Christian Bale

Description:
Unlike many, Christian Bale successfully made the transition from child performer to adult actor with a minimum of difficulty and was poised to become one of the breakout stars in the new millennium. The Welsh-born Bale started performing at age nine when he landed work in British television commercials. The following year, he acted on stage in alongside Rowan Atkinson in the comedy "The Nerd". Additional commercials and a part as a spoiled brat on the British series "The Heart of the Country" followed before he made his American TV debut as Alexis, the hemophiliac heir to the Russian throne, in the NBC miniseries "Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna" (1986), starring Amy Irving. Ironically, it was Irving's then-husband, director Steven Spielberg, who would offer the young thespian his breakthrough role in "Empire of the Sun" (1987). Winning the lead in this screen version of J G Ballard's autobiographical novel over some 4,000 other hopefuls, Bale delivered one of the best juvenile performances ever captured on film. As Jim, a pampered upper-class British adolescent living in China, he was required to shoulder the bulk of the film. Bale's character ages and undergoes enormous shifts of circumstances after becoming separated from his parents—moving from his privileged world to a life in an internment camp where he finds surrogate parents. His was the performance that anchored the film and critics and audiences paid close attention to his extraordinary work.

Bale continued to stretch as an actor and eschewing the usual teenager roles. He undertook Shakespeare playing the boy who assists Falstaff (Robbie Coltrane) in Kenneth Branagh's stirring "Henry V" (1989) before playing Jim Hawkins to Charleton Heston's Long John Silver in the TNT movie "Treasure Island" (1990). After a short hiatus, the tall, extremely handsome Bale returned to features as the pro-labor leader of a band of urchins hawking newspapers in the ill-fated Disney musical "Newsies" (1992). Again, he was asked to carry much of the film and he acquitted himself nicely, proving to have a pleasant if unremarkable singing voice and capable of executing intricate dance steps. The latter came in handy for "Swing Kids" (1993), an ambitious and slightly overdone period drama about a group of German youths enamored of American big band music. Bale essayed the most intriguing of the group—a character who denounced his friends and embraces Nazism. While the overall film proved problematic, he delivered a compelling and nuanced performance. It took his turn as the wealthy, spirited Laurie, the neighbor to the March sisters, in Gillian Armstrong's version of "Little Women" (1994) for audiences to fully embrace him. Offering a charismatic and energetic male presence to the proceedings, he found himself wearing the label of "heartthrob.”

As the 1990s wound down, Bale continued to offer fascinating characterizations. Attempting not to repeat himself, he walked off with the acting honors as a mentally disabled youth in Christopher Hampton's uneven adaptation of Joseph Conrad's "The Secret Agent" (1996). That same year he also appeared as a young swain in Jane Campion's " Portrait of a Lady". Undertaking his first real "adult" role, he starred as a married man questioning his life choices in the tart "Metroland" (1997; released in the USA in 1999. Shot over 27 days, "Metroland" offered the actor one of his richest roles, as he was required to portray the character at three stages in his life. That Bale believable sketched an immature schoolboy, a virginal twenty-something bohemian and a staid suburbanite is a tribute to his gifts. He managed a similar feat in Todd Haynes' problematic "Velvet Goldmine" (1998) as well, doing double duty as a mature reporter investigating the mystery surrounding the disappearance of a glam-rock star and playing his youthful incarnation who emulated said singer. Following another go at the Bard as the stalwart Demetrius in "William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream", he offered another strong performance as a slightly disabled youth in the fairy tale-like "All the Little Animals" (both 1999). While the film proved uneven, Bale utilized his body and voice to inhabit his character and held his own in scenes with the powerful John Hurt and Daniel Benzali.

He next undertook what promised to be his most challenging role, that of Wall Street stockbroker turned serial killer Patrick Bateman in the film version of "American Psycho" (2000). This adaptation of a book which that was both praised and reviled sparked several controversies before a frame of film was exposed. Director Mary Harron had settled on Bale for the lead but Lion's Gate, the production company funding the film, had wanted more well-known names attached to the project. At one point, actor Leonardo DiCaprio and director Oliver Stone were reported to be interested, but with a budget rising in excess of $40 million, Lion's Gate demurred. Eventually Harron returned to the project and hired Bale. Before filming began in Toronto, victims rights groups attempted to stop the city from issuing filming permits (the book allegedly served as an inspiration for a Canadian serial killer). From all reports, the role would be a demarcation in the actor's career: either he would be seen for what he is--a brilliant actor--or his career might never recover. It was a risk Bale was more than willing to take, as he put it, "Otherwise, what? I'm going to end up playing Laurie in 'Little Women' for the rest of my life?"

