Christian Bale Website, Life Story

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Life Story

Christian Charles Philip Bale (b. January 30, 1974) is an Welsh-born English actor, born in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire/Sir Benfro, Wales.

Bale first gained fame when cast in the starring role of Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun at the age of 13. Recently, Bale has earned praise as the newest Batman in the 2005 movie Batman Begins, co-starring Sir Michael Caine and Cillian Murphy. It is confirmed that Bale will reprise the role of Batman in Batman Begins' sequel.

Bale was born in Wales to the late businessman David Bale and Jenny James, a circus performer. Bale spent his childhood in a variety of countries including the United Kingdom, Portugal, and the United States.

On January 29, 2000, he married independent film producer Sibi Blazic (an ex-model, make-up artist, and a former personal assistant of Winona Ryder, who reportedly introduced them at one of her parties). Together they have a daughter who was born on March 27, 2005 in Los Angeles, but the notoriously private Bale has not revealed her name to the public.

Bale is Gloria Steinem's stepson due to her marriage in 2000 to David Bale (he passed away in 2003). Bale is active in several environmental and animal protection organizations including Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund.

Acting career: Bale began his acting career by appearing in a Pac-Man cereal advertisement in the UK at age 9 and then appeared a year later in the West End play The Nerd. His breakthrough came in 1987 when he was picked for the role of Jim in Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun, a performance for which he received an enormous amount of critical praise.

Bale next appeared in Kenneth Branagh's Henry V and TV roles before taking on several movie projects, starting in 1992 with the Disney musical feature film Newsies. For this role and his role in the 1993 film Swing Kids, Bale trained for 10 weeks in dancing and martial arts.

Bale garnered further attention when he won the much-coveted role of Laurie in the 1994 film adaptation of Little Women, after being hand-picked for the role by Winona Ryder, who portrayed Jo in the film. He has since won roles in notable films such as Velvet Goldmine and the lead in American Psycho.

His portrayal of yuppie businessman/serial killer Patrick Bateman was met with rave reviews and critical acclaim, but due to the controversy surrounding the book on which the movie was based, it was only a moderate financial success. He recently played the title role in Batman Begins to yet more critical acclaim and adulation from many comic book fans who were finally satisfied with what is seen as a proper portrayal of the character.

Bale was in the news when he lost 60 pounds for his role in The Machinist, going from muscular to cadaverous and seriously risking his health. Immediately after wrapping that film, Bale regained the weight and added on an additional 20-odd pounds of muscle for his role in Batman Begins, within four months. He has said this most likely damaged his metabolism, but to observers, it gained him status as one of the most dedicated character actors of his generation.

Bale is known to become the character he plays. Director Mary Harron of American Psycho once noted that during the satirical business card comparison scene, Bale would sweat at the exact same moment during multiple takes which led to Harron dubbing him 'Roboactor'.

Bale is especially noted for his online fan favouristism, becoming a cult icon. A popular internet site had him listed as one of the top 8 cult internet icons of all time. It was various online polls asking who would best suit the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman that got the attention of producers for Batman Begins. Bale was the clear fan favourite and is considered to be one of the best actors to ever portray a comic book character.

Bale is usually critically lauded not only for his acting abilities, but also for the nature of his film roles. Bale seems interested in often portraying menacing, dark, or mentally complex characters, rather than mainstream-type heroes who would more immediately attract an audience.

For instance, Bale seems unafraid to portray controversial characters, like the violent Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, a homosexual character in Velvet Goldmine, the psychologically disturbed and complex Bruce Wayne/Batman in Batman Begins, or the emaciated and insane title character of The Machinist, in spite of the potential risks to both his career and his public reputation.

Bale was reported to be on George Lucas's short list of potential actors to play the role of Anakin Skywalker in episodes two and three of Star Wars, which instead went to Hayden Christensen.

Bale is renowned for his ability to mimic accents. He has used a different one in almost every movie he has acted in, even conducting publicity interviews for Batman Begins with an American accent (his true accent is Welsh but due to moving around has become more typical modern English).

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors, This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Christian Bale".