Who Is Bryan Cranston’s Wife? All About Robin Dearden

Bryan Cranston and his wife, actress Robin Dearden, have been married for more than three decades.

A couple who first met on the set of a TV series from the 80s Air wolf, they got married on July 8, 1989 and have been together ever since. In 1993, they had a daughter, Taylor Dearden.

“Robin is a compassionate, fair person,” Cranston told PEOPLE of his wife. “Her default mechanism is emotion and love. And she’s not cynical. I am! I’m sarcastic and she’s sweet. That’s the young spirit she’s always maintained.”

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Cranston said their successful marriage was due to “going to therapy together” and simply “[marrying] the right person.”

So who is Bryan Cranston’s wife? Here’s everything you need to know about Robin Dearden and her relationship with the actor.

She met Cranston on the set of a TV show

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The couple’s love story began on the set of the CBS series Air wolf circa 1986. “It changed both of our lives,” Cranston told PEOPLE at the 2016 Palm Springs International Film Festival.

The actor appeared in the series as an angry boyfriend who hijacks his girlfriend’s sorority cruise for a reunion, with Dearden playing one of the sorority sisters who is being held hostage.

“He had a girlfriend and I had a boyfriend at the time,” Dearden explained. “But I thought he was the funniest man I’d ever met. I said, ‘He’s kind of cute, he’s got a gun…'”

The timing was “coincidental,” according to Cranston. “If we were unburdened at the time, she doesn’t think we would have stayed together,” he said.

He continued: “Because she had a boyfriend and I had a girlfriend, we could flirt without heavy sexual tension, but there was sexual tension, let me tell you! But not heavy sexual tension, not ‘faux pas’ sexual tension, but it was there.”

A year after filming, they bumped into each other at an improv comedy class. Cranston said they greeted each other with a kiss “like actors do,” but it lingered longer than a kiss between regular friends.

“We were both like, ‘Wait, that was too long, wasn’t it?!’ “, he recalled. “And that really happened.”

Cranston proposed to her in the bathtub

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In an episode of the podcast Double date with Marla Thomas and Phil DonahueCranston and Dearden have been open about their engagement.

Dearden recalled what happened during the “ridiculous” proposal at Cranston’s cabin in Big Bear Lake, California. “When she was a standard size, in a crappy cabin in the mountains, so there was no place for me to face him,” she said. “So I’m facing the spout.”

“I designed it this way because I thought I would crack if I faced her, trying to draw these lines. I did. I really am,” added Cranston. “So I thought, ‘How am I going to do it, how am I going to do it?’ I drank champagne and some music.”

Dearden tried to turn to look at him as he spoke and he would divert her gaze away from him. Cranston’s second challenge was finding where to keep the ring.

“We are naked, like in a bathtub. Where would I put the ring? So I think to myself ‘Oh no, she will see it there’ – he said. “And I put it on my toe. I put it on all the way and put my foot in.”

Laughing, Dearden added, “So when he asked me, this leg came with a ring on it!”

Cranston joked during their wedding

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After their bathtub proposal, Cranston had another trick up his sleeve during their July 8, 1989 wedding.

“I came to see how even the smallest moment of lightness can break the tension,” the actor said Oh, Oprah magazine in July 2011

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“My wife and I wrote our own vows, and when it was her turn, she pulled out some small index cards and started reading. When it was my turn, I took out a piece of paper – which unrolled three feet to the ground,” he said. “I planned a prank to keep things from getting too serious and to help everyone relax. Although it didn’t make the grown men rolling on the floor in hysterics, I’m happy to say it got a laugh.”

She has one daughter with Cranston

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The couple shares one child, daughter Taylor Dearden, born in Los Angeles on February 12, 1993.

Taylor graduated from the University of Southern California with a BA in Acting in 2015 and has worked as an actress and director. Except he appeared in the episode Breaking Badshe starred in the MTV series Sweet/mean and had recurring roles on American vandal and For all humanity.

“She is way beyond where I was in my 20s in terms of ability,” the Emmy winner told PEOPLE of his daughter. “She’s a super talented young lady.”

Despite her famous parents, Taylor manages without their help. “She’s very independent,” the actor told British GQ. “And very conscientious that there is no connection or hint of nepotism.”

She acted with Cranston

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Besides that Air wolf In 1986, Cranston and Dearden appeared together in other projects. In 2010, Dearden and Taylor appeared in the third season premiere Breaking Bad.

Dearden also starred Last chance (1999) alongside Cranston, who also wrote and directed the film. Cranston wrote the original romantic drama as a gift for Dearden.

“I wrote it for my wife, not having enough sense to realize that I had written a screenplay, not a novel,” he said. Backstage. “That’s when I realized, ‘Oh my God, I’m not done.’ It’s like handing someone a plate of frozen cookie dough: ‘Oh, I should really make you this, shouldn’t I?’ ”

Cranston continued, “I’ve been dealing with it for a while and taking it to different people. They either said it didn’t have the pizzazz they wanted or they wanted us to bring in some big names, and I ended up saying, ‘I’m tired of it, I’m just going to go out and raise the money and do it myself.’ Well, I did.”

She recovered from COVID-19 with Cranston

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In July 2020, Cranston revealed that he and Dearden contracted and recovered from COVID-19 despite “following strict protocol”.

The Honorable judges star told PEOPLE he’s thankful their fight with the virus isn’t more serious. “We had ashenness for three days and exhaustion for a week,” he said. “Looking back, we were very lucky.”

He could find joy in unexpected interruptions when work and life were put on pause, spending his time making fresh bread, experimenting with cocktail recipes with his Mezcal brand Dos Hombres, and spending time with his family.

“I work a lot and most of it requires me to be out of my state,” said the LA-based actor. “There is a significant amount of loneliness. And I’m happiest with my family.”

Cranston is taking a break from work to spend more time with her

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In June 2023, Cranston announced his three-year plan to take a break from show business, telling the British GQ, “I want to change the paradigm once again.” One of the reasons for his planned break is to spend more time with his wife Asteroid City the star shared in a front page story.

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“For the last 24 years, Robin has led her life by holding on to my tail,” he said. “She was a plus-one, she was a celebrity wife. She had to turn around and adjust her life based on mine. She’s benefited tremendously from that, but we’re not even. I want to straighten it out. She deserves it.”

Cranston continued, “I love my wife and we want to go far, but I want to do it in a healthy way. I don’t want to be just with her. I don’t want to have just the two of us walk into a restaurant and nobody says a word.”

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