Bryan Cranston

Cranston was married to writer Mickey Middleton from 1977 to 1982. He married actress Robin Dearden in 1989 after meeting her while they were both appearing on the television series Airwolf in 1984. They have a daughter, actress Taylor Dearden, born in 1993.

Taylor Dearden appeared with both of her parents in the Breaking Bad episode "No Más," which Cranston directed. Cranston and his Breaking Bad co-star Aaron Paul later launched the mezcal company Dos Hombres in 2019.

Bryan Lee Cranston was born in Hollywood, California, and was raised in the Canoga Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. His mother, Annalisa "Peggy" Sell, was a radio actress, while his father, Joseph Cranston, was an actor and former semi-professional boxer. After his father left the family when Cranston was 11, Cranston and his brother Kyle spent time living with their maternal grandparents on a poultry farm in Yucaipa, California.

Cranston studied at Los Angeles Valley College, where an acting class taken as an elective changed his professional plans. He had participated in the Law Enforcement Explorer Program and once considered a career in policing, but chose acting after discovering an aptitude for stage work. After graduating, he and Kyle spent two years traveling across the country by motorcycle before returning to California and pursuing acting careers.

Cranston began professionally in local and regional theater before taking small roles in commercials and television programs. He appeared in shows including CHiPs, Airwolf, Hill Street Blues, Matlock, Murder, She Wrote, and Baywatch, and played Douglas Donovan on the soap opera Loving from 1983 to 1985. He also performed English-language dubbing for Japanese animated productions under the pseudonym Lee Stone.

His recurring role as dentist Dr. Tim Whatley on Seinfeld from 1994 to 1997 raised his profile. He later played Buzz Aldrin in the miniseries From the Earth to the Moon and appeared in Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan. In 2000, he took the leading television role of Hal, the awkward and affectionate father in Malcolm in the Middle, earning three Primetime Emmy nominations during the show's 2000-2006 run.

Cranston's defining role came in Breaking Bad, which aired from 2008 to 2013. He played Walter White, a high-school chemistry teacher diagnosed with lung cancer who begins producing methamphetamine with his former student Jesse Pinkman, played by Aaron Paul, to provide for his family. The character changes from a vulnerable teacher into an increasingly ruthless criminal, allowing Cranston to draw on both menace and pathos.

The series was created by Vince Gilligan, who had previously worked with Cranston on an episode of The X-Files. Gilligan remembered Cranston's performance and pursued him for Walter White despite Cranston's stronger public association with comedy. Cranston won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series four times for the role, including three consecutive victories from 2008 through 2010 and another in 2014.

Cranston also became a producer during the show's fourth and fifth seasons and directed three episodes. He reprised Walter White in El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, two episodes of Better Call Saul, and a 2023 commercial for Dos Hombres alongside Aaron Paul.

Following the success of Breaking Bad, Cranston took prominent film roles in Drive, Argo, and Godzilla. He portrayed screenwriter Dalton Trumbo in the 2015 biographical drama Trumbo, earning Academy Award and BAFTA Award nominations for Best Actor, as well as nominations from the Golden Globe, Critics Choice, and Screen Actors Guild Awards. In The Infiltrator, he played undercover federal agent Robert Mazur, who investigates money laundering connected to Colombian drug trafficking.

His later film work included Last Flag Flying, The Upside, and Wes Anderson's stop-motion feature Isle of Dogs, in which he voiced the dog Chief. He voiced Li Shan in Kung Fu Panda 3 and Kung Fu Panda 4, played Zordon in Power Rangers, and appeared in The One and Only Ivan, Argylle, and The Phoenician Scheme. His memoir, A Life in Parts, was published in 2016 and became a New York Times bestseller.

Cranston continued working in television after Breaking Bad, with appearances in How I Met Your Mother, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and animated programs including Robot Chicken, Family Guy, and SuperMansion. He co-created, wrote, and served as an executive producer on the crime drama Sneaky Pete, in which he played crime boss Vince Lonigan from 2015 to 2019.

From 2020 to 2023, Cranston starred in Your Honor as a judge who takes extreme measures to protect his son after a fatal hit-and-run. He also served as an executive producer on the series. In 2025, he played studio head Griffin Mill in The Studio and won a seventh Emmy Award for a guest appearance on the series.

Cranston made his Broadway debut in Robert Schenkkan's All the Way, portraying U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson during the effort to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964. His performance earned the 2014 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play. He reprised the role in the 2016 HBO film adaptation, receiving further award nominations and an Actor Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie.

In 2017, Cranston made his London stage debut as news anchor Howard Beale in Network. He won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for the West End production and a second Tony Award for the Broadway transfer, which opened in 2018. He later returned to the West End in Arthur Miller's All My Sons.