Born on March 7, 1956 in San Fernando Valley, California, Bryan Cranston began acting while he was in college. After completing his studies, he pursued an acting career in the late 1980s. He is best known for his work on
Malcolm in the Middle as Hal. He also worked on HBO's From the Earth to the Moon, That Thing You Do!, Disney Channel's 'Twas the Night, and Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan.
On television, Cranston worked on
Seinfeld ,
The King of Queens ,
How I Met Your Mother and Fallen. In 2007, he was cast as Chris Taub in the FOX medical drama,
House .
In talking about his career, Cranston said to IGN, "The career is a marathon, it's not a sprint, and you have to have that kind of mentality, that if your first couple miles, they're not working out to good – just hang in there. Just keep going, if that's what you indeed love to do. So my advice to young actors is only become an actor, professionally, if you have to. There's probably a half a dozen people who will read that comment and go, ‘I know what he's talking about. I feel that. I need to do this, I have no choice. But, to be an actor, because I'm pushed into that – it's part of me.' Then, there will be the masses who go, ‘What the hell does that mean? Only become an actor if you have to? What is that? What an idiot.' And throw it away because they don't get it. They see the external things surrounding an actor's life, and the only actors that they see are ones that they admire or wish they could have a similar career to."
Moreover, Cranston said, "I love to act, and I've been blessed with opportunity, so I'm just following it through. It's like riding a wave. You go out and try to catch a wave, and you miss most of them. Once in a while, you catch one – and even when you catch it, you go, 'Hey, this is a nice wave'... you still don't know how long it's going to take you."
Walter White is played by Bryan Cranston on AMC's Breaking Bad. A middle-aged man, Walter is a high school chemistry teacher who must work at a carwash after his school work to cover all the bills. After his fiftieth birthday, he found out that he has an incurable disease in the form of cancer. This changes his life and oddly liberates him to use his chemistry skills. He now rolls a drug laboratory and struggles to provide for his family's future.
(Photo courtesy of AMC)