Bryan Cranston

Bryan Cranston plays Walter White in Breaking Bad. The performance has room for humiliation, fussiness and dark comedy as well as anger. Cranston makes Walter's need to be respected visible in small domestic exchanges, not just the speeches people remember.

Before Breaking Bad, he was widely known as Hal in Malcolm in the Middle. The comic timing carries across: Walter's confidence is often funniest when it is least justified. Cranston won four lead-actor drama Emmys for Breaking Bad, a recognition of a role that demands both close observation and considerable range.

His other television work includes Judge Michael Desiato in Your Honor. On film he plays screenwriter Dalton Trumbo in Trumbo, while his stage work includes Lyndon B. Johnson in All the Way and Howard Beale in Network. These are substantial, talkative roles, but Cranston is just as effective when a character is searching for the answer he would rather not give.