So Tom Cruise groom Cowboy, The Sun reports, the star of the movie Mission: Impossible was going to play as Chris Adams, the original version starring veteran actor Yul Brynner.

The Magnificent Seven films produced in 1960. Film director John Sturges was nominated for an Oscar in 1961 in the category of Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture for Elmer Bernstein.

Not only starring Brynner, the film tells of a herd of cowboys are hired to protect a small Mexican village from bandits disorder, also starring Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson.

Told by a source from the MGM studio, Tom admitted thrilled when the offer was communicated to him. “Tom can not wait to get started. He likes movies with a cowboy theme and he’s a pengagumfilm The Magnificient Seven,” he said.

So far, not been confirmed in detail who will be directing the film and when to start penggarapannya. MGM has not released a formal statement.

Hollywood is not what it used to be.  Hollywood has become overcrowded with so many entertainers that somehow got lucky and made it big due to popularity but not necessarily capability.  Looking back on when Hollywood was full of legends who took pride in their work rather than just making a movie for a pay check I would like to nominate my own “Actor’s of Legend.”

One Actor that was an icon of his time was Charles Bronson.  He stood out like Clint Eastwood with his dark vengeance style of movie such as Death Wish.  Bronson’s first film role — an uncredited one — was as a sailor in You’re in the Navy Now in 1951. Other early screen appearances were in Pat and Mike which featured Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, Miss Sadie Thompson and House of Wax (as Vincent Price’s mute henchman Igor). In 1952, Bronson boxed in a ring with Roy Rogers in Rogers’ show Knockout. He also appeared on the “Red Skelton Show” as a boxer in a skit with Red as his character of “Cauliflower” McPugg.

In 1954, he made a strong impact in Drum Beat supporting Alan Ladd. He played a murderous Modoc warrior, Captain Jack, who enjoys wearing the tunics of soldiers whom he has killed.  Eventually captured by Ladd and sent to the gallows, Jack dies as he has always lived, fearlessly.  In 1954, during the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) proceedings, he changed his surname from Buchinsky to Bronson at the suggestion of his agent, who feared that an Eastern European surname might damage his career.  He took his inspiration from the Bronson Gate at Paramount Studios, situated on the corner of Melrose Avenue and Bronson Street.

Image via Wikipedia

Bronson made several appearances on television in the 1950s and 1960s, including the lead role of the episode “The Apache Kid” of the syndicated crime drama Sheriff of Cochise. He also guest-starred in the short-lived situation comedy,Hey, Jeannie! and in three episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents: And So Died Riabouchinska (1956), There Was an Old Woman (1956), and The Woman Who Wanted to Live (1962). He starred alongside Elizabeth Montgomery in The Twilight Zone episode “Two” (1961) and played a killer named Crego in Gunsmoke (1956). He appeared in five episodes of Have Gun – Will Travel (1957–1963).  Many of his filmographies state that he appeared in the 1958 Gary Cooper film Ten North Frederick, although this is a matter of some dispute.  In 1958, he was cast in his first lead role in Roger Corman’s Machine-Gun Kelly, a low-budget, though well received, gangster film.  Charles Bronson also scored the lead in his own ABC’s detective series Man with a Camera (from 1958 to 1960), in which he portrayed Mike Kovac, a former combat photographer freelancing in New York City. Frequently, Kovac was involved in dangerous assignments for the New York Police Department.

Bronson gained attention in 1960 with his role in John Sturges‘ western The Magnificent Seven, where he played one of seven gunfighters taking up the cause of the defenseless, which was based on Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. During filming of this movie, Bronson was a loner who kept to himself, according to Eli Wallach.  He received $50,000 for this role.  This role also made him a favorite actor of many Soviet people, among them Vladimir Vysotsky.  Two years later, Sturges cast him for another popular Hollywood production The Great Escape as a claustrophobic Polish prisoner of war nicknamed “The Tunnel King” (coincidentally, Bronson was really claustrophobic because of his childhood work in a mine).  In 1961, he was nominated for an Emmy Award for his supporting role in a TV episode with the title “Memory in White”.  1962 saw Charles Bronson in the role of Lew Nyack, a veteran boxing trainer who helped Walter Gulick (Elvis Presley) polish his skills for the big fight with Sugarboy Romero in the movie, Kid Galahad (a remake of a 1937 film with Edward G. Robinson and Humphrey Bogart in those roles).

Image via Wikipedia

In the first half of 1963, Bronson co-starred with Richard Egan in the NBC Western series Empire, set on a New Mexico ranch. In the 1963–1964 season he portrayed Linc, the stubborn wagonmaster in the ABC series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, where he starred together with Dan O’Herlihy and then twelve-year-old Kurt Russell.  In the 1965-1966 season Charles Bronson guest-starred in an episode of T, starring Christopher Jones in the title role.  In The Dirty Dozen (1967), Bronson played an Army death row convict conscripted into a suicide mission. In 1967, Bronson also played Ralph Schuyler in The Fugitive episode “The One That Got Away”.

