Joined by Ryan Gosling and Steve Carell, Bale took the dire story of the financial crisis of 2008 and turned it into a witty, scathingly funny comedy.
Bale put on 43 pounds to transform into '70s con-artist Irving Rosenfield and scored a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his efforts.
Bale physically transformed yet again and won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar (as well as everything else that year) for playing Mark Wahlberg's ne'er-do-well brother and trainer in the David O. Russell-directed drama.
Everyone remembers Bale taking the filming of this sci-fi production very seriously.
Defending Gotham from evil won him the People's Choice Award for Favorite Superhero in 2009.
Plot twist? What plot twist? We were just thinking that Bale and fellow illusionist Hugh Jackman, who played his nemesis, can perform magic tricks on us, any time.
Bale dropped another grip of weight to convincingly portray Dieter Dengler, a U.S. fighter pilot shot down and stranded in the jungle during the Vietnam War.
Bale is settler John Rolfe, husband of Pocahontas, who still has feelings for John Smith, played by Colin Farrell. So we can't really blame her.
Bale's first turn as Bruce Wayne and the Caped Crusader.
Bale is known for his commitment to the craft, but no film shows his dedication as much as The Machinist, a role he famously lost a whopping 60 pounds for.
Who doesn't shiver when they recall serial killer Patrick Bateman in American Psycho romping around in a plastic jumpsuit to keep the blood spatter off his suit? Even his pretentious Ivy League accent gave us nightmares!
It's no more awesome swing dancing and hi-jinks as the Nazis tighten their grip on pre-World War II Germany in this haunting drama about a friendship that becomes another casualty of the regime. (But again, will someone get this guy another movie to dance in, stat?!)
We all fell in love with Bale's Laurie, the handsome, wealthy boy-next-door who we all not-so-secretly wish Winona Ryder's Jo had ended up with.
18-year-old Bale singing and dancing and rebelling against big publishing? Would someone put this man in another musical, stat?!
Bale was a wee 13 in his first major role in this Steven Spielberg-directed tearjerker about an English boy trying to survive in Japanese-occupied China during World War II.
NEXT GALLERY: Leonardo DiCaprio: Movie Star!