Charles Bronson's Estate Nips at Warner Bros.' Heels Over Unpaid Profits

However much or little you may know of the late Charles Bronson, give the steely-eyed Hollywood tough this: even in death, he's not to be crossed.

Bronson's estate - specifically, trustee Larry Martindale - has filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court against Warner Bros. Studios, claiming the studio has been underreporting gross film receipts and gross film rental revenue for Bronson's 1975 film "St. Ives" and 1976's "Telefon," thus shorting the actor's estate a portion of the 10-15 percent of box office and rental revenue that he was owed under his original contracts for the two films, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The suit accuses Warner Bros. specifically of "not fairly allocating revenue generated from television sales and only reporting 20% of the gross receipts for home video and DVD sales.”

The estate's legal representatives claim that in lieu of Bronson's deals specifically referencing the 20-percent calculation, it's the studio's responsibility under the law to report 100 percent of gross home video receipts to the estate. It was widely accepted by talent guilds during the 1970s - Bronson's prime - when Betamax was in its infancy that 20 percent of home video revenue would be the basis for studios' profit participation.

Specifically, the suit alleges actionable harms by Warner Bros. rooted in breach of contract, declaratory relief, accounting, unjust enrichment, money due on an open-book account, converstion, fraudulent misrepresentation and unfair business practices.

Bronson - who starred in such memorable and classic action films as "The Dirty Dozen", "The Great Escape", "Mr. Majestyk", the recently remade "The Mechanic" and the frequently ripped-off-without-acknowledgement "Death Wish" - died due to complications from pneumonia in 2003 at the age of 81.