Although he began his career in the United States, Charles Bronson first made a serious name for himself in European films. He became quite famous on that continent. The Italians called him “Il Brutto” (”The Ugly One”).  In 1968, he starred as Harmonica in Once Upon a Time in the West. The director, Sergio Leone, once called him “the greatest actor I ever worked with”, and had wanted to cast Bronson for the lead in A Fistful of Dollars. Bronson turned him down and the role instead launched Clint Eastwood to film stardom.  Even though he was not yet a headliner in America in 1970, he helped the French film Rider on the Rain win a Hollywood Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The following year, this overseas fame earned him a special Golden Globe Henrietta Award for “World Film Favorite – Male” together with Sean Connery. This was the most prestigious of the few awards he ever received. At the time, the actor wondered if he was “too masculine” to ever become a star in the United States.  However, it was beginning in 1972 that he made a string of successful action films for United Artists, beginning with Chato’s Land, although he had done several films for UA before this in the 1960s (The Magnificent Seven, etc.). One film UA brought into the domestic mainstream was Città violenta (aka The Family), an Italian-made film originally released overseas in 1970. Despite the cutting of eight minutes from the original version, it firmly established Bronson as a major star in the ’70s.

One of Bronson’s most memorable roles came when he was over the age of 50, in Death Wish (Paramount, 1974), the most popular film of his long association with director Michael Winner. He played Paul Kersey, a successful New York architect. When his wife (played by Hope Lange) is murdered and his daughter sexually assaulted, Kersey becomes a crime-fighting vigilante by night. It was a highly controversial role, as his executions were cheered by crime-weary audiences. After the famous 1984 case of Bernhard Goetz, Bronson recommended that people not imitate his character. This successful movie spawned sequels over the next 20 years, in which Bronson also starred. His great-nephew, Justin Bronson, was scheduled to star in a remake of Death Wish in 2008, but the film has not yet seen the light of day.  In 1974, he starred in the film adaptation of the Elmore Leonard hard-boiled gangster-meets-his-match in a farmer saga, Mr. Majestyk. For Walter Hill’s Hard Times (1975), he starred as a Depression-era street fighter making his living in illegal bare-knuckled matches in Louisiana, earning good reviews.  Charles Bronson’s highest box-office was 4th in 1975, beaten only by Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand and Al Pacino.  His stint at UA came to an end in 1977 with The White Buffalo.

He was considered to play the role of Snake Plissken in Escape from New York (1981), but director John Carpenter thought he was too tough looking and too old for the part, and decided to cast Kurt Russell instead. In the years between 1976 and 1994, Bronson commanded high salaries to star in numerous films made by smaller production companies, most notably Cannon Films, for whom some of his last films were made. Many of them were directed by J. Lee Thompson, a collaborative relationship that Bronson enjoyed and actively pursued, reportedly because Thompson worked quickly and efficiently. Thompson’s ultra-violent films such as The Evil That Men Do (Tri-Star, 1984) and 10 To Midnight (1983) were blasted by critics, but provided Bronson with well-paid work throughout the ’80s. Bronson’s last starring role in a theatrically released film was 1994’s Death Wish V: The Face of Death.  Charles Bronson became very popular in Japan in the early 1990s with the bushy eye-browed TV critic Nagaharu Yodogawa (”Sayonara, sayonara, sayonara!”) hosting 1-2 seasons of his films every year on NTV, one of the main TV channels in Japan.

Charles Bronson was born Charles Dennis Buchinsky on November 3, 1921 in Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania.  Charles Bronson’s health deteriorated in later years, and he retired from acting after undergoing hip-replacement surgery in 1998. He also suffered from Alzheimer’s disease in his final years. Bronson died of pneumonia at the age of 81 on August 30, 2003, at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He is buried near his Vermont farm.

For more information about me as a writer, please check out http://kevin-davison.webnode.com/, http://authorkevincdavison.blogspot.com/, and http://write-for-a-cause.blogspot.com/.

Article by Kevin C Davison

“I write to entertain, and for a cause.”

And slowly during the sixties or late fifties their image beg-inned to go through a changed. Coburn, became our american James Bond, just a little less trained. But worth the effort. And he played the two movies with sternness. Of course he was part of the first Magnificent Seven squad of renegade cowboys. And somehow is like others over looked as a great actor.

