Actor who takes on a different body for each role: Who is Christian Bale?

His full name is Christian Charles Philip Bale. Bale was born on January 30, 1974, in Pembrokeshire, Wales, England. His mother was Jenny James, a circus clown, and his father was pilot David Bale. He has two older sisters, Sharon and Louise, and a half-sister, Erin, from his father's first marriage.

Due to his family's work, Bale traveled to many different countries such as England, the USA and Portugal and was educated in various schools. Bale explained that the frequent relocation was "more of necessity than of choice" and acknowledged that it had a major impact on his career choice. He attended Bournemouth School, later said to have dropped out at the age of 16. Bale's parents divorced in 1991 and when he was 17 he moved to Los Angeles with his sister Louise and their father.

His first acting role came in 1982, when he was eight years old, in a commercial for a fabric softener Lenor. He was also featured in a Pac-Man cereal commercial. After his sister starred in a West End musical, Bale considered starting acting professionally. He did not receive any formal acting training. In 1986, he made his film debut with the television movie Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna. 

Bale, who met the famous director Steven Spielberg in 1987 upon the advice of his co-star in Anastasia, Amy Irving, starred in the director's movie "Empire of the Sun", which was released the same year. This role brought him the best young star award at the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures awards ceremony. He gained fame with this role and his work earned him acclaim.

Earlier that year, he starred in the fantasy film "Mio in the Land of Faraway", based on Astrid Lindgren's novel Mio, My Son. He started to distrust the acting profession because of the media attention. However, he said he felt compelled to continue acting at a young age for financial reasons. Around this time, actor and filmmaker Kenneth Branagh convinced Bale to star in his 1989 movie "Henry V," which drew him back into acting.

The following year, Bale co-starred with Charlton Heston in "Treasure Island," a television movie adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's book of the same name. Bale starred in the 1992 Disney musical "Newsies", which failed both at the box office and with the critics. In 1993, he starred in the movie Swing Kids, about young people who secretly listen to forbidden jazz during the rise of Nazi Germany. In 1994, he starred in the movie Little Women. The film was a critical and commercial success.

His role as Arthur Stuart in the movie "Velvet Goldmine", one of the most influential productions of the 90s and telling the birth years of Glam Rock, was highly appreciated by the critics and the audience. In 1999, he was part of a cast that also included Kevin Kline and Michelle Pfeiffer in A Midsummer Night's Dream, based on William Shakespeare's play of the same name.

Bale played investment banker and serial killer Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, directed by Mary Harron and based on the Bret Easton Ellis novel of the same name. Bale practiced for months to achieve Bateman's sculpted physique, tanned and had his teeth plated to match the character's narcissistic nature. The film was released in April 2000 and became a commercial and critical success.

He appeared in three films in 2002: Laurel Canyon, Reign of Fire and Equilibrium. Bale starred as the insomniac, emotionally dysfunctional lead character in the psychological thriller The Machinist. To prepare for the role, he initially only smoked and drank alcohol. His diet was later expanded to include black coffee, an apple, and a can of tuna per day. Bale lost 29 kg to play the character, who was written as a "walking skeleton" in the script.

Bale played American billionaire Bruce Wayne and his superhero alias Batman in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins, a remake of the Batman movie franchise. For the role, Bale regained the weight he lost for The Machinist and built 100kg of muscle. He took weapons, Wing Chun Kung Fu and Keysi Fighting Method training. Batman Begins was released in the United States in June 2005. His performance earned Bale the MTV Movie Award for Best Hero.

He then starred in the crime drama "Harsh Times" (2005), directed by David Ayer, as a US war veteran dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder. The following year saw the premiere of "Rescue Dawn" (2006), directed by German filmmaker Werner Herzog, in which Bale plays Dieter Dengler, a US fighter pilot who fights for his life after being shot down in an airplane.

Bale reunited with director Nolan for the 2006 movie "The Prestige." Bale and Hugh Jackman co-star in the movie based on the novel of the same name by Christopher Priest. The film, which received great acclaim from the critics, had a more modest performance at the time of its release and achieved great revenue.

The Dark Knight, the sequel to the Batman series, was released on July 18, 2008 and became the 4th highest-grossing film of all time, bringing a huge amount of revenue. The movie was recognized by critics as the best superhero movie. 

Bale was portrayed as gangster John Dillinger in Michael Mann's crime drama "Public Enemies" (2009). Released in July 2009, it received critical acclaim and was a commercially successful theatrical release. The following year, Bale starred in David O. Russell's drama film The Fighter as Dicky Eklund, a professional boxer whose career ended due to drug addiction. Ballet added humor to his characterization to balance Eklund's tragic situation. Bale won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture for his performance.

In 2011, he starred in Zhang Yimou's historical drama The Flowers of War, which was the highest-grossing Chinese film of the year. Bale reprized Batman in its sequel, The Dark Knight Rises, released in July 2012. The film surpassed The Dark Knight to become the 11th film to gross over $1 billion worldwide. The Batman movie series, called the Dark Knight trilogy, is considered one of the best comic book movie series.

In 2013, Bale played a steel mill worker in Scott Cooper's thriller Out of the Furnace. Critics praised the film and considered it an excellent prelude to the next stage in Bale's career after playing Batman. That same year, he starred in American Hustle, which reunited him with David O. Russell. To play the con man Irving Rosenfeld, Bale analyzed footage of interviews with the real-life con man Mel Weinberg, who inspired the character. Bale gained 20 kg, shaved part of his head and adopted a hunched posture. This shortened his height by 7.6 cm and caused him to have a herniated disc.

In Cooper's 2017 film Hostiles, Bale played a US Army officer. Bale learned the Cheyenne language while working on the film. Empire critic Dan Jolin considered his performance to be stunning and one of the strongest of his career. For Vice, the 2018 biographical comedy drama written and directed by Adam McKay, Bale has once again undergone a major body transformation as he gained 18 pounds and shaved his head. The film reunites Bale and Amy Adams. The movie received positive reviews. The critically acclaimed performance earned Bale a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.

Bale played the villain Gorr the God Butcher in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero movie Thor: Love and Thunder, released in July 2022. Bale's portrayal garnered praise from critics. He produced and starred in David O. Russell's period film "Amsterdam" and Scott Cooper's thriller "The Pale Blue Eye". "Amsterdam" was released in October 2022, received critical acclaim and failed at the box office. "The Pale Blue Eye" was released in December 2022. Bale will produce and play a preacher in The Church of Living Dangerously.