Christian Bale
Birthdate: Jan 30, 1974
Birthplace: Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK
An actor who takes uncommon risks and is capable of stark emotional and physical transformations, Christian Bale (birthname: Christian Charles Philip Bale) has built a unique, wide-ranging controversial career over 35 years. From his true feature film debut as a lad surviving World War II in Steven Spielberg’s version of J.G. Ballard’s Empire of the Sun (1987), Bale has been an actor who commands the viewer’s attention. The rare natural actor, untrained, purely instinctual, and raw, prone to unpredictable reactions that resist formulaic behavior, Bale can be said to be his generation’s definitive example of a lead actor with a character actor’s mentality.
That amazing debut as young Jim in Empire of the Sun was an ironic triumph for Christian Bale, who had been somewhat reluctant to become an actor at a young age. Nevertheless, he found himself at age 15 acting under Kenneth Branagh’s direction in Henry V (1989), with Paul Scofield, Emma Thompson, Derek Jacobi, and Ian Holm.
At 18, Bale had his first starring role in the cult hit Disney musical, Newsies (1992), with Bill Pullman, Ann-Margret, and Robert Duvall. Bale co-starred with Robert Sean Leonard and Frank Whaley in the Hitler youth drama, Swing Kids (1993), followed by Gabriel Axel’s interesting but underseen Hamlet origin story drama, Royal Deceit (1994), in which Bale played the role of Amled, the character upon which Shakespeare’s Hamlet was based, opposite Gabriel Byrne, Helen Mirren, Brian Cox, and Kate Beckinsale.
Bale rejoined Byrne again as one of the few male roles in Gillian Armstrong’s version of Little Women (1994), with Winona Ryder, Kirsten Dunst, Claire Danes, and Susan Sarandon. Bale’s second Disney project in three years was a part of the voice cast of Pocahontas (1995). Bale continued to display his remarkable range—particularly in period films—and keen script sense with Jane Campion’s fine version of Henry James’s Portrait of a Lady (1996), with Nicole Kidman, John Malkovich, Barbara Hershey, Mary-Louise Parker, and Viggo Mortensen.
This was on display again in Christopher Hampton’s adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent (1996), with Bob Hoskins, Gérard Depardieu, and Patricia Arquette, contrasted with his foray into the glam rock in Todd Haynes’s superb Velvet Goldmine (1998), with Ewan McGregor, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and Toni Collette.
Christian Bale’s image as an actor specializing in classical and period work took a stark left turn with Mary Harron’s bold American Psycho, based on Bret Easton Ellis’s novel and co-starring Willem Dafoe, Jared Leto, and Reese Witherspoon, which developed a long-lasting cult status. Bale jumped into genre work with John Singleton’s remake of Shaft (2000), with Samuel L. Jackson, Vanessa Williams, and Jeffrey Wright, switching gears (again) to romantic drama with Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (2001), with Nicolas Cage, Penélope Cruz, John Hurt, and Irene Papas, and yet again to contemporary Los Angeles in Lisa Cholodenko’s Laurel Canyon (2002), with Kate Beckinsale and Frances McDormand.
One of his most famed roles—due to his extreme weight loss—was as Trevor Reznik in Brad Anderson’s stark thriller, The Machinist (2004), once again demonstrating Bale’s brave artistic choices. The years 2005 to 2013 were especially notable for Christian Bale, during which he played Bruce Wayne/Batman in Christopher Nolan’s phenomenally successful trilogy re-imagining the Batman universe in Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), with the late Heath Ledger, and The Dark Knight Rises (2012), with Tom Hardy, Morgan Freeman, Marion Cotillard, Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman, and Michael Caine. The trilogy’s combined worldwide gross totaled $2.4 billion, easily the greatest box office number of any movie with Christian Bale as a star.
In between these three, Bale worked with directors Terrence Malick (The New World in 2005), Werner Herzog (Rescue Dawn in 2006), Nolan in non-Batman mode (The Prestige in 2006), James Mangold’s remake of Elmore Leonard’s western (3:10 to Yuma in 2007), Todd Haynes (the Bob Dylan portrait, I’m Not There, in 2007), Michael Mann (Public Enemies in 2009), David O. Russell (The Fighter in 2010 and American Hustle in 2013), Zhang Yimou (The Flowers of War in 2011), and Scott Cooper (Out of the Furnace in 2013.
Christian Bale has become a favorite of some of the most distinctive American writer-directors, playing a wide range of roles in the movies of Terrence Malick (The Hollywood reverie Knight of Cups in 2015, and the music industry movie, Song to Song in 2017, although his scenes were subsequently deleted); of David O. Russell (not only the rollicking comedy, American Hustle, but also the drama, Amsterdam (2022), with the all-star cast of Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Robert De Niro, Zoe Saldana, Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, Andrea Riseborough, Taylor Swift, Michael Shannon, and Timothy Olyphant).
Adam McKay (his ripped-from-headlines comedy-dramas The Big Short in 2014, and Vice in 2018, in which Bale fashioned a stunning portrayal of Dick Cheney); James Mangold (3:10 to Yuma, and the wildly entertaining racecar drama, Ford v Ferrari, in 2019); of Scott Cooper (after Out of the Furnace, Bale starred in Cooper’s fine 2017 Western, Hostiles, and his upcoming Netflix movie, The Pale Blue Eye, about Edgar Allen Poe at West Point, with Harry Melling, Gillian Anderson, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Robert Duvall, and Timothy Spall).