Image via Wikipedia

Have you ever noticed that we have a negative view of being good? Odd that, we had it at school; we had little stars in our home work exercises, (well I had one or two but not for neatness) we were given badges for being good at putting things away after playtime. We were given rewards for achievement, for example academically and sport. We were given responsibility for being a model student or pupil. So you can begin to see why in our working world and social too how bad is doing better. Let’s face it being bad is more fun. We like to be bad it makes us feel good, rebellious in some small way, like our teens.

Let’s take this a little further. And this is the bit that could get interesting and a little complicated. If the rule makers i.e. politicians are bad or have selfish intentions then surely our rule or laws are too strict. Conversely the selfless will err towards lenience. Here lies the balance in our modern society. Now for the next point, if the politicians are trying to get us out of world recession how can they do that when the banks are the ones to blame (bad) and are not to be slapped on the wrist for it, in fact they are being rewarded for doing bad things (bad). Things are out of balance. What is probably worse is that we are sitting here and letting them do this. What is worse still is we are letting them make the same mistakes we have no control over despite what you might think, that this is how democracy works it is not? We do have to let them do their jobs. There is very little trust for banks at the moment and seldom has there been a time to trust politicians and yet they are governing and controlling themselves. Even in some cases being in bed together as a business. Democracy should not reward the failing and penalise the successful which is happening now; a recipe for dissent, corruption and ultimately difficult change. We never seem to learn these lessons. What makes matters a little worse is today the G20 summit is taking place in London and they want to fix the worlds banks so that this doesn’t happen again and work out a deal to sort the world economy, good on them, but the problem is the banks and the governments. They are in bed together and because they are in bed together they, like deceitful lovers cannot see what damage they are doing to themselves and the rest of the people around them. Instead of throwing money at an ever widening hole in the hope that it will work. Comment now if you think it is a good thing to throw money at banks I do not happen to think so, anyone I know thinks poorly of it. Look at what happened when banks threw money at us, the very reason why we are in the mess we are in. Does it not follow that the same will happen in reverse? I am no economist and I suspect very few readers of this will be(I can dream that they might) but I see these events as a very bad thing, yes it will paper over the cracks in the short term but what happens when too many people walk all over it. You know that this will happen at the most in opportune moment. What would be the government reaction to this? Print more money I suppose nothing else to do.

This would seem like a rant but for one thing there is a solution to this. Why not take some time out we have that opportunity at the moment, to fix the things that matter most, but the governments of the world will not want to do it. They would have no control that’s the problem. Why did they become politicians in the first place? It is all about control of the masses. If we all had a fair crack at the whip in terms of financial and time gain in our lives, irrespective of our education or upbringing, things would be a whole lot simpler (simple means more efficient) each of us able to control things democratically and allow the goods and services to prosper organically. Add to the pot of opportunity a huge measure of encouragement and training from all points of the compass and you have a recipe for success that would be unrivalled in our history.

The big questions you ask are how do we do this? What is it? I can answer them all of them,; there is a solution but to be honest and much as it pains me to say this, things have to get a lot worse before politicians and banks will look at other means of survival of the economy; it means their demise, this must be the way of things, and I cannot say more than this; it is a solution that will make all of us happy and reward you no matter how hard you work or not as the case may be, not that it would be a free ride to malingerers but everyone would get what they deserve in a fair and very equal way. It sounds too good to be true, I know, it is not, after all I’m not selling anything more than an idea that something is wrong and there is a solution if you believe there is then you will see the need to question and change . This is not the time to do so nor do I believe is in my place to say any more for now. What I do think is we all have to say something because we believe it is time to change what is bad and make things good again.

 I am very sure that they have no contingency plan in place if and or when the current system collapses. We have to recognise that this does not work now watch it fail if it does get that far and start with something new.

 I have never heard any one ask a leader the questions ‘What do we do if this economic system begins to fail? Do you have a contingency plan if this economic system fails?’ And I think it would be a great place to start. I would like to know the answer to that, put some trust back into the political and economic system for starters.

To change, to recognize something is wrong is a huge step. To skip the possible anarchy potential would be a less bad thing.

image source

Harrison was born in the UK from part-Irish ancestry. He had humble, working class beginnings, but became the almost legendary lead guitarist in ‘The Beatles.’ Later in his music career, he embraced Hinduism, a belief which led him to organise a charity concert for Bangladesh in 1971. He is listed in Rolling Stone Magazine as number twenty one of “The Hundred Best Guitarists of All Time.” He also had a very successful career as a solo artist and as a film and record producer. Harrison wore his big, bushy moustache for quite a number of years during his musical career, and if you ever got confused with which Beatle was which, this iconic piece of facial hair always served to distinguish him from the rest of the band.

