Actor Bryan Cranston is one of the most acclaimed actors working in the industry now. He is known for his portrayal of the Chemistry teacher-turned-drug kingpin Walter White in the AMC crime drama Breaking Bad. The actor won four Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe for the series.
Cranston’s portrayal of the ailing chemistry teacher who enters the world of crime in order to make sure his family is secured as he is diagnosed with cancer was his highest-rated performance. However, his best-rated performance before Breaking Bad was an animated version of the Indian epic Ramayana.
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Bryan Cranston’s Career And Breakthrough
Until he became a household name with the crime drama Breaking Bad, Bryan Cranston had a long journey in his acting career. Coming from a family that had tried and failed in showbiz, Cranston was not encouraged by his family to pursue a career in acting, but he still managed to hold his ground and began his career on stage.
Cranston reportedly made small appearances in TV shows such as Loving, Raising Miranda, and Baywatch. The actor also sustained himself with a voice acting career, providing the English dubbed voice for animes such as Street Fighter II: The Animated Move, Macross Plus, and Armitage III: Poly-Matrix.
Bryan Cranston got his breakthrough with an episode of the popular sci-fi mystery show The X-Files, where he played the Antagonist Patrick Krump. The episode was written by Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan and was the reason for him to cast Cranston as Walter White ten years later.
The actor was then cast as Hal in the sitcom Malcolm in the Middle. He played the eccentric father of the titular Malcolm, played by Frankie Muniz, and lasted through all seven seasons of the show. Cranston also directed a few episodes of the iconic series and was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Awards thrice and once for the Golden Globes.
Bryan Cranston In Ramayana: The Legend Of Prince Ram
Actor Bryan Cranston’s voice acting days came in handy when he was hired to voice the role of Prince Ram in the Japanese anime version of the Indian epic Ramayana, called Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Ram. The film was directed by Yugo Sako, who reportedly got interested in an anime adaptation of the epic after filming a documentary about the excavations headed by historian Dr. BB Lal.
Sako’s film was produced in 1992 but was not allowed to be released in India until years later in 1995 due to tensions between the religious communities in India as it was the time of the controversial Ayodhya Dispute. Many organizations in the country were against the idea of an animated adaptation of the epic which is considered sacred in the Hindu religion. The organizations objected to the idea of portraying Lord Ram as a ‘cartoon’. Hence, the film was produced in Japan with the help of Indian artists.
An English version of the film titled The Prince of Light: The Legend of the Ramayana was released in 2001 with Bryan Cranston voicing Prince Ram and popular actor James Earl Jones, known for voicing Darth Vader and Mufasa, joined as the narrator. The film was later screened at the Japanese Film Festival in India in 2022, to mark 70 years of Indo-Japanese relations.
