<P> Bryan Lee Cranston was born on March 7, 1956 in Hollywood, California, the second of three children born to Annalisa "Peggy" (née Sell; 1923--2004), a radio actress, and Joseph Louis "Joe" Cranston (1924--2014), an actor and former amateur boxer . His father was of Austrian, German, Irish, and Jewish descent, while his mother was the daughter of German immigrants . He was raised in Canoga Park, California . Cranston's father held many jobs before deciding to become an actor, but did not secure enough roles to provide for his family . He eventually walked out on the family when Cranston was 11 years old, and they did not see each other again until 11 years later, when Cranston and his brother decided to track their father down . Cranston was 22 at the time, and he and his father maintained a relationship until his father's death in 2014 . </P> <P> Cranston has claimed that he based his portrayal of Walter White on his own father, who had a slumped posture "like the weight of the world was on his shoulders". After his father left, he was raised partly by his grandparents, living on their poultry farm in Yucaipa, California . He has called his parents "broken people" who were "incapacitated as far as parenting" and caused the family to lose their house in a foreclosure . In 1968, when he was 12 years old, he encountered a young Charles Manson while riding horses with his teenage cousin at the Spahn Ranch . This happened about a year before Manson committed the Tate - LaBianca murders . Cranston graduated from Canoga Park High School, where he was a member of the school's chemistry club, and earned an associate's degree in police science from Los Angeles Valley College in 1976 . </P> <P> After college, Cranston began his acting career in local and regional theaters, getting his start at the Granada Theater in the San Fernando Valley . He had previously performed as a youth, but his show business parents had mixed feelings about their son being involved in the profession, so he did not continue until years later . Cranston was ordained as a minister by the Universal Life Church, and performed weddings for $150 a service to help with his income . He also worked as a waiter, a night - shift security guard at the gates of a private Los Angeles community, a truck loader, a camera operator for a video dating service, and a CCTV security guard at a supermarket . He started working regularly in the late 1980s, mostly doing minor roles and advertisements . He was an original cast member of the ABC soap opera Loving, where he played Douglas Donovan from 1983 to 1985 . Cranston starred in the short - lived series Raising Miranda in 1988 . Cranston's voice acting includes English dubbing of Japanese anime (under the pseudonym Lee Stone), including Macross Plus and Armitage III: Poly - Matrix, and most notably, the children's series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers . Cranston did voice work for the 1993 - 94 first season of that series, playing characters such as Twin Man and Snizzard, for which he was paid about $50.00 an hour for two or three hours of daily work . The Blue Power Ranger, Billy Cranston, was named for him . </P> <P> From 1994 to 1997, Cranston made a handful of appearances as Dr. Tim Whatley, Jerry's dentist, on Seinfeld . In 1996, he played his second astronaut when he portrayed Gus Grissom in the film That Thing You Do! In 1997, Cranston had a small role in Babylon 5 as Ericsson . In 1998, Cranston appeared in an episode of The X-Files written by Vince Gilligan . That same year, he portrayed astronaut Buzz Aldrin in the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon . In 1999, Cranston wrote and directed the film Last Chance . That same year he made his second appearance for a recurring role on the CBS sitcom The King of Queens, playing Doug Heffernan's neighbor, Tim Sacksky . </P>

New movie with the guy from breaking bad