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

Bryan Cranston and Robin Dearden have been married since 1989

Bryan Cranston and his wife, actress Robin Dearden, have shared more than three decades of marriage together.

The couple, who first met on the set of the ‘80s TV series Airwolf, tied the knot on July 8, 1989, and have been together ever since. In 1993, they welcomed a daughter, Taylor Dearden.

"Robin is a compassionate, righteous person," Cranston told PEOPLE about his wife. "Her default mechanism is emotion and love. And she's not cynical. I am! I'm sarcastic and she's sweet. It's a young spirit she's always maintained.”

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Cranston has said their successful marriage is thanks to “going to therapy together" and simply "[marrying] the right person."

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

She met Cranston on the set of a TV show

The couple’s love story got its start on the set of the CBS series Airwolf around 1986. “It changed both of our lives,” Cranston told PEOPLE at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in 2016.

The actor was appearing on the show as an angry boyfriend who hijacks his girlfriend’s sorority reunion cruise, with Dearden portraying one of the sorority sisters being held hostage.

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

The timing was “serendipitous,” according to Cranston. “If we had been unencumbered at the time, she doesn’t think that we would have stayed together,” he said.

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

A year after filming, they ran into each other in an improv comedy class. Cranston said that they greeted each other with a kiss “as actors do,” but it lingered longer than a kiss would between casual friends.

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

Cranston proposed to her in a bathtub

On an episode of the podcast Double Date with Marlo Thomas & Phil Donahue, Cranston and Dearden opened up about their engagement.

Dearden recalled what happened during the “hilarious” proposal at Cranston’s cabin in Big Bear Lake, California. “The bathtub was a standard size bathtub, in a crappy cabin in the mountains, so there wasn’t any room for me to face him,” she shared. “So I’m facing the spout.”

“I designed it this way, because I thought that if I was to face her, trying to get these lines out, I would crack. I did. I really did,” Cranston added. “So I thought, ‘How am I gonna do this, how am I gonna do this?’ I had champagne and I had a little music going.”

Dearden tried to turn around to look at him when he spoke, and he would redirect her gaze away from him. Cranston’s other challenge was figuring out where to keep the ring.

“We’re nude, as one is in a bathtub. Where would I put the ring? So, I’m thinking, ‘Oh no, she’ll see it there,’ ” he recounted. “And I put it on my baby toe. I put it all the way on and submerged the foot.”

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

Cranston pulled a prank during their wedding

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

“I've come to see how even the tiniest moment of lightness can break tension,” the actor told O, The 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 a few small index cards and began to read. When it was my turn, I took out a single piece of paper — which unfurled three feet to the ground,” he said. “I'd planned the gag to keep things from getting too serious and to help everyone relax. While it didn't make grown men roll on the floor in hysterics, I'm happy to say that it did get a laugh.”

She has one daughter with Cranston

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

Taylor graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in acting in 2015 and has worked as an actress and director. In addition to appearing in an episode of Breaking Bad, she starred in the MTV series Sweet/Vicious and has had recurring roles on American Vandal and For All Mankind.

“She is far beyond where I was in my 20s as far as ability," the Emmy Award winner told PEOPLE of his daughter. "She is a super talented young lady."

Despite her famous parents, Taylor is getting by without their help. "She’s very independent," the actor told British GQ. "And very conscientious of not having any association or hint thereof of nepotism.”

She has acted with Cranston

In addition to Airwolf in 1986, Cranston and Dearden have appeared together in other projects. In 2010, Dearden and Taylor appeared in the season 3 premiere of Breaking Bad.

Dearden also starred in 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 the sense enough to realize that I wrote a screenplay and not a novel," he told Backstage. "Then I realized, ‘Oh my God, I'm not done.’ It's like giving someone a plate of frozen cookie dough: ‘Oh, I should really make these for you, shouldn't I?’ ”

Cranston continued: “I was hemming and hawing with it for a while, and took it around to a lot of different people. They either said it didn't have the pizzazz they wanted or they wanted us to attach some big names, and I finally said, 'I'm tired of that, I'm just going to go out and raise the money and do it myself.' So I did."

She recovered from COVID-19 with Cranston

In July 2020, Cranston revealed that he and Dearden had contracted and recovered from COVID-19 despite being “strict in adhering to the protocols.”

The Your Honor star told PEOPLE he felt grateful their bout with the virus wasn’t more serious. "We had ashiness for three days and exhaustion for a week,” he said. “In retrospect, we were very lucky."

He was able to find joy in the unexpected downtime 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 mostly that requires me to be out of my home state," the L.A.-based actor shared. "There is a significant part of loneliness. And I'm happiest with my family."

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

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

Related: Bryan Cranston Plans on Retiring from Acting in 2026 for Wife Robin: ‘I Want to Change the Paradigm'

"For the last 24 years, Robin has led her life holding onto my tail," he said. "She’s been the plus-one, she’s been the wife of a celebrity. She’s had to pivot and adjust her life based on mine. She has tremendous benefit from it, but we’re uneven. I want to level that out. She deserves it.”

Cranston continued: "I love my wife, and we want to go the distance, but I want to do it in a healthy way. I don’t want to just be with her. I don’t want to just have the two of us go into a restaurant and no one says a word.”

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