4:40PM, May 15, 2009
The multi-talented star achieved cinema stardom when he was cast as the Dark Knight in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins.
The son of a former circus dancer and an airline pilot, he was brought up in England, Portugal and California.
As a youngster he made a cereal commercial aged seven before being cast by Steven Spielberg as the child star of the film adaptation of JG Ballard's autobiography Empire of the Sun.
However, unlike many child actors, he consolidated his stardom with appearances in adult films including American Psycho and The Machinist.
Bale made his screen debut at age nine flogging pac-man cereal on TV and by ten he was on stage opposite Rowan Atkinson in The Nerd.
But it was when he went to California with his pilot dad and dancer mum that his career took off after landing a part in the mini-series Anastasia.
He caught the eye of co-star Amy Irving, who was Mrs Steven Spielberg at the time, and director cast 13-year-old Bale in Empire of the Sun.
Playing the ex-pat boy captured by the Japanese during WWII was a showcase for the powerful actor and won him several awards.
Back in England at secondary school in Bournemouth, he then landed his follow-up role in Kenneth Branagh's Henry V.
He also found time out of his education to play opposite Charlton Heston in Treasure Island (1990), and appear in cult musical Newsies (1992) and Swing Kids (1993).
Newsies was his first adult role. The classically trained ballet dancer could be seen singing, dancing, and sporting a convincing American accent, a talent that was to speed his US success.
Just out of school in 1994, 20-year-old Bale was hand-picked by Winona Ryder to play heart-throb Laurie in the hit adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel Little Women (1994).
Bale's roles in Pocahontas, Metroland, opposite Emily Watson, Portrait of a Lady and Velvet Goldmine kept building up his critically acclaimed reputation.
Having completed the transition to adult actor the roles flooded in, baddies became a speciality, particularly after the controversial hit film of Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho (2000).
Appearing in Shaft (2000), Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001) and Reign of Fire (2002) sealed his reputation as a quiet, perhaps underrated, industry stalwart.
In 2000, Bale married film producer Sibi Blazic, breaking the hearts of the thousands of 'Baleheads' who have created internet sites devoted to the actor.
In 2005, he was selected by Christopher Nolan to reinvent the Batman franchise in the dark Batman Begins and went on to star in Terence Malick's The New World.
He played a downed American airman and POW in Werner Herzog's impressive Rescue Dawn and went on to star opposite Russell Crowe in the accomplished remake of 3:10 To Yuma.
In 2008, he donned the cape for a second time to play Batman opposite the late Heath Ledger's Joker in the box office smash, The Dark Knight and in June 2009 he returns for another blockbuster franchise, this time in Terminator: Salvation.
