Bronson's Unique and Inimitable Voice

Imagine the voices of these "macho men" movie stars -- can you hear them?

John Wayne

Kirk Douglas

Burt Lancaster

Clint Eastwood

Sylvester Stallone

Arnold Schwarzenegger

....not only can you HEAR the voices, you can IMITATE them. In the 60's, an impressionist named Frank Gorshin(also The Riddler on Batman) did Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster as a "duet."

And everybody can do an Arnold impression("Get to da choppa!" "Ah'll be back!") or a Sly impression("Yo, Adrian...absolutely!")

Or a John Wayne impression(though his memory is finally starting to fade, it seems.)

But what about Charles Bronson?

I'm not sure I ever heard a good Charles Bronson impression. On the other hand, he sure had a unique, interesting voice, didn't he? And its hard to describe.

It wasn't a particularly "macho" voice. It wasn't deep. Speaking of "deep voiced macho actors" (of whom impressions were not done) try : Robert Mitchum, Lee Marvin. James Coburn.

No, the Bronson voice stood apart from ALL of the others. It sounded a little "foreign" maybe -- he was American-born but of Eastern European roots, I think. And yet, he had no accent. So THAT analysis doesn't work. It sounded a little "high pitched" but it wasn't, really. So THAT analysis doesn't work.

Whispery? Sometimes. A bit like a little boy? Sometimes. A bit lisping? Sometimes.

But honestly, I think at least some of Bronson's movie stardom -- AFTER the muscles, AFTER the stone face, AFTER the often-worn moustache...was that curious, very unique voice.