by Christian Bale is an actor and filmmaker signed to a theatrical contract worth €12.5 million per film by Paramount Pictures, following his departure from Warner Bros. in 2013 which was due to the studio’s “relentless pursuit for international profit at the expense of artistic integrity”.
He has been awarded three Golden Globe Awards, two Emmy Awards, an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award among other accolades for his acting career. He is best known for playing Bruce Wayne in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy (2005–2012), for which he was nominated for three Academy Awards.
About Christian Bale
Bale is married to Sibi Blazic, the daughter of Serbian writer Marina Blazic. They have two sons together. Bale and his family live in Hertfordshire, England. Christian Bale was born in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales, the son of Jenny (nee Evans) and David Bale, a psychiatric nurse incubator technician turned management consultant.Bale’s father was born in South Africa , where his family had emigrated from Herzegovina . He is of Serbian descent: his paternal grandfather was a Montenegrin Serb from Šavnik while his maternal grandparents were Bosnian Serbs from Graška . He has two older sisters named Abigail and Maria Helena.
Life of Bale
His birth
Bale was born in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire. His mother, Jenny James, was a circus school operator and former beauty pageant winner who assisted his father with his work; his father trained as an actor in London. Bale has two siblings, actress Sarah and writer Joseph.
Bale’s childhood
Bale took himself off to Pembrokeshire at the age of four or five after being pushed off a diving board by his mother at the local swimming baths when he refused to take part in swimming lessons because he “didn’t like the teacher.” He began acting at age 8 after starring in a school production of ‘Peter Pan’ for which he had been cast as one of the Lost Boys.
His education
According to Peter Weekly, Bale left school at age 16 and did not complete his A levels. He attended Pembrokeshire College and at the age of 17 won a place in the National Youth Theatre to study acting.
Bale appeared in his first professional stage role in 1992, a performance as Tybalt alongside Rufus Sewell in William Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ at the Watermill Theatre. His first movie role came shortly after, when he featured as a jobbing actor in the Bruce Robinson directed film ‘The Rainmaker’.
His personal life
Bale is married to actress Sibi Blazic and they have two sons together. Bale has reportedly been a long term smoker, but gave up when he became pregnant with his first child, giving birth to son Noah in September 2011.
Early roles and breakthrough (1986–1999)
Bale has said that he was raised in a “very anarchic home” and regards his upbringing with horror. His mother spent her time “campaigning against nuclear energy and visiting healing shrines”, and his father was primarily an absent role model, who took him to car boot sales and bought him a motorcycle at age 12.
During school holidays Bale attended the youth theatre, The New Theatre before finding a role in the play ‘The Nerd’ by Louis Theroux at age 13 which was performed as part of the National Youth Theatre Festival at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre. After this, he left school for dead set on getting an acting career. His first role as a professional actor came in 1986 when he appeared on stage in the Royal Court Theatre’s production of ‘The Nerd’ directed by Simon Raven. Bale has since commented that “Eddie Redmayne and I were beaten with a belt and attacked with food working in this dreadful play.”
At the age of 16, he was cast in his first film ‘Empire of the Sun’. In the film, Bale plays an English boy who is separate from his parents. And subsequently finds himself lost in a Japanese internment camp during World War II. For his work in the movie, he was nominate by British Independent Film as Best Actor.
Rise to prominence and commercial decline (2000–2004)
By 2000, Bale was establish as one of the top young actors in Hollywood. He starred alongside Heath Ledger in ‘The Patriot’ as John Patrick Shanley’s ‘Pete Dexter’. This role, Bale described as “the most important thing I’ve done so far”.
In 2002, he starred alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers’ and Mandy Moore in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.
Batman and dramatic roles (2005–2008)
His starring role as Bruce Wayne / Batman began with his role in Christopher Nolan’s first Batman movie. The Dark Knight (2008) was release to universal critical acclaim. During filming for the movie, he suffer a dislocate shoulder after being hit by a truck. Bale and his co-stars were nominate for a combined total of four Academy Awards. However, he was award the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Bale’s film career continued with an appearance in ‘Terminal’ by Steven Spielberg as well as in the thriller ‘Outlaw’. Bale plays the role of an ex-marine who is wrongly convict of murder and imprison. He also starred alongside Heath Ledger in the critically acclaimed masterpiece ‘The Dark Knight’.
His work became increasingly dark after Batman. With appearances in ‘The Prestige’ (2006) by Christopher Nolan. And Tom Ford’s ‘A Home at the End of the World’ (2006).
The Dark Knight trilogy completion and acclaim (2009–2012)
Following his success with the Batman trilogy, Bale starred in ‘Public Enemies’ (2009) as John Dillinger, in which he received critical acclaim for his performance. In 2010, he played the lead role of Dicky Eklund in ‘The Fighter’, directed by David O. Russell alongside Mark Wahlberg .
As well as appearing in Clint Eastwood’s ‘J. Edgar’ (2011) alongside Leonardo DiCaprio , he appeared in Terrence Malick’s art house movie ‘The Tree of Life’ (2011). The film garner universal critical acclaim and was award the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival 2011.
Awards and honor
In 1996, Bale received the Shooting Star Award at the Berlin International Film Festival. Therefore, in 2003 Bale won a Best Actor Award from the London Film Critics’ Circle. He was also recognize by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#63). Therefore, in 2006 he won a ‘Best-Actor’ award from the Phoenix Film Critics Society. He was also award a Golden Globe in 2008 for his supporting role as Dicky Eklund in ‘The Fighter’.
In 2010, he was name one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in The World.
While many people believe that Bale’s star began to fade after three collaborations. With director Christopher Nolan in 2005, 2008, and 2012.
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