Perhaps as insurance, he opted to portray the other end of the spectrum when he accepted the role of Jesus in the NBC biblical drama "Mary, Mother of Jesus" (1999), co-starring Pernilla August. From there Bale moved on to supporting roles in a pair of more conventional, low-performing films, John Singelton's remake of "Shaft" (2000) with Samuel L. Jackson and "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" (2001) starring Nicolas Cage. He scored a modest box office hit when he starred as the dragon fighter Quinn in the fantasy adventure "Reign of Fire" (2002); later that year the uninspired sci-fi parable "Equilibrum," which was filmed two years earlier and reunited him with Emily Watson, was released with little fanfare and poor critical response, but he fared better in the intriguing--if not always artistically successful--indie drama "Laurel Canyon" (2003), in which he convincingly played an L.A.-bred physician and son of an iconoclastic rock producer (Frances McDormand) quite who returns to the affluent canyon community he's grown to look down upon with his fiancé (Kate Beckinsale) and finds them both succumbing to the temptation L.A. offers. Bale's next film was the knotty, nightmarish, David Lynch-ian thriller "The Machinist" (lensed 2003) by director Brad Anderson, in which the actor played a drill press operator who grows emaciated after not sleeping for a year (Bale actually underwent the radical physical transformation in lieu of f/x tricks).

After that, Bale built his body back into super-heroic shape and rocketed to international superstardom when he was tapped by director Christopher Nolan to star as the comic book superhero Batman and his alter ego Bruce Wayne for "Batman Begins" (2005), a serious-minded reboot of the faded franchise that explored the origins of the Dark Knight in his earliest days. Bale was the most comic book-accurate Batman yet, convincingly playing both his fearsome crime-fighting alter ego, the foppish public persona of Bruce Wayne and the third, real personality behind both masks. He was scheduled to revive the role in 2008, opposite Heath Ledger as The Joker, in Nolan's sequel "The Dark Knight" in 2008. Bale next had a supporting role in Terrance Malick’s “The New World” (2005), a lyrical, but ultimately meandering take on the settlement at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607 and the ensuing love affair between Captain John Smith (Colin Farrell) and a young Native American girl, Pocahontas (Q’Orianka Kilcher). Bale played John Rolfe, a tobacconist who marries Pocahontas after the supposed death of Smith and brings her back to England where she’s treated as a celebrity.

Bale next starred in the critically acclaimed drama, “The Prestige” (2006), playing an obscure, but brilliant magician engaged in a game of one-upmanship with his flashier, more sophisticated opponent (Hugh Jackman). The rivalry starts off friendly enough, but a trick that goes horribly awry forces them to become bitter enemies, leading both down the path of a fierce, no-bounds competition that may ultimately end in one’s death. Then in “Harsh Times” (2006), scribe David Ayer’s directorial debut, Bale was a Gulf War veteran struggling to cope with postwar life while hoping to make it into the LAPD. The veteran’s dreams of becoming a cop starts to slip away when he teams up with his best friend (Freddy Rodriguez) on a violent rampage through South Central Los Angeles that eventually causes dire consequences for themselves and their friendship. Meanwhile, the actor was cast as Dieter Dengler in “Rescue Dawn” (2006), a true-life telling of the German-born test pilot whose obsession with flying brought him to the United States where he joined the Air Force during Vietnam only to be shot down his first mission and captured by Vietcong guerillas. Directed by famed lunatic Werner Herzog, “Rescue Dawn” put Bale through the wringer in the jungles of Thailand, where the actor endured harsh conditions, grueling takes and crew revolts—all typical of a Herzog production.



