Bryan Cranston facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Bryan Cranston
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Cranston in 2022
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Bryan Lee Cranston
March 7, 1956 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
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| Alma mater | Los Angeles Valley College (AS) |
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| Years active | 1980–present |
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Full list |
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| Children | Taylor Dearden |
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| Awards | Full list |
Bryan Lee Cranston (born March 7, 1956) is a famous American actor. He is well-known for playing Walter White in the TV show Breaking Bad (2008–2013). He also played Hal in the comedy series Malcolm in the Middle (2000–2006). Bryan Cranston has won many awards for his acting. These include six Primetime Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, and two Golden Globes. He was also nominated for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award.
His role in Breaking Bad earned him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series four times. He won in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2014. He also won a Golden Globe in 2014 for the same role. In 2011, he became a producer for Breaking Bad. This helped him win the award for Outstanding Drama Series twice. Before that, he was nominated three times for his funny role in Malcolm in the Middle. Cranston also helped create and appeared in the crime drama Sneaky Pete (2015–2019). He starred in the drama series Your Honor (2020–2023) too.
On stage, Bryan Cranston won a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play. This was for his role as President Lyndon B. Johnson in the play All the Way (2014). He played this role again in an HBO movie in 2016. He also won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor and his second Tony Award for playing Howard Beale in the play Network.
Cranston was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Trumbo (2015). In this movie, he played Dalton Trumbo, a real-life screenwriter. Other movies he has been in include Saving Private Ryan (1998), Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Drive (2011), and Argo (2012). He also appeared in Godzilla (2014) and Asteroid City (2023). Bryan Cranston has also lent his voice to animated movies. These include Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012) and Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016).
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Bryan Cranston's Early Life
Bryan Lee Cranston was born in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on March 7, 1956. He was the second of three children. His mother, Annalisa "Peggy" Sell, was a radio actress. His father, Joseph Cranston, was an actor and a former boxer. Bryan's father left the family when Bryan was 11 years old. Bryan and his brother found him again when Bryan was 22. Bryan later worked with his father on a film.
Cranston has said that he based his character Walter White on his own father. He said his father had a slumped posture, "like the weight of the world was on his shoulders." After his father left, Bryan was partly raised by his grandparents. They lived on a poultry farm in Yucaipa, California. He called his parents "broken people" who struggled with parenting.
Bryan Cranston graduated from Canoga Park High School. He was part of the school's chemistry club. In 1976, he earned a degree in police science from Los Angeles Valley College. While there, he took an acting class. This class made him want to become an actor. He said, "And at 19 years old, all of a sudden, my life changed."
Becoming an Actor
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After college, Cranston started acting in local theaters. He had acted as a child, but his parents had mixed feelings about him being in show business. So, he didn't act again until years later. When he was 19, Cranston became a minister. He performed weddings for $150 to earn money. He also worked as a waiter, a security guard, and a truck loader. He even worked as a camera operator for a video dating service!
Cranston began getting regular acting jobs in the late 1980s. These were mostly small roles and commercials. He was in the soap opera Loving from 1983 to 1985. He also appeared in an episode of Baywatch in 1989. Cranston also did voice acting for Japanese anime shows. He used the name Lee Stone for some of these roles. He voiced characters in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in 1993–94. He played characters like Twin Man and Snizzard.
Famous TV Roles
Seinfeld and The X-Files
In 1994, Cranston got a recurring role on the popular show Seinfeld. He played Dr. Tim Whatley, Jerry's dentist, until 1997. In 1998, he appeared in an episode of The X-Files called "Drive". This episode was written by Vince Gilligan, who later created Breaking Bad. That same year, he played Buzz Aldrin in the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon. In 1999, Cranston wrote and directed his own film called Last Chance. He also had a recurring role on the sitcom The King of Queens.
Malcolm in the Middle
In 2000, Cranston got a main role as Hal in the comedy series Malcolm in the Middle. He stayed with the show until it ended in 2006. Cranston also directed several episodes of the show. He received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his performance as Hal. He even played Hal again in a funny scene for the TV show Family Guy.
Cranston also had guest roles in many other TV series. He was in The Flash and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. In 2006, he appeared in How I Met Your Mother as Ted Mosby's annoying boss, Hammond Druthers. He played Lucifer in the miniseries Fallen. He was also in the 2001 Disney Channel movie 'Twas the Night. In this movie, he played an irresponsible uncle who almost ruined Christmas.
Breaking Bad Stardom
From 2008 to 2013, Cranston starred in the AMC series Breaking Bad. The show was created by Vince Gilligan. Cranston played the main character, Walter White. Walter was a high school chemistry teacher who gets diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Cranston's acting in this series was highly praised. He won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series three years in a row (2008, 2009, 2010). He won again in 2014 for the final season. Bryan Cranston and Bill Cosby are the only actors to win this award three times in a row. Cranston also helped produce the show's later seasons. He directed three episodes too.
