Christian Bale

The Dark Knight, Christian Bale’s second Batman film, opened in late July 2008, with an absolutely enormous buzz leading up to it, in part because of the tragic death of Heath Ledger, whose spin as the Joker received Oscar talk, even from his fellow actors in the film. The film broke box-office records left and right.

Christian Bale was also nominated for askmen's Top 49 Men of 2008.

In 2009, Christian Bale will appear alongside Johnny Depp as gangster Melvin Purvis in Public Enemies, and then he’s set to star in Killing Pablo, chasing down Columbian gangster and drug lord Pablo Escobar. Finally, as he did with Batman, he will step into another established movie franchise, that of the Terminator, in Terminator Salvation.

Christian Bale: 'I Can Turn my Batman Voice on and off'

Christian Bale says he can turn his Batman voice on and off whenever he likes.

The actor -- who stars as the caped-crusader in new film The Dark Knight -- says he used to go home with a sore throat because he was not used to talking with such deep and gravelly tones, but is now so used to doing it, it has become second nature.

He says, "On the first movie, it took me a while to really get accustomed to it but it's like riding a bike. For the second one, I could just switch on and off any time.    "It does still give me a bit of trouble if I talk like that for too long."

On its opening day, July 18, 2008, The Dark Knight set a single-day box office record of $67.85 million, breaking a record of $59.8 million previously held by Spider-Man 3.

The film, which also stars Heath Ledger, Michael Caine and Gary Oldman, also surpassed the $151.1 million opening weekend record of Spider-Man 3 with an opening of $158.4 million, including a record-breaking IMAX opening of $6.2 million, surpassing the $4.7 million of Spider-Man 3.

Christian Bale

Christian Charles Philip Bale (also known professionally as Christian Morgan Bale; born 30 January 1974) is a Welsh-born English actor who is known for his roles in the films Newsies, American Psycho, Shaft, Equilibrium, The Machinist, Batman Begins, and The Prestige, among others.

Bale is also known for his versatility as an actor, including mimicking nearly any English-language-based accent, harsh regimens of shedding and gaining weight (particularly for The Machinist, Batman Begins and, most recently, Rescue Dawn), and generally inhabiting the characters he plays. Before he found success in playing Batman, he was heavily involved in independent films.

Bale first caught the public eye when he was cast in the starring role of Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun at the age of 13, playing a British boy who becomes separated from his parents and subsequently finds himself in a Japanese internment camp during World War II. Since then, he has portrayed a wide range of characters. Bale is especially noted for his cult following.

The tenth anniversary issue of Entertainment Weekly hailed him as one of the "Top 8 Most Powerful Cult Figures of the Past Decade," citing his impressive cult status on the Internet. In a 2007 poll of IMDb users, he was voted their favorite actor who is under 40.Entertainment Weekly also called Bale one of the "Most Creative People in Entertainment," after his dynamic performance in American Psycho.