Ingredients:
Also Credited As: Christian Morgan BaleBorn: on 01/30/1974 in Pembrokeshire, WalesJob Titles: ActorFamily
Father: David Bale. born c. 1939 in South Africa; divorced from Bale's mother; remarried and divorced; married Gloria Steinem on September 3, 2000; died on December 30, 2003, from brain lymphoma at the age of 62
Mother: Jane Bale. divorced from Bale's father
Sister: Erin Bale. older
Sister: Louise Bale. older
Sister: Shannon Bale. older
Step-mother: Gloria Steinem. married David Bale on September 3, 2000
Milestones
1983 Acting debut in an commercial for Pac-Man cereal
1984 At age 10, made London stage debut in a West End production of the Larry Shue comedy, "The Nerd", starring Rowan Atkinson
1986 American TV debut as Alexis in the two-part NBC movie, "Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna"
1987 Feature film debut, "Mio, min Mio/The Land of Faraway", a children's fantasy co-produced by USSR, Norway and Sweden; not released in USA until after "Empire of the Sun"
1987 First starring role in a US feature, "Empire of the Sun", directed by Steven Spielberg
1990 Played Jim Hawkins in the TNT movie "Treasure Island"
1992 Made screen singing debut in the Disney musical "Newsies"
1994 Portrayed Laurie opposite Wynona Ryder's Jo March in Gillian Armstrong's remake of "Little Women"; role revitalized career
1995 Provided the voice of Thomas in Disney's animated "Pocahontas"
1997 Had first adult lead as Emily Watson's husband in "Metroland" (released in the USA in 1999)
1998 Co-starred with Ewan McGregor and Jonathan Rhys Meyers in "Velvet Goldmine"; cast as a fan of glam rock who grows up to become a reporter asked to investigate the disappearance of one of its biggest stars
1999 Cast as Jesus in the NBC movie "Mary, Mother of Jesus"
1999 Played Demetrius in Michael Hoffman's all-star remake of "William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream"
2000 Played a villain in "Shaft", helmed by John Singleton
2000 Starred as Wall Street executive Patrick Bateman who turns serial killer in the screen adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' "American Psycho"; premiered at the Sundance Film Festival
2001 Cast as one leg of a romantic triangle in "Captain Corelli's Mandolin", co-starring Nicolas Cage and Penelope Cruz
2002 Co-starred with Matthew McConaughey in "Reign of Fire"
2002 Reunited with Emily Watson in the futuristic thriller "Equilibrium"
2002 Starred opposite Frances McDormand in "Laurel Canyon"
2004 Played a haunted insomniac factory worker in "The Machinist"
2005 Portrayed English tobacco planter John Rolfe opposite Colin Farrell and Christopher Plummer in Terrence Malick's "The New World"
2005 Teamed with director Christopher Nolan to play Bruce Wayne/Batman in "Batman Begins"
2006 Cast as an ex-Army Ranger recently discharged from the military in David Ayer's directorial debut, "Harsh Times"
2006 Co-starred in Christopher Nolan's adaptation of "The Prestige," a novel about rival magicians working in early-20th-century London
Announced as the lead in the film version of "American Psycho" to be directed by Mary Harron; dropped when Lions Gate took on project and Leonardo DiCaprio was sought for the role; when DiCaprio opted to star in "The Beach", Bale and Harron rejoined for the project
Appeared on several British TV commercials
Raised in Oxfordshire and Dorset in England and in Portugal and California
TV debut as a spoiled brat in the BBC miniseries, "The Heart of the Country"
Will reprise his role as Bruce Wayne/Batman in a sequel, titled "The Dark Knight" with Christopher Nolan returning to direct



Directions:
Actor Credits
The Dark Knight (2008) Bruce Wayne/ Batman3:10 to Yuma (Remake) (2007) Dan EvansRescue Dawn (2007) Dieter DenglerHarsh Times (2006) Jim DavisThe Prestige (2006) Alfred BordenBatman Begins (2005) Bruce Wayne/ BatmanHowl's Moving Castle (2005) The New World (2005) John RolfeThe Machinist (2004) Trevor ReznikLaurel Canyon (2003) SamEquilibrium (2002) John PrestonReign of Fire (2002) QuinnCaptain Corelli's Mandolin (2001) MandrasAmerican Psycho (2000) Patrick BatemanShaft (2000) Walter Wade JrAll the Little Animals (1999) BobbyMetroland (1999) Chris LloydA William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999) DemetriusVelvet Goldmine (1998) Arthur StuartThe Portrait of A Lady (1996) Edward RosierThe Secret Agent (1996) Stevie VerlocPocahontas (1995) Voice of of ThomasLittle Women (1994) LaurieRoyal Deceit (1994) AmledSwing Kids (1993) ThomasNewsies (1992) Jack Kelly/ Frances SullivanA Murder of Quality (1991) Henry V (1989) BoyTreasure Island (1989) The Mio min Mio (1988) Jum-JumEmpire of the Sun (1987) JimBack to Top

Producer Credits
Harsh Times (2006) Executive Producer