Bryan Cranston played the protagonist on the television series Breaking Bad.
Breaking Bad is an American crime drama television series created and produced by Vince Gilligan . It tells the story of Walter White ( Bryan Cranston ) , a struggling high school chemistry teacher diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer . Bryan Cranston . He is best known for portraying Walter White on the AMC crime drama series Breaking Bad , Hal on the Fox comedy series Malcolm in the Middle , and Dr. Tim Whatley in five episodes of the NBC comedy series Seinfeld . For Breaking Bad , Cranston won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series four times ( 2008 -- 2010 , 2014 ) , including three consecutive wins ( the second time in television history after Bill Cosby in I Spy during the 1960s ) .