page_title: Bryan Cranston
section_title: Breaking Bad to present
hierarchical_section_title: Bryan Cranston / Career / Breaking Bad to present
caption_attribution_description: English: Isle of Dogs press conference at Berlinale 2018. Bob Balaban, Bill Murray, Greta Gerwig, Bryan Cranston.
context_page_description: Bryan Lee Cranston is an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his roles as Tim Whatley in the NBC sitcom Seinfeld, Hal in the Fox sitcom Malcolm in the Middle, Walter White in the AMC crime drama series Breaking Bad, and Vince Lonigan in the Prime Video crime drama series Sneaky Pete.
  Cranston's performance on Breaking Bad is widely regarded as one of the best in television history, earning him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series four times. After becoming a producer of the show in 2011, he also won the award for Outstanding Drama Series twice. Breaking Bad also earned Cranston five Golden Globe nominations, nine Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, and six Satellite Award nominations. He was previously nominated three times for the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his role in Malcolm in the Middle. Cranston co-created, executive produced, and wrote the story for the crime drama series Sneaky Pete and the comedy drama series The Dangerous Book for Boys.
  In 2014, Cranston earned a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his portrayal of president Lyndon B.
context_section_description: From 2008 to 2013, Cranston starred in the AMC series Breaking Bad, created by Vince Gilligan, in which he played Walter White, a high-school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Walter teams up with former student Jesse Pinkman (played by Aaron Paul), to manufacture and sell methamphetamine to ensure the well-being of Walter's family after he dies. Cranston's work on the series was met with widespread critical acclaim, winning him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in each of the show's first three seasons and being nominated in 2012 and 2013 for seasons four and five (winning again in 2014 for the second half of season 5). Cranston and Bill Cosby are the only actors to have won the award three consecutive times. Cranston was also a producer for the fourth and fifth seasons of the series, and directed three episodes of the show during its run.
  In 2011, Cranston had supporting roles in three successful films, the drama The Lincoln Lawyer, as well as the thrillers Drive and Contagion. He voiced James Gordon in the animated film Batman: Year One (2011). In 2012, he had supporting roles in John Carter, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted as Vitaly the tiger, and Rock of Ages, and a major role in the hostage drama Argo. He also lent his voice to several episodes of the animated series Robot Chicken. In 2012, he starred in the remake of the 1990 film Total Recall, as Chancellor Vilos Cohaagen, the corrupted president of a fictional war-ravaged United Federation of Britain. In the same year, he made a guest appearance as Kenneth Parcell's step-father, Ron, on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, and was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
  From September 2013 to June 2014, Cranston played U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson in the American Repertory Theater and Broadway productions of All the Way, in a performance that has received widespread acclaim, and he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for the role. He also played scientist Joe Brody in the 2014 reboot of Godzilla.
  Cranston has produced an instructional DVD called KidSmartz, which is designed to teach families how to stay safe from child abductors and Internet predators. KidSmartz raises money for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children by donating half the proceeds from sales. Also, following the success of Breaking Bad, the year 2014 saw reports of Cranston developing new TV projects in collaboration with Sony Pictures Television. In 2016, it was announced that he would star in an episode of the Channel 4/Amazon Video series Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams, and would also serve as an executive producer on the series.
  On July 16, 2014, it was announced that Cranston would star in an HBO adaptation of his hit play All the Way. Steven Spielberg was set to be an executive producer on the film. Following the film's premiere on May 21, 2016, Cranston's performance was widely praised by critics, garnering eight Primetime Emmy Award nominations and a Television Critics Choice Award nomination. In 2015, Cranston starred as screenwriter Dalton Trumbo in the biopic Trumbo, for which he received his first Academy award nomination. In 2016, Cranston voiced Li, the biological father of Po, in Kung Fu Panda 3. Also that year, he appeared in the films The Infiltrator and Wakefield. Cranston's memoir, A Life in Parts, was published on October 11, 2016, became a New York Times bestseller, and received positive reviews. In 2017, he voiced Zordon in Lionsgate's Power Rangers, which marked his return to the franchise after providing voices for the first season.
  Cranston starred in a stage adaptation of the 1976 film Network playing Howard Beale, directed by Ivo van Hove at the West End Royal National Theatre, opening in November 2017. The play, with Cranston as star, transferred to Broadway, opening at the Belasco Theatre on December 6, 2018. Cranston received the 2019 Drama League Award, Distinguished Performance Award., as well as his second Tony Award for best lead actor in a play.
  In 2017, he
caption: Bill Murray, Greta Gerwig, and Cranston at the Isle of Dogs press conference at Berlinale 2018
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