Christian Bale

Intense and versatile, Christian Bale is probably best known for playing caped superhero Batman in the big-budget film Batman Begins (2005) and its sequel The Dark Knight (2008). 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 he 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 Batman Begins. He also starred opposite Russell Crowe in the 2007 western remake of 3:10 to Yuma (based on Elmore Leonard's short story). His 2008 Batman reprise in The Dark Knight pitted his caped hero against The Joker, played by actor Heath Ledger, who died before the film's release.

Extra credit: Bale married Sibi Blazic in 2000; she was previously the personal assistant to actress Winona Ryder. Their first child, a daughter, was born in March of 2005... Bale's mother is a "former circus clown," according to a 2008 article in The New York Daily News.