Bale had made TV commercials and appeared on the London stage before starring in Empire of the Sun (1987), an adaptation of the J. G. Ballard novel. For a few years he was a song-and-dance man-child, in the quaint Newsies and Swing Kids. Bale has since acted mostly in small, independent films like Metroland and All the Little Animals. He was the titular crazed killer in the film adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis's bloody American Psycho, and when anti-movie-violence activists protested the film, Bale did not win them over when he explained, "I found the script really funny."
[1] Though born in Wales, he has English parents and an English identity. Only for the first two years of his life did he live in Wales. Bales currently resides in Los Angeles.
Father: David Bale (pilot, b. 1941, d. 30-Dec-2003, brain lymphoma)
Mother: Jenny James (circus performer)
Mother: Gloria Steinem (stepmother, married Bale's father in 2000)
Sister: Erin Kreunen (musician)
Sister: Sharon Bale (software designer)
Sister: Louise Bale (avant garde filmmaker, b. 22-Jul-1972)
Wife: Sibi Blazic ("Sandra", Winona Ryder's personal assistant, m. 29-Jan-2000, one daughter)
Daughter: Emmeline (b. 27-Mar-2005)
High School: Bournemouth School
Assault 21-Jul-2008 (arrested in London, charge dismissed)
South African Ancestry Paternal
English Ancestry Maternal
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Public Enemies (18-Jun-2009)
Terminator Salvation (14-May-2009)
The Dark Knight (16-Jul-2008)
3:10 to Yuma (7-Sep-2007)
I'm Not There (3-Sep-2007)
The Prestige (17-Oct-2006)
Rescue Dawn (9-Sep-2006)
Harsh Times (18-Aug-2006)
The New World (25-Dec-2005)
Batman Begins (15-Jun-2005)
The Machinist (18-Jan-2004)
Equilibrium (18-Oct-2002)
Reign of Fire (9-Jul-2002)
Laurel Canyon (18-May-2002)
Captain Corelli's Mandolin (19-Apr-2001)
Shaft (16-Jun-2000)
American Psycho (21-Jan-2000)
Mary, Mother of Jesus (14-Nov-1999)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (26-Apr-1999)
All the Little Animals (13-Sep-1998)
Velvet Goldmine (21-May-1998)
Metroland (30-Aug-1997)
The Portrait of a Lady (18-Oct-1996)
The Secret Agent (7-Sep-1996)
Pocahontas (15-Jun-1995) [VOICE]
Little Women (21-Dec-1994)
Prince of Jutland (23-Feb-1994)
Swing Kids (5-Mar-1993)
Newsies (10-Apr-1992)
A Murder of Quality (1991)
Treasure Island (22-Jan-1990)
Henry V (8-Nov-1989)
Empire of the Sun (9-Dec-1987)
Mio in the Land of Faraway (16-Oct-1987)
Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna (7-Dec-1986)
AKA Christian Charles Phillip Bale
