Christian Bale Success Story
Childhood
Christian ‘Charles Philip’ Bale was born on January 30, 1974 in Pembrokeshire, Wales. His mother Jenny was a circus performer and his father David Bale was a commercial pilot cum talent manager. He attended the Bournemouth School at Dorset which he had to leave at the age of 16 to move to Los Angeles with his father. Here Bale started getting offers to act in advertising commercials. His first appearance in front of the camera was for an ad shoot in 1982. In 1984, he got the chance to make his first appearance on stage in the play ‘The Nerd’.
Beginning
His first film was ‘Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna’ which was made for television and premiered in 1986. With his good looks and great voice he got the leading role in miniseries like ‘Mio in the Land of Faraway’ and ‘Heart of the Country’. His first mainstream film in 1987, the ‘Empire of the Sun’ turned out to be a huge success grossing nearly double its budget. He continued to impress in movies like ‘Henry V’(1989), ‘Treasure Island’(1990), ‘Swing Kids’(1993) and ‘Little Women’(1994) and the film ‘Pocahontas(1995) which went on to gross more than $340 million.
Career
He was cast as the lead actor in the 1999 flick, ‘American Psycho’ which went on to become a huge hit. He was part of a number of average and flop films for the next few years like ‘Laurel Canyon’ (2002), ‘Reign of Fire’ (2002), ‘Equilibrium’ (2002), ‘The Machinist’. Although his performances were appreciated by critics, the film as a whole was unable to run successfully at the box office. His career took a turn for the good when he got the role of Batman in the 2005 film ‘Batman Begins’ directed by Christopher Nolan.
Christian Charles Philip Bale with Christopher
The film ‘Batman Begins’ went on to gross more than $370 million worldwide and was one of the best films of the year. Bale’s performance was highly appreciated and he won the Saturn Award for the Best Actor for his performance. His next big success was the 2006 film ‘The Prestige’ which was again directed by Nolan. This film grossed $100 million and many accolades came the way of Bale.
In 2007, when he reprised the role of Batman in ‘The Dark Knight’ he would not have imagined the success that was going to come his way.
" It's the actors who are prepared to make fools of themselves who are usually the ones who come to mean something to the audience." - Christian Charles Philip Bale
‘The Dark Knight’ went on to become the 4th highest grossing film in history with collections in excess of $1.03 billion. In 2010, he was in a supporting role in the film ‘The Fighter’. For his performance, Bale got the Academy Award, the Golden Globe and 30 other awards for Best Supporting Actor in the year 2011.
He again played the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman in the final installment of the Batman series called ‘The Dark Knight Rises’’. This film went on to gross $1.08 billion and became the 9th highest grossing film in the world at that time. Today Christian Bale is worth $95 million and is regarded as one of the most successful actors of his generation.
Awards
- 2014
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Screen Actors Guild
- 2011
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Academy, Critics Choice Movie
- 2011
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Golden Globe
- 2011
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Screen Actors Guild
- 2010
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Satellite
- 2009
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Peoples Choice, Empire
- 2008
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Independent Spirit Robert Altman, Scream
- 2007
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San Diego Film Critics Society
- 2006
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MTV Movie, Saturn
- 2001
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Fangoria Chainsaw
- 1988
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Young Artist
