'The Sacred Monster' - Charles Bronson

There's a reason he was cast as a 'Tunnel King' in The Great Escape...

In France, they called him 'Le Sacre Monstre'; in Italy, 'Il Brutto'. But there was a time when Charles Bronson was just plain old Charlie Buchinski, coal miner.

Among the most dangerous of all professions, mining was even more risky in Bronson's day. Not only were tunnel collapses commonplace in the pits of Pennsylvania, but the workers were also obliged to take caged birds with them to detect gas leaks.

And Bronson's reward for putting his life on the line day after day? A dollar for every ton of coal mined. The only compensation for Bronson was that the job prepared him to play 'Tunnel King' Danny Velinski in The Great Escape.