Bryan Lee Cranston (born March 7, 1956) is an American actor, director, and producer who is best known for portraying Walter White in the AMC crime drama series Breaking Bad (2008–2013) and Hal in the Fox sitcom Malcolm in the Middle (2000–2006). He has received several awards—including six Primetime Emmy Awards, four Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Tony Awards, and a Golden Globe Award—with a nomination for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award.

Bryan Cranston's performance on Breaking Bad earned him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series four times (2008, 2009, 2010, and 2014). After becoming a producer of the show in 2011, he also won the award for Outstanding Drama Series twice. Breaking Bad also earned Cranston five Golden Globe nominations (with one win) and nine Screen Actors Guild Award nominations (with four wins). He was previously nominated three times for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his role in Malcolm in the Middle. Cranston co-developed and occasionally appeared in the crime drama series Sneaky Pete (2015–2019) and served as a director for episodes of Malcolm in the Middle, Breaking Bad, Modern Family, and The Office.

In 2014, Cranston earned a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his portrayal of President Lyndon B. Johnson in the Broadway play All the Way, a role he reprised in the HBO 2016 television film of the same name. In 2018, he received the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Play for his portrayal of Howard Beale in the play Network at London's National Theatre, later winning his second Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for the same role on Broadway. For portraying Dalton Trumbo in the film Trumbo (2015), he received nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Golden Globe Award, all for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

Cranston has appeared in several other films, such as Saving Private Ryan (1998), Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Drive (2011), Argo (2012), Godzilla (2014), and The Upside (2017). He also provided voice acting in the films Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012), Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016), and Isle of Dogs (2018).

Early life :

Bryan Lee Cranston was born in Hollywood, Los Angeles and the second of three children born to Annalisa "Peggy" (née Sell; 1923–2004), a radio actress, and Joseph Louis Cranston (1924–2014), an actor and former amateur boxer. His father was of half Irish, quarter Austrian Ashkenazi Jewish, and quarter German descent, while his mother was the daughter of German immigrants. He has an older brother, Kyle, and a younger sister, Amy. Cranston was raised in Canoga Park, Los Angeles. His father held many jobs before deciding to become an actor, but did not secure enough roles to provide for his family. He eventually walked out on the family when Cranston was 11 years old, and they did not see each other again until a 22-year-old Cranston and his brother Kyle decided to track him down. Cranston would later go on to star in a film directed by his father entitled The Big Turnaround in 1988. He then maintained a relationship with his father until his father's death in 2014.

Cranston has claimed that he based his portrayal of Walter White on his own father, who had a slumped posture "like the weight of the world was on his shoulders". After his father left, he was raised partly by his maternal grandparents and lived on their poultry farm in Yucaipa, California. He has called his parents "broken people" who were "incapacitated as far as parenting" and caused the family to lose their house in a foreclosure. In 1968, when he was 12 years old, he encountered Charles Manson while riding horses with his cousin at the Spahn Ranch. This happened about a year before Manson ordered the Tate-LaBianca murders.Cranston graduated from Canoga Park High School, where he was a member of the school's chemistry club, and earned an associate degree in police science from Los Angeles Valley College in 1976. While at Los Angeles Valley College he took an acting class for an elective, which inspired him to pursue a career in acting, saying "And at 19 years old, all of a sudden, my life changed."