Christian Bale

Christian Bale has been married to Sibi Blazic, a former model and personal assistant, since 2000. The couple have two children, daughter Emmeline, born in 2005, and son Joseph, born in 2014.

Bale is the son of David Bale and Jenny James. His family lived in several countries during his childhood, including England, Portugal, and the United States.

Bale began performing as a child, appearing in a cereal commercial in 1983 before making his West End debut in The Nerd the following year. His role in the television film Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna brought him to Steven Spielberg's attention. Spielberg selected Bale from approximately 4,000 young actors to play Jim Graham in Empire of the Sun (1987), a wartime drama about an English boy held in a Japanese internment camp.

Bale was 13 when Empire of the Sun was released, and his performance earned him the National Board of Review Award for Best Performance by a Juvenile Actor and a Young Artist Award. He later appeared in Kenneth Branagh's Henry V (1989), Newsies (1992), Swing Kids (1993), and Little Women (1994). Winona Ryder selected him to play Theodore "Laurie" Laurence in Little Women.

His 1990s credits also included The Portrait of a Lady, The Secret Agent, Metroland, Velvet Goldmine, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. He played Demetrius in the latter film and voiced Thomas in Disney's animated Pocahontas (1995).

Bale's performance as Patrick Bateman, a murderous Wall Street executive, in American Psycho (2000) established him as a leading actor in psychologically intense roles. He followed it with films including Shaft, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Laurel Canyon, Reign of Fire, and Equilibrium.

For The Machinist (2004), Bale lost approximately 63 pounds to portray an insomniac factory worker whose deteriorating mental state drives the story. He then regained the weight to play Bruce Wayne and Batman in Batman Begins (2005), directed by Christopher Nolan.

Bale reprised the role in The Dark Knight (2008), co-starring with Heath Ledger as the Joker, and in The Dark Knight Rises (2012). The trilogy made him internationally associated with the modern screen portrayal of Batman. Between the Batman films, he appeared in The Prestige with Hugh Jackman, 3:10 to Yuma with Russell Crowe, and Todd Haynes's experimental Bob Dylan film I'm Not There.

Bale played John Connor in Terminator Salvation (2009) and FBI agent Melvin Purvis in Public Enemies (2009). In The Fighter (2010), he portrayed former welterweight boxer Dicky Eklund, the brother and trainer of Mark Wahlberg's character, Micky Ward. The performance earned Bale the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and a Golden Globe Award.

He continued to alternate between major studio productions and character-driven dramas. His later roles included an American mortician in The Flowers of War, a welder in Out of the Furnace, and con artist Irving Rosenfeld in American Hustle (2013). Bale gained more than 40 pounds for American Hustle, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

He also played Moses in Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) and Michael Burry in The Big Short (2015). His performance as Burry brought another Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe nomination.

Bale portrayed former U.S. vice president Dick Cheney in Vice (2018), undertaking another major physical transformation for the role. He won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical, and received an Academy Award nomination.

In Ford v Ferrari (2019), Bale played racing driver Ken Miles alongside Matt Damon. The film dramatized Ford's attempt to challenge Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966.

Bale's subsequent credits included the voice of Bagheera in Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018), Gorr the God Butcher in Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), Burt Berendsen in Amsterdam (2022), and retired detective Augustus Landor in The Pale Blue Eye (2022).