--- title: Bryan Cranston Was a Real Life Murder Suspect description: Bryan Cranston was a murder suspect—and not just on television canonical: https://time.com/4529822/bryan-cranston-murder-joke-suspect/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-13T16:45:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:37:37.518Z og:title: Bryan Cranston Was a Real Life Murder Suspect og:description: As seen on TV og:url: https://time.com/4529822/bryan-cranston-murder-joke-suspect/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bryan Cranston Was a Real Life Murder Suspect twitter:description: As seen on TV twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # _Breaking Bