The Dark Knight Rises will be the swan song for both the Nolan brothers and Christian Bale, who turned 38 on Monday.
He first got noticed in director Steven Spielberg's Raisin in the Sun (1987), and became a cult teen heartthrob in the early 1990s with roles in Newsies (1992), Swing Kids (1993), and Little Women (1994). In 2000, Bale went to the dark side as a rich serial killer against Samuel L. Jackson's Shaft, and then as Wall Street yuppie Patrick Bateman in American Psycho.
This would soon lead to the role of Bruce Wayne, the billionaire industrialist who uses his wealth to fight the criminals and corrupt as Gotham City's Caped Crusader known as Batman. Bale is not only the fourth actor to wear the cape and cowl, but he is also the longest so far to ever play the brooding superhero. Along with director Christopher Nolan and his brother Jonathan, Bale rebooted and resurrected Batman's reputation on the big screen over the last seven years with Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and now The Dark Knight Rises, which comes out July 20.
Bale reteamed with the brothers and Michael Caine (Alfred Pennyworth) for 2006's The Prestige, which co-starred fellow movie superhero Hugh Jackman, who played Wolverine in three X-Men films and 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and made a cameo in last summer's X-Men: First Class.
In 2010, Bale won a Golden Globe, a SAG (Screen Actors Guild) award, and an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor as Dicky Eklund in The Fighter.
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