In 2011, Cranston had supporting roles in three successful movies. These were The Lincoln Lawyer, Drive, and Contagion. He also voiced James "Jim" Gordon in the animated movie Batman: Year One (2011). In 2012, he was in John Carter and Rock of Ages. He also voiced Vitaly the tiger in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. He had a big role in the movie Argo, which won an Oscar. He also voiced characters in the animated series Robot Chicken. In 2012, he starred in the movie Total Recall. He played Chancellor Vilos Cohaagen, a corrupt president.
Broadway Roles and More Movies
From 2013 to 2014, Cranston played U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson in the Broadway play All the Way. The play showed President Johnson's efforts to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Critics loved his performance. Charles Isherwood of The New York Times said Cranston's acting was "heat-generating" and "galvanizes the production". He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for this role.
He also played scientist Joe Brody in the 2014 movie Godzilla. From 2015 to 2019, he played Vince Lonigan in the Amazon Prime Video series Sneaky Pete. Cranston also helped create, write, and produce this show.
Cranston has produced a DVD called KidSmartz. It teaches families how to stay safe from child abductors and online dangers. KidSmartz donates half of its sales to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. In 2016, he starred in an episode of the series Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams. He also worked as an executive producer for the series.
Cranston played President Johnson again in an HBO movie of All the Way (2016). Steven Spielberg was an executive producer for this movie. Cranston's acting was highly praised. He won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie. In 2015, Cranston starred as screenwriter Dalton Trumbo in the movie Trumbo. This role earned him his first Academy Award nomination. In 2016, Cranston voiced Li, Po's biological father, in Kung Fu Panda 3. He also appeared in the movies The Infiltrator and Wakefield.
Cranston's book about his life, A Life in Parts, was published in 2016. It became a New York Times bestseller. In 2017, he voiced Zordon in the movie Power Rangers. This was his return to the franchise after voicing characters in the first season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
Cranston starred in the play Network, based on the 1976 film. He played the news anchor Howard Beale. The play opened in London in 2017 and then moved to Broadway in 2018. Critics praised his "volcanic" and "gut-wrenching" performance. Cranston won his second Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for this role. He also won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor.
He played Phillip Lacasse, a wealthy man who uses a wheelchair, in the movie The Upside (2017). He was in this movie with Kevin Hart and Nicole Kidman. He was also part of the cast for the 2018 animated movie Isle of Dogs, directed by Wes Anderson. He voiced the lead dog, Chief. In 2018, Cranston became the voice for new Ford commercials. In 2019, his production company, Moonshot Entertainment, signed a deal with Warner Bros. Television.
In 2020, he starred as Mack, the lead human, in the Disney movie The One and Only Ivan. From 2020 to 2023, he had the main role in the miniseries Your Honor. He played a judge whose son accidentally kills someone. In 2022, Cranston played Walter White again in the final season of the Breaking Bad prequel series Better Call Saul. In 2023, he appeared as Walter White in a Super Bowl commercial for PopCorners. He has said this might be his last time playing the character.
Charity Work
In April 2014, Bryan Cranston helped present at the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Easter Bonnet Competition. He helped raise money for this charity through his Broadway show All the Way.
Influences
Cranston has said that Dick Van Dyke greatly influenced him. He admired Van Dyke's physical comedy and how he could move his body freely. In a 2016 interview, he mentioned he would love to work with Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, and Dustin Hoffman.
Personal Life
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From 1977 to 1982, Bryan Cranston was married to writer Mickey Middleton. On July 8, 1989, he married Robin Dearden. He met her on the set of the series Airwolf in 1984. He was playing a bad guy, and she was a hostage he held at gunpoint. Both Robin and their daughter, actress Taylor Dearden (born February 12, 1993), appeared in the Breaking Bad episode "No Más", which Cranston directed.
Cranston played baseball when he was a student. He still collects baseball items like pennants, signed cards, and jerseys. He is a big fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Rams. During a 2022 MLB Celebrity Softball Game, Cranston was jokingly thrown out of the game after being hit by a pitch.
When he won his third Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, Cranston thanked his wife and daughter. He told them he loves them "more than baseball." The family used to live in a beach house in Ventura County, California that Cranston designed.
While filming Breaking Bad, Cranston lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He also used to be a co-owner of a movie theater called Cinemas Palme d'Or in Palm Desert, California.
Cranston and his Breaking Bad co-star Aaron Paul both got Breaking Bad tattoos. They got them on the last day of filming to remember the show. Cranston's tattoo is the show's logo on his right ring finger. Paul's tattoo says "no half measures" on his arm.
Cranston and Aaron Paul also launched their own brand of mezcal (a type of alcohol) called Dos Hombres in July 2019.
Acting Credits and Awards
See also
In Spanish: Bryan Cranston para niños
