World Actor Info

Zachary David Alexander "Zac" Efron (born October 18, 1987) is an American actor. He began acting professionally in the early 2000s and became known with his lead roles in the Disney Channel Original Movie High School Musical, the WB series Summerland, and the 2007 film version of the Broadway musical Hairspray. Efron has since starred in the films 17 Again, Me and Orson Welles, Charlie St. Cloud, and New Year's Eve, and is due to star in The Lucky One.
In 2007, Rolling Stone declared him the "poster boy for tweenyboppers" and featured him in their late August 2007 issue.

Career

Early work

In 2002, Efron began to appear in guest roles on several television series, including Firefly, ER, and The Guardian. He portrayed Cameron Bale on the now-cancelled WB series Summerland. Originally introduced as a recurring character, Efron became a regular cast member on the show in the second season in 2004, starring opposite the likes of Kay Panabaker, Lori Loughlin and Jesse McCartney. Since appearing in Summerland, he has also had guest roles on the shows CSI: Miami, NCIS, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and The Replacements. In 2003, Efron starred in the Lifetime original television movie Miracle Run. He played Steven Morgan, one of two autistic twins. For his performance, he was nominated for a Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a TV Movie, Mini-series or Special — Supporting Young Actor.[17] In 2005, he played a main character in Hope Partlow's music video for her song "Sick Inside." Also in 2005, he played horse-loving Patrick McCardle in The Derby Stallion, where his character wants to beat the town bully at the steeple chase race.

Breakthrough

In 2006, Efron starred in the Disney Channel original movie High School Musical as Troy Bolton, a popular student and captain of the basketball team. The film, which he initially made with "low expectations",[1] helped Efron gain recognition among teenage audiences as both an actor and a singer, even though his singing voice was overdubbed. As a result, he placed as high as #4 on the IMDBPro's STARMeter for the week of January 29, 2006.[18] In August 2006, Efron won a Teen Choice Award in the Breakout Star and the TV — Choice Chemistry categories, shared with Vanessa Hudgens. The film's cast, along with Efron, toured Sydney, Australia, London, England, and other locations to promote the film.
Shortly after High School Musical aired, on February 4, 2006, Efron debuted with two simultaneous charted songs on Billboard Hot 100 from the film: "Get'cha Head in the Game" and "Breaking Free", a duet with Hudgens. On the following week's chart, Efron had five simultaneous song credits from High School Musical: "Get'cha Head in the Game", "Start of Something New", "What I've Been Looking For: Reprise", "We're All in This Together" and "Breaking Free." "We're All in This Together" was credited to the whole High School Musical cast. "Breaking Free", at the time, made the fastest climb in the history of the Billboard charts, from #86 to #4 between the two weeks; the record was beaten by Beyoncé and Shakira's "Beautiful Liar".Efron also appeared in the 2006 Disney Channel Games as captain of the Red Team.
Efron's singing talents were disputed when it was revealed that Drew Seeley's voice was blended with his on the soundtrack of High School Musical. An August 23, 2007 interview in Rolling Stone magazine revealed that he had been cast in High School Musical after the songs were written, and the songs (written for a tenor) were somewhat out of his baritone vocal range

Known as an "actor's actor" with a widely diverse repertoire of movie portrayals and accents, the Welsh-born English movie star, born Christian Charles Philip Bale on January 30 1974, was the youngest of four children who spent time traveling throughout Europe with his circus performer mother, Jenny James.

Christian began acting work in TV commercials as a young boy. His first screen role came when he was all of 13, appearing in Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun playing an English boy interred in a Japanese internment camp during World War II.

Serious and shy, and having received a bit too much attention from the role, the young actor contemplated giving up acting altogether. But in a legendary meeting with Kenneth Branaugh, he was later persuaded to appear in that actor's film production of Henry V in 1989.

From then on, Bale was kept busy in various teen roles in Hollywood films, among them two Disney releases - Newsies (1992) and Swing Kids (1993). A year later, he was cast opposite Winona Ryder in the film adaptation of Little Women and in several other movie appearances, including the 1999 film version of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

American Psycho and Beyond

With the subtle shading and expert skill has exhibited in adult roles since then, Christian Bale's career skyrocketed in 2000 when he next appeared in the controversial filming of American Psycho, based on the bestselling novel by Bret Easton Ellis.

As Patrick Bateman, the actor embodied the chilling lead character who posed as a typical urban yuppie while carefully hiding the cold-blooded psychopath within.

Although the level of violence in the film was not warmly received by critics, the role secured Bale's cult status and Hollywood reputation as a fearless and committed actor.

Several disappointing films followed, including a similar dark role in the 2000 sequel to 1971's Shaft, a forgettable performance as a Greek fisherman in Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001), and his first action-adventure role as a dragon slayer in the ill-fated Reign of Fire in 2002.

That same year, with the release of Equilibrium (which critics panned as a rip-off of the more successful Matrix franchise, complete with slo-mo marshal arts scenes) the actor's portrayal of a lawman John Preston garnered Bale an even stronger fan following, and the film itself enduring cult status.


Surprising film critics in 2004, he next appeared in the limited release of The Machinist in which he played a haunted insomniac, a role requiring Bale to lose a startling 60 pounds throughout filming.

Batman Begins and The Dark Knight

An even larger fan base of "Baleheads" was to grow as the actor, having just completed filming of The Machinist, was cast as Batman in the new Christopher Nolan-directed film series (beating out a number of other Hollywood stars including the heavily favored Jake Gyllenhaal).

The role required a now emaciated Bale to quickly bulk up for the lead role in Batman Begins, which earned him wide critical praise for his dual portrayal as Bruce Wayne/Batman - and for which he received a "Best Hero" award a year later from a young movie-going public at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards. Bale also provided the voice of Batman for the equally successful video game based on the film.


Following the success of Batman Begins, Bale returned to smaller, independent films such as the critically praised Harsh Times in 2006, and in a secondary role in The New World starring Colin Farrell, along with lead roles in Rescue Dawn and The Prestige starring with Hugh Jackman and Scarlett Johansson.

Bale next appeared in the highly-anticipated sequal in the Batman franchise, The Dark Knight, co-starring Heath Ledger as The Joker, released on July 18, 2008.

In addition to The Dark Knight, in 2008 Bale appeared in I'm Not There, a biopic of muscian Bob Dylan, and co-starred with Aussie actor Russell Crowe in 3:10 to Yuma.

Coming up, he will also star as John Connor in the next installment in the Terminator franchise Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins slated for May 2009 release.

Family Life, Arrest News

Away from the movie studio, Bale is married to former model Sibi Blazic and has a daughter, Emmaline born in 2005.

Making headlines over assault charges against his mother and sister in July 2008, Bale was arrested and questioned over the incident in a London hotel. Representatives for Bale later released a statement denying that an assault ever took place.