Web Page. He was a very good actor and appeared in so many movies. I believe he got better looking as he aged. I have seen so many of his films and enjoyed them all and who can forget his role in The Great Escape. THANKS!

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