Christian Bale Biography

Intense and versatile, Christian Bale played caped superhero Batman in the big-budget film Batman Begins (2005) and then won an Oscar as a drug-addled ex-boxer in the 2010 film The Fighter.

Christian Bale’s first starring role was as the young English boy Jim in the 1987 Steven Spielberg movie Empire of the Sun (based on the novel by J.G. Ballard). Over the next two decades he took roles in a tremendous variety of films: the literary flicks Little Women (1994, with Winona Ryder) and The Portrait of A Lady (1996, based on the novel by Henry James); the glam-rock tribute Velvet Goldmine (1998); Shakespearean classic A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999, opposite Calista Flockhart); the blaxploitation remake Shaft (2000, opposite Samuel L. Jackson); and even as Jesus Christ in the 1999 made-for-TV movie Mary, Mother of Jesus (1998).

His 2000 turn as nutso yuppie Patrick Bateman in American Psycho took his fame to a new level, and in 2004 Bale created a stir when he lost over 60 pounds to play a scrawny and addled insomniac in The Machinist. The next year he gained back the weight, and more, to play crime-fighting millionaire Bruce Wayne in Christopher Nolan‘s Batman Begins. He played Batman again in the sequels The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). Christian Bale also starred opposite Russell Crowe in the 2007 western remake of 3:10 to Yuma (based on Elmore Leonard‘s short story) and with Amy Adams in 2013’s American Hustle. He won an Oscar as best supporting actor for his role as a faded and crack-addicted boxer in The Fighter (2010, co-starring Mark Wahlberg and Amy Adams). He was nominated as best supporting actor for his role in the 2015 Adam McKay movie The Big Short.