Bryan Cranston, the award-winning actor who gave us the memorable Walter White character in the AMC hit crime drama series Breaking Bad, has gone a long way from living on the farm with his grandparents, working with poultry and surviving the separation of his parents when he was just 11 years old.The 59-year-old actor, who was born in Canoga Park, California, admitted in an interview that he partly based his portrayal of Walter White on his own father, Joseph Louis “Joe” Cranston, a former actor and amateur boxer, who had a slumped posture “like the weight of the world was on his shoulders.”And how can one forget the pilot of Breaking Bad with the unforgettable former teacher-turned meth maker character in tighty whites, which by the way, sold in an auction for $9,900 in 2013?For that series, Cranston won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series four times, including three consecutive wins (the second time in television history after Bill Cosby in I Spy), and, as a producer, won the award for Outstanding Drama Series twice. The role also earned him five Golden Globe nominations and one win in 2014, nine Screen Actors Guild Awards noms with four wins and five Saturn Award nods with two wins.Cranston, who is of Austrian-German-Irish ancestry, is also known for his portrayals of Dr. Tim Whatley in the NBC comedy series, Seinfeld, and Hal, the hapless dad in the Fox comedy series, Malcolm in the Middle for which he was nominated three times in the Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and once for the Golden Globes and Saturn Awards.In cinema, Cranston, who is nominated this year in the Golden Globes’ Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture-Drama category for his portrayal of Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo in the bio drama Trumbo, also appeared in several acclaimed films such as Saving Private Ryan, Little Miss Sunshine, Drive, Argo and Godzilla.Last year, Bryan won a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his depiction of Lyndon B. Johnson in the play, All the Way, on Broadway. He will reprise this role in the upcoming HBO TV film of the same name.The actor has a number of projects up his sleeve from TV (All the Way, SuperMansion) to film (In Dubious Battle, Wakefield, Kung Fu Panda 3, Infiltrator). He’s also branching into directing, screenwriting and producing.Cranston told the HFPA of his journey as an actor, “There's not a sense of contentment – meaning that I'm resting back and whatever happens, happens. You're still actively pursuing opportunities in your career. I was 25 years old when I moved to New York. I signed a contract to be on a soap opera for two years. That's still the most important and gratifying professional achievement I have. I wanted to be an actor for a living so badly, that when that happened, I just felt this weight come off. Now I can do the work that I wanted to do. It takes luck. It is a lucky break.”But more than luck, it takes guts, passion and talent as well to succeed in this business. And Bryan Cranston has all that.