Christian Bale

Although Bale was born in Wales, his parents were of English descent: an entrepreneur, commercial pilot, and talent manager David Bale is his father, and circus clown and performer Jenny James his mother. He is the youngest of four children. After leaving Wales in 1976, Bale spent his childhood in several countries, including England, Portugal and the United States.

Settling for four years in Bournemouth and Henley-on-Thames, Bale attended Shiplake C of E Primary School and Bournemouth School respectively. He participated actively in rugby union. Bale has described his childhood, with respect to his mother being in the circus, as "interesting". He recalled his first kiss was with an acrobat named Barta. As a child, he trained in ballet and guitar. His sister Louise's work in theatre also influenced his decision to become an actor. Bale's father was very supportive of his son's acting, resigning from his job as a commercial pilot to travel and manage Bale's burgeoning career. The elder Bale later married feminist icon Gloria Steinem, and died at the age of 62 on 30 December 2003, from brain lymphoma.

Bale's first foray into acting was a commercial for the fabric softener Lenor in 1982, when he was eight years old. He appeared in a Pac-Man cereal commercial playing a child rock star a year later and in 1984 made his stage debut in The Nerd, opposite Rowan Atkinson.

Bale made his film debut as Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich of Russia in the made-for-television film Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna in 1986, which was followed by leading roles in the miniseries Heart of the Country and the fantasy adventure Mio in the Land of Faraway, in which he appeared for the first time with Christopher Lee and Nick Pickard.

In 1987, Amy Irving, his co-star in Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna, recommended Bale to her then-husband, Steven Spielberg, for a role in Empire of the Sun, adapted from the J.G. Ballard semi-autobiography. In 1992, Bale starred as Jack Kelly in the Disney musical Newsies, and followed it up in 1993 with another release, Swing Kids, a movie about teenagers who secretly listened to forbidden jazz during the rise of Nazi Germany.

In 1999, Bale played serial killer Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, director Mary Harron's adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' controversial novel. Bale was briefly dropped from the project in favor of Leonardo DiCaprio, but DiCaprio eventually dropped out to star in The Beach, and Bale was cast once again. From 2002 to 2003, Bale starred in three feature films. Laurel Canyon (2002) was generally well received by critics. This film also marked the second time he worked with actress Kate Beckinsale, his costar in Prince of Jutland (1994). Critics generally focused on star Frances McDormand's performance over the rest of the cast. After a year's hiatus, Bale returned in 2004 to play Trevor Reznik, the title character in the psychological thriller The Machinist.

It was reported that Bale had previously auditioned for the role of Robin in Batman Returns (1992) and later Batman Forever (1995), but lost out to Chris O'Donnell. After Batman Begins, Bale returned to doing independent films. He was cast as one of the two leads in the South Central David Ayer-helmed crime drama Harsh Times, co-starring with Freddy Rodriguez and Eva Longoria. Bale played Jim Luther Davis, a grim Afghanistan War veteran afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder, inexplicably approached by the Department of Homeland Security and hired as a federal agent. Harsh Times premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival and had a wide release on 10 November 2006.

On 29 January, 2000, Bale married Serbian-American Sandra "Sibi" Blažić (born 1970), a one-time model, make-up artist and personal assistant to Winona Ryder; the couple have a daughter, Emmeline, who was born on 27 March 2005, in Santa Monica, California. Since 1992, Bale has resided in Los Angeles.

Bale has three elder sisters – Erin Bale, a musician; Sharon Bale, a computer professional; and Louise Bale, a theatre actress and director. The Bale family is deeply rooted in show business, especially theatre. Bale is a distant relative of British actress Lillie Langtry, while his uncle, Rex Bale and maternal grandfather were actors as well.

Like his late father, businessman David (1941–2003), Christian Bale actively supports such environmental groups such as Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund. Feminist activist Gloria Steinem became Bale's stepmother, and a first-time bride (at the age of 66), when she married David Bale on 3 September 2000. The marriage ended with the death of David Bale in 2003.

During an interview promoting his 2009 film Public Enemies Bale said he is a video game fan, specifically of the Metal Gear Solid series. When questioned if he was in the running to play Solid Snake, Bale stated that he prefers to devote his spare time to more constructive things and dislikes talking about his personal life.

On 22 July, 2008, Bale attended a London police station by appointment and was arrested in connection with an alleged assault on his mother, Jenny and sister, Sharon, who called the authorities. After being held for more than four hours, he was released on bail, pending further investigation. He denied the allegations and on 14 August 2008, British police declared that they would take no further action against him. The charges were dismissed for lack of evidence.

In July 2008, Bale had an angry tirade on the sets of Terminator Salvation, while filming in New Mexico. In February 2009, the audio recording of the incident was released. The tirade was directed at Shane Hurlbut, director of photography for the film. According to Bale, Hurlbut had, for the second time, ruined his concentration by walking into his line of sight during a scene. The recording is of a highly agitated Bale directing profanities at Hurlbut, threatening and belittling him, and finally threatening to quit the film if Hurlbut repeated his offence without being fired for it. It was reported that Warner film executives sent the tape to the insurer of the film in case Bale decided to quit the movie. In an interview with E! Online, assistant director and producer of Terminator Salvation, Bruce Franklin, said it was an isolated incident. "If you are working in a very intense scene and someone takes you out of your groove...It was the most emotional scene in the movie," said Franklin. "And for him to get stopped in the middle of it. He is very intensely involved in his character. He didn't walk around like that all day long. It was just a moment and it passed."

Actors Whoopi Goldberg and Terry Crews, directors Darren Aronofsky and Ron Howard, as well as Ain't It Cool News website creator Harry Knowles have also publicly defended Bale's actions, some of them citing the practice that crew members are to remain still while the camera is rolling. Lucian Piane, a composer and music producer with the Internet alias RevoLucian, recorded "Bale Out", a comedic techno remix of Bale's verbal rant, which received more than 200,000 hits on MySpace and YouTube in one day. The incident also inspired experimental band The Mae Shi to write the song R U Professional which features samples from the recording. Stephen Colbert parodied the incident on the February 4 episode of The Colbert Report, in which guest Steve Martin repeatedly walked in front of the camera and was berated by Colbert. An episode of the animated TV series Family Guy also mixes in the voice of Peter Griffin interacting with Bale and reacting to Bale's comments as if they were directed at him, also for comedic effect. The audio was also parodied in a Nostalgia Critic video, Batman vs The Dark Knight, where after he reviews the two movies, he gets a call from Bale and starts yelling at him for making fun of his voice of Batman in the Dark Knight.

After remaining silent for most of the week, Bale gave a public apology on 6 February 2009, to a Los Angeles radio station, KROQ. He stated that the outburst was "inexcusable" and that it was motivated by the day's shooting intensity. Bale said he "acted like a punk", and that he and Hurlbut talked after the incident and "resolved this completely". Bale acknowledged that the two worked together for several hours after the incident, and "at least a month after that". He noted, "I've seen a rough cut of the movie and he has done a wonderful job. It looks fantastic."