By the time he was 16 he was working in the coal mines, earning about $1 for each ton of coal he clawed out of the earth.

In 1943, he was drafted into the Army. Years later, after he established himself as an actor, his press releases would say he had been a tail gunner during World War II. But one reporter found that Mr. Bronson was assigned to the 760th Mess Squadron in Kingman, Ariz., and that he drove a delivery truck during the war.

After the war, Mr. Bronson held various jobs, working as a bricklayer, short-order cook and an onion-picker in New York State. He then went to Atlantic City, where he rented beach chairs on the boardwalk. There he met some vacationing actors from a Philadelphia troupe and persuaded them to let him demonstrate his ability to paint scenery. They were impressed and hired him, then let him do a bit of acting.

Mr. Bronson found that he liked acting more than painting, and in 1949 he went to California and took lessons at the Pasadena Playhouse. In 1951 he had a minor role in ''You're in the Navy Now,'' which starred Gary Cooper. Mr. Bronson later explained that he got the part because he was the only one among the auditioning actors who could belch on cue.

He changed his name to Bronson in the 1950's because he thought that the anti-Communist crusade then being conducted by Senator Joseph R. McCarthy made it unwise for someone in the public eye to have a Russian-sounding name.

He continued his work in low-budget movies, one of which was ''Machine-Gun Kelly,'' made in 1958 in only eight days. The French actor Alain Delon saw it, remembered it and, several years later, invited Mr. Bronson to France, where he made ''Adieu, l'Ami,'' which became an enormous success in Europe.

By the 1970's, Mr. Bronson had a loyal following, and even many critics agreed that although the scripts were usually bad, Mr. Bronson could be counted on to turn in a good performance. Among his credits by this time were ''The Magnificent Seven'' (1960), ''The Great Escape'' (1963) and ''Mr. Majestyk'' (1974). He also made four ''Death Wish'' sequels.