From: Favorite Hunks & Other Things
One of my favorite actors (who really did not need to take the role of Batman) turns 40 today.
Christian Charles Philip Bale (born 30 January 1974) is an English actor. He has starred in both blockbuster films and smaller projects from independent producers and art houses.
Bale first caught the public eye at the age of 13, when he was cast in the starring role of Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun (1987). Based on the original story by J. G. Ballard, Bale played an English boy who is separated from his parents and subsequently finds himself lost in a Japanese internment camp during World War II. In 2000, he garnered critical acclaim for his portrayal of serial killer Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. He earned a reputation as a method actor after he lost 63 pounds to play the role of Trevor Reznik in The Machinist (2004).
Bale went on to receive greater commercial recognition and acclaim for his performance as Bruce Wayne / Batman in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). He also portrayed Dicky Eklund in the biopic The Fighter (2010), for which he received critical acclaim and won several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role. In 2013, he starred in the comedy-drama American Hustle for which he received his second Academy Award nomination, his first in the Best Actor category, in addition to a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.
Bale was born in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, the son of English mother Jenny (née James), a circus performer, and an English, South African-born father, David Bale, an entrepreneur, commercial pilot, and talent manager. He has stated; "I was born in Wales but I'm not Welsh – I'm English". He has two sisters. Bale spent his childhood in Wales, and Surrey and Dorset in England. He attended the Bournemouth School in Bournemouth, Dorset, England. He left school at the age of 16. His parents divorced in 1991, and while his mother and sister Sharon stayed in Bournemouth, he moved with his father to Los Angeles at age seventeen. He has not spoken to Sharon since she had him arrested without charge after he allegedly ranted at her at London’s Dorchester hotel in 2008.
Bale's first acting role was a commercial for the fabric softener Lenor in 1982. A year later, he appeared in a Pac-Man cereal commercial playing a child rock star. In 1984, he made his stage debut in The Nerd on London's West End, opposite Rowan Atkinson.
On 29 January 2000, Bale married Sandra "Sibi" Blažić (born 1970), a former model, make-up artist, and personal assistant to actress Winona Ryder; the couple have a daughter, Emmeline, who was born on 27 March 2005 in Santa Monica, California. Since 1992, the Bales have resided in Los Angeles, California.
Like his late father, Bale actively supports environmental groups such as Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund. Bale, along with his wife Sibi, is on the Board of Trustees of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.
Feminist activist Gloria Steinem became Bale's stepmother on 3 September 2000; it was her first marriage (at the age of 66), and the couple were together until David Bale's death in 2003.
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