James Belushi

He rose to greater prominence with his supporting roles in About Last Night and Salvador (both 1986) which gave him the opportunity for lead roles. He became a crime-fighting vigilante by night, a highly controversial role, as his executions were cheered by crime-weary audiences. From 1983 to 1985 he wrote and appeared on Saturday Night Live. He is also remembered for Death Wish (1974) which spawned several sequels, In Death Wish he played a Paul Kersey, a prosperous liberal New York architect until his wife was murdered and daughter raped. His first larger role was in Michael Mann's Thief (1981). In the westerns The Magnificent Seven (1960) and the epic Once Upon a Time in the West, (1968) he played heroic gunfighters, taking up the cause of the defenseless. During this period he also made his television debut in the 1978 flop Who's Watching the Kids and also had a microscopic part in Brian De Palma's The Fury. Bronson's most famous films include The Great Escape, (1963) in which he played Danny Welinski, nicknamed "The Tunnel King", a Polish prisoner of war, The Dirty Dozen, (1967) in which he played an Army death row convict conscripted into a World War II suicide mission.

From 1977 to 1980 he followed John and worked with the Chicago theater group The Second City. He became quite famous on that continent, and was known by two interesting nicknames: The Italians called him "Il Brutto" ("The Ugly") and to the French he was known as "le sacre monstre," the "sacred monster." Even though he was not yet a headliner in America, his overseas fame earned him a 1971 Golden Globe as the "Most Popular Actor in the World." That same year, he wondered if he was "too masculine" to ever become a star in the US. James attended Southern Illinois University Carbondale and earned a degree in Speech and Theater Arts. Although he began his career in America, Bronson first made a serious name for himself acting in European films. James' elder brother was John who was also a famous actor. In 1961 Bronson made an appearance with Elizabeth Montgomery in The Twilight Zone, in the episode "Two". of Albanian immigrants. One of his earliest screen appearances under his new name was as Vincent Price's henchman in 1953 horror classic House Of Wax.

He is the third of four children of Adam Belushi, an Albanian immigrant who left his native Qytezë village in 1934 at the age of 15, and Agnes, was born in the U.S. Lithuanian was a name for people living in that regin of Poland). He was born in Chicago, Illinois but grew up in Wheaton, Illinois. (Bronson is in fact half Polish). James Belushi (also known as Jim Belushi) (born June 15, 1954) is an American film and television actor. During the McCarthy hearings he changed his last name to Bronson as Russian-sounding names were suspect even though Buchinski is really spelled Buchinski and is more Polish then Russian. After the war, he decided to pursue the profession of acting, not from any love of the subject, but rather because he was impressed with the amount of money that he could potentially make in the business.

In 1943, Bronson was drafted into the Air Force and served as a tail gunner onboard B29 bombers. His family was so poor that at one time he was forced to wear his sister's dress to school because he had no other clothes. He was born as Charles Dennis Buchinski in the notorious Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania neighborhood of Scooptown, the 11th of 15 children of Lithuanian and Polish immigrants. He was blunt, physically powerful, and had a look of danger that fit such roles.

In most of his roles he starred as a brutal police detective, a western gunfighter, or a mafia hitman. Charles Bronson (November 3, 1921 - August 30, 2003) was an American actor of "tough guy" roles.