Freddy Mercury

image source

As the composer of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Freddy Mercury – born Farrokh Bulsara – was one of the most well-known musicians of his time. He was based in the UK but was of Parsis origin, born in East Africa (Zanzibar). He was schooled in India, but shortly after returning to his home country, his family fled to London when he was only seventeen years old, to escape the revolution. He had a clear, four-octave voice range and sensationally ate up the stage when it came to live performances and television (remember the ‘I Want to Break Free’ video?). He died aged forty-five of AIDS related complications in November of 1991. Freddy Mercury wore his moustache during most of his years as a performer. It started big, got smaller, and increased in size again. He was definitely a musician that could not hide in any disguise whatsoever. His moustache was noticeable regardless of anything else he wore – or didn’t wear.

Salvador Dalí

image source

Born in 1904, Dali had such a unique moustache that the style was named after him. It was long and pointy, curving upwards, with areas past the corner of the mouth shaved.

Salvador Dali was a surrealist painter from Catalan. He was mainly known for his talent in painting, but he was a dab hand at film, sculpture and photography as well. His style was eccentric and flamboyant, and he often attracted attention to himself by exhibiting bizarre behaviour. This sort of eccentricity started when he was at art school, from which he was expelled just before his final exams for stating that none of the instructors were cleaver or talented enough to examine him. He later became heavily involved in controversial politics and eventually was banned from the surrealist society. I blame the moustache.

Robert Mugabe

image source

Robert Gabriel Mugabe was born in 1924 and has controversially led Zimbabwe for twenty-eight years. He first qualified as a teacher, but has since acquired six degrees – two of them law degrees.

Mugabe has always sported a toothbrush moustache, the same type as Hitler’s (see part part one). Now they’ve spoilt that style for anyone else who fancied himself a toothbrush-moustache kind of man.

Robert Gabriel Mugabe is the current President of Zimbabwe, an office he’s held on to despite the world’s view of him. This position in the beginning, earned him respect and reverence from his countrymen and several Western nations  alike, but he has since become one of the most disliked African Presidents in history. Added to his questionable politics, he also started one of the world’s biggest hyperinflation by printing hundreds of trillions of Zimbabwean dollars.

Thomas Selleck

Wiki photo- Alan Light

Tom Selleck was born in 1945 in Detroit, Michigan. When he was a teenager, he twice appeared in The Dating Game – losing both times. He later became an actor and has also become a successful screenwriter and film producer.  Magnum P.I was his most famous starring role to date, but it could’ve been much different. He was cast as Indiana Jones in The Raiders of the Lost Ark, but when Magnum’s producers refused to release him from his contract, the role went to Harrison Ford instead.

After Selleck decided to do the honourable thing  and stick with Universal Studios, filming was delayed for a period of six months, which meant that he would’ve been able to complete filming as Indiana after all. What a bummer this must have been for him, considering the film series’ continual success.

With his winning smile, and jet black, immaculate moustache, Tom Selleck was noticeable anywhere he went.  The only drawback was that he was sometimes mistaken for Burt Reynolds, another moustached heart-throb. One important thing to note about Selleck, is that the ‘Friends’ (the sitcom in which he played Monica’s sweetheart) producers had to stop having live audiences, because they couldn’t control them when he was appearing. What a star.

Charles Bronson

image source

Bronson was the eleventh of fifteen children, born to a poverty-stricken Lithuanian family living in Pennsylvania.  When Bronson was ten, his father died, which meant that he had to work in the coal mines for a reportedly one dollar per ton.  When he was twenty-two, he joined the U.S Army Air Forces and served as an Aircraft gunner in WWll. He then changed his name from Buchinsky to Bronson, and after many baby steps in the filming industry, Bronson made his mark and got himself noticed in ‘The Magnificent Seven.’ He is now known for a number of action-hero-type films including ‘The Dirty Dozen.’ His ‘Death Wish’ series was extremely popular and ran for almost twenty years. Bronson died aged eighty-one in 2003, from pneumonia. He was also suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

Chuck Norris

image source

Chuck Norris was born, Carlos Ray Norris, on March 10, 1940, in Oklahoma. He was from a working class family, and was from Irish/Cherokee decent. When he was eighteen, he joined the National Air Force as an Air Policeman, and earned himself the name, Chuck.  He was based in South Korea, which is where he picked up an interest in Tang Soo Du. When he returned to the U.S, he opened a chain of Karate schools for kids, and later became internationally known for his masterful roundhouse kick. His acting career kicked off successfully and he became world-famous in his role as Cordell Walker in ‘Walker, Texas Ranger.’ He’s also known for a number of tough-guy film roles. His moustache has evolved through the years. At one time he had just a moustache, but then graduated to a full beard, then back to just a moustache again.

All these men made an impact creatively, politically, or socially. I am tempted to think that if it wasn’t for the moustaches, they would be ordinary looking men who would not be so readily identifiable. What do you think?

Don’t miss the first part of this series!