Bryan Cranston has gotten his feet wet with several successful films, but when Breaking Bad hit television screens in 2008, it brought his career to an all time high.
Now that Breaking Bad is over, let’s check out 15 amazing facts about Bryan Cranston.
He is 66 years old and was born in California on March 7, 1956, to Peggy Sell – a radio actress, and Joseph Louis Cranston – a Hollywood actor and producer.
Bryan’s parents didn’t want him to have a career in Hollywood, so Bryan Cranston didn’t start pursuing his acting career until he left college.
He earned a two-year degree in police science, but he didn’t go into a law enforcement job after graduation. Instead, he and his brother took to the road on their motorcycles!
Before Cranston hit the road with his brother, they worked as waiters in a Florida restaurant, at the time they left, the chef was murdered, which made Bryan and his brothers murder suspects for a while… We all know Bryan went full Heisenberg on him!
Bryan Cranston is 5’10” tall (1.79 meters).
At the age of 21 Cranston married Mickey Middleton, however the marriage ended in a divorce 5 years later. He went on to marry Robin Deardon, who he met on the set of Airwolf. They have a daughter named Taylor Deardon Cranston, who reads Theater Studies at the University of Southern California. She was also an extra in an episode of Breaking Bad directed by Bryan Cranston.
Bryan pockets $225,000 (£141,000) per episode of Breaking Bad, which means his earnings for the final eight episodes of the series is $1.8million (£1.1million)!
In his early days as an actor, he was dubbing voices and doing several commercials, including one where he wore a skunk costume and took a shower… strange, but true!
The actor is a baseball lover and a loyal supporter of the LA Dodgers. He collects memorabilia and even his wife had to throw his 40th birthday party at the Dodgers’ Stadium. In an Emmys acceptance speech, he famously revealed that that he loves his wife and daughter more than a baseball.
Aside Breaking Bad, Cranston is renowned for his role as Hal, the father in the wildly successful sitcom Malcolm in the Middle. Hal lived in the shadow of his domineering wife, Lois, and had extremely camp tendencies such as rollerskating to Queen in a glittery disco suit. He claims this was his favorite episode to film, as he spent six weeks learning to roller-skate in advance.
Bryan Cranston did voice-overs on Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. If you have a really good memory, or for some reason you still watch it, you’ll know the blue Power Ranger’s name was Billy Cranston. The team decided to name the character after the voice actor – so yeah, he’s kind of a Power Ranger!
He has a dog called Sugar, who he once rescued.
The Star Actor was honored as Grand Marshal at the 2006 Sherman Oaks Street Fair in California. The accolade was in celebration of his contribution to the local community and support of KidSmartz, an initiative to help prevent child abduction.
Cranston is a creative gifter. He once wrote a screenplay for his wife Robin’s birthday gift.
Bryan Cranston will appear in the Breaking Bad spin-off series Better Call Saul.
