Entertainment FRIDAY 22 JULY 2016 Dalton Trumbo in Trumbo

ranston’s piled up a lot of screen ble of carrying a movie - even one that, as credits over the years, but relatively critics reluctantly pointed out, wasn’t Cfew have been leading roles. One necessarily up to its subject’s impeccable notable exception is 2015’s Trumbo, in standards. “Cranston’s performance is the which he portrays the legendary screen- motor that runs Trumbo,” wrote Ty Burr writer during and after his politically for the Boston Globe. “And that motor motivated fall from professional grace. never idles, never flags in momentum or Delivering a full-bodied performance that magnetism or idealistic scorn.” neither lionized nor demonized Trumbo, Cranston proved he was more than capa-

Jack O’Donnel in Argo

ike a lot of characters in Argo, relies on O’Donnell as his lifeline back to Cranston’s character was an amal- the States during his mission in Iran, and Lgam of actual individuals involved in for the audience, who feel the tension and the movie’s real-life story - and like many urgency of the situation back home of the incredible actors assembled for the through his increasingly strained efforts to Oscar-winning drama, he didn’t have an pull the whole thing off. “Is it me,” won- overwhelming amount of screentime. But dered the San Diego Reader’s Scott Marks, as Jack O’Donnell, the boss of CIA exfiltra- “or should Bryan Cranston be in every film tor Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) during the released?” Iranian hostage crisis in 1979, Cranston plays a crucial role - both for Mendez, who

Hal Wilkerson in Malcolm in the Middle ong before he stripped down to his mother (Jane Kaczmarek) - adding yet anoth- briefs for Breaking Bad, Cranston made a er sweetly clueless sitcom dad to an already Lhabit of it on Malcolm in the Middle, the lengthy list. Yet while Malcolm didn’t exactly long-running Fox sitcom about a quirky sub- reinvent the TV comedy wheel, it did what it urban family rounded out by a brood of boys set out to do consistently well, and earned and led by a no-nonsense mom. As the father, Cranston a passel of Emmy nominations Cranston was often just as much of a kid as along the way. his onscreen sons - and twice as afraid of their

Walter White in Breaking Bad

ranston’s done a lot of fine work whose depiction of Walter White’s descent throughout his career, but he’ll prob- into the criminal underworld netted him Cably always be most closely identi- four Lead Actor Emmys during the show’s fied with Breaking Bad. It makes sense, run. “One way or another, you’ve got to really - how often does an actor get the figure Walt is going down,” wrote the chance to star in a hit series about a high Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Mark Dawidziak school chemistry teacher who turns to during the final season. “And, thanks to manufacturing and selling his own meth in Cranston, he’s going down in TV history as order to shore up funds for his family after one of the medium’s most fascinating, learning he’s dying of cancer? Critically memorable and grandly tragic characters.” acclaimed and consistently successful in (www.rottentomatoes.com) the ratings, Breaking Bad was also an awards magnet - not least for Cranston,