Bronson Pinchot - Personal Life

Personal Life

Pinchot was born in Manhattan, the son of Rosina (née Asta), a typist, and Henry Pinchot (originally Poncharavsky), a bookbinder. His mother was Italian-American, and his father, who was of Russian descent, was born in New York and raised in Paris. Pinchot was raised in southern California. After graduating from South Pasadena High School, where he was number one in his class and valedictorian, he went to Yale University on a full scholarship. He was placed in Morse College there and graduated magna cum laude. He began college studying fine art but became interested in acting when he won a role in a college play and was discovered by a casting director which resulted in a role in the feature film Risky Business.

During an episode of the $25,000 Pyramid, TV host Dick Clark asked Pinchot what type of work he had done prior to acting. Pinchot answered that he had worked for a company making leather souvenir key chains. When asked how long he did that, he replied "12 hours a day for a couple of years."

He retains an active interest in ancient Greek sculpture (460–31 BC). In December 2002, Pinchot became a Freemason.

Since approximately 1999, Pinchot has spent a great deal of time in Harford, Pennsylvania, restoring the circa 1839 mansion of former Pennsylvania state Senator Edward Jones. He has since purchased six properties in the small, rural town of 1,300 "in an effort to return the town to its 1800s appearance."

Pinchot has a sister and two brothers, one of them being younger brother Justin Pinchot, who had a guest-starring role on the Perfect Strangers episode "It Had to Be You". Justin also stood-in for Bronson when performing a dual role on Perfect Strangers and in TV commercials, causing them to sometimes be misidentified as twins; however Justin is three years younger.

In the 1970s, Pinchot was an active member of The International Wizard of Oz Club, for which he organized the 1977 Winkie Convention and provided several illustrations for The Oz Calendar, copies of which fetch high prices at club auctions, due to his celebrity status.