Bryan Cranston was once a suspect in a real-life murder case, something that you might think more likely of his most famous character Walter White.
In truth, it’s a story of hard luck and circumstance that might be more akin to his character Hal, the hapless dad in Malcolm in the Middle.
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Basically, before he was famous for his role in Breaking Bad, Cranston was just a normal kid with a normal job like everyone else.
During the 1970s, he and his brother had decided that they’d go on a bit of a motorcycle tour around the United States of America, picking up bits and pieces of work as they went in order to sustain their travelling.
On one occasion they were working in a restaurant in Daytona Beach down in Florida, toiling away for a boss that was a bit of a tyrant.
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Cranston has told this story a couple of times publicly, and on one occasion he said: “The chef at this restaurant was a guy named Peter Wong.
“He was a miserable human being, just a despicable man.
“He hated everyone and everyone hated him.”
Still, the Cranston brothers needed some money, so they begrudgingly worked for him.
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While the workers might have wished that their boss was dead, they never really thought of acting on it.
Cranston himself even recalled joking about what it would be like to kill him.
Anyway, this was all well and good until Wong actually did turn up dead, almost exactly at the time the Cranston brothers had moved town to a different place.
It didn’t look great for them.
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This meant they became suspects in the murder case, with police putting out an APB – all-points bulletin – on the two kids’ motorbikes after they left for another state.
In the end, Cranston found out what had happened.
He explained: “A hooker picked Peter Wong up at a dog track in Daytona and lured him home.
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“Some other guy was waiting for him and clubbed him on the head before stuffing him in the trunk of a car.”
So, the real culprit was apprehended, and while the Cranston brothers were suspected of the murder, it never became anything more than that for them.
Cranston then obviously gave up the travelling life and eventually found his way onto screens for a career in TV and Film.
Better than being banged up in Florida for a murder that you didn’t commit, anyway.
Topics: Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad, Crime, True Crime, TV and Film, Celebrity, US News
Tom Wood