page_title: Bryan Cranston
section_title: Career breakthrough and Malcolm in the Middle
hierarchical_section_title: Bryan Cranston / Career / Career breakthrough and Malcolm in the Middle
caption_attribution_description: English: Bryan Cranston at the 2012 Comic-Con in San Diego.
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: In 1994, Cranston got the recurring role of Dr. Tim Whatley, Jerry's dentist, on Seinfeld. He played the role until 1997.
  In 1996, he played the first of his two biographical roles as an astronaut when he portrayed Gus Grissom in the film That Thing You Do!
  In 1997, he played a supporting role in the Michael Dudikoff action vehicle, the air hijack picture Strategic Command, alongside Richard Norton, Paul Winfield, and Stephen Quadros. Later that year he had a small role in Babylon 5 as Ericsson, a starship captain who sacrifices himself as part of a plan to save the galaxy.
  In 1998, Cranston appeared in the episode "Drive" of The X-Files written by Vince Gilligan. That same year, he played his second astronaut role when he portrayed Buzz Aldrin in the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon. In 1999, Cranston wrote and directed the film Last Chance. That same year he made his second appearance for a recurring role on the CBS sitcom The King of Queens, playing Doug Heffernan's neighbor, Tim Sacksky. In 1998, he appeared in Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, as one-armed War Department Colonel I.W. Bryce, who reported to General George Marshall that Private Ryan was the last survivor of his brothers, and his assumed location. His theatrical credits include starring roles in The God of Hell, Chapter Two, The Taming of the Shrew, A Doll's House, Barefoot in the Park, Eastern Standard, Wrestlers and The Steven Weed Show, for which he won a Drama-Logue Award.
  In 2000, Cranston landed a leading role as Hal on the comedy series Malcolm in the Middle. He would remain with the show until its end in 2006. Cranston ended up directing several episodes of the show and received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his performance. Cranston reprised his role in a cutaway gag during the Family Guy episode "I Take Thee Quagmire", killing Lois (his wife on Malcolm in the Middle) with a refrigerator door, and in a leaked alternate ending of Breaking Bad with Jane Kaczmarek reprising her role as Lois.
  He has had guest roles in many television series, including a white-collar criminal searching for his estranged wife and daughter on The Flash, a lawyer attempting to free the title character from a contract in Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and a bigoted man being driven insane by extremely low frequency sonar waves in The X-Files episode "Drive". He also had a guest role in late 2006 on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, playing Ted Mosby's obnoxious co-worker and former boss Hammond Druthers. He played Lucifer in the ABC Family miniseries Fallen and appeared as Nick Wrigley, an irresponsible uncle who accidentally brings Christmas close to destruction when he steals Santa's sleigh to have a crazy ride, in the 2001 Disney Channel Original Movie 'Twas the Night. In that same year, he provided the voice of Gary's father in Gary & Mike. He appeared as the more successful business colleague of Greg Kinnear's character in the film Little Miss Sunshine (2006). In September 2008, Cranston narrated a pre-teen adventure/fantasy audiobook called Adventures with Kazmir the Flying Camel.
caption: Cranston at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con International
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