Bale jumped into the MCU in 2022 with the fearsome character, Gorr the God Butcher, in Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder, with Chris Pratt, Matt Damon, Natalie Portman, and Karen Gillan.
Personal Details
Christian Bale was born in the Welsh town of Haverfordwest in the Welsh province of Pembrokeshire and raised by circus performer Jenny Bale and commercial pilot David Bale. His siblings are Louise and Sharon and his half-sister Erin (from father David’s previous marriage). Bale’s family moved several times during his early years, including Portugal and England, finally settling down in the southern coastal British city of Bournemouth, where he attended Bournemouth School.
Bale’s studies ended at age 16, and never included any acting classes. After he left school, his parents divorced, and Bale moved with his father and older sister Louise to Los Angeles in 1991. Bale has been married to Sibi Blažić since 2000; the couple has two children. His height is 6’. His net worth is estimated at $120 million.
Filmography
actor
Previous (16)
- 2023 | The Boy and the HeronasShoichi Maki
The Boy and the Heron
In the wake of his mother's death and his father's remarriage, a headstrong boy named Mahito ventures into a dreamlike world shared by both the living and the dead.
- 2022 |
- 2022 | Thor: Love and ThunderasGorr
Thor: Love and Thunder
Thor enlists the help of Valkyrie, Korg and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster to fight Gorr the God Butcher, who intends to make the gods extinct.
- 2019 | Ford v FerrariasKen Miles
Ford v Ferrari
American car designer Carroll Shelby and driver Ken Miles battle corporate interference and the laws of physics to build a revolutionary race car for Ford in order to defeat Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966.
- 2018 |
- 2018 |
- 2017 | Intent to Destroy: Death, Denial & DepictionasSelf
Intent to Destroy: Death, Denial & Depiction
Filmmaker Joe Berlinger meets with historians and scholars to discuss the Armenian Genocide and the continuing denial by the Turkish government of it ever happening.
- 2017 | The PromiseasChris Myers
The Promise
Set during the last days of the Ottoman Empire, The Promise follows a love triangle between Michael, a brilliant medical student, the beautiful and sophisticated Ana, and Chris - a renowned American journalist based in Paris.
- 2015 | The Big ShortasMichael Burry
The Big Short
In 2006-2007 a group of investors bet against the US mortgage market. In their research they discover how flawed and corrupt the market is.
- 2014 | Exodus: Gods and KingsasMoses
Exodus: Gods and Kings
The defiant leader Moses rises up against Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II, setting six hundred thousand slaves on a monumental journey of escape from Egypt and its terrifying cycle of deadly plagues.
- 2013 | American HustleasIrving Rosenfeld
American Hustle
A con man, Irving Rosenfeld, along with his seductive partner Sydney Prosser, is forced to work for a wild F.B.I. Agent, Richie DiMaso, who pushes them into a world of Jersey powerbrokers and the Mafia.
- 2013 | Out of the FurnaceasRussell Baze
Out of the Furnace
When Rodney Baze mysteriously disappears and law enforcement doesn't follow through fast enough, his older brother, Russell, takes matters into his own hands to find justice.
- 2012 | The Dark Knight RisesasBruce Wayne
The Dark Knight Rises
Eight years after the Joker's reign of anarchy, Batman, with the help of the enigmatic Catwoman, is forced from his exile to save Gotham City from the brutal guerrilla terrorist Bane.
- 2008 | The Dark KnightasBruce Wayne
The Dark Knight
When a menace known as the Joker wreaks havoc and chaos on the people of Gotham, Batman, James Gordon and Harvey Dent must work together to put an end to the madness.
- 2005 | Howl’s Moving CastleasHowl
Howl’s Moving Castle
When an unconfident young woman is cursed with an old body by a spiteful witch, her only chance of breaking the spell lies with a self-indulgent yet insecure young wizard and his companions in his legged, walking castle.
- 2002 | EquilibriumasJohn Preston
Equilibrium
In an oppressive future where all forms of feeling are illegal, a man in charge of enforcing the law rises to overthrow the system and state.
Some Facts About Christian Bale
Famed Stepmom: Christian Bale’s stepmother is a feminist icon and author Gloria Steinem, who married his father David in 2000.
Clash in China: Bale fought with Chinese checkpoint guards as he attempted to speak with activist “barefoot doctor” Chen Guangcheng, whom he finally met at a dinner organized by the organization, Human Right First.
Major Influences: Denying that he uses or has studied the technique of method acting, Christian Bale has said that his major performance influence was comic Rowan (Mr. Bean) Atkinson, noting that Gary Oldman’s example as a model of acting is the main reason why he pursued and continued acting.
Weight Loss and Gain: Bale shed 63 pounds, some of it with a diet of cigarettes, apples, and salad, for his role in The Machinist. He gained 43 pounds for his role in David O. Russell’s American Hustle.
Fan Base: Fans of Christian Bale refer to themselves as “Baleheads.”
Bad Publicity: Bale’s verbal rant against the cinematographer on the set of Terminator Salvation (2009) was recorded on audio, and quickly became a widely-heard meme, momentarily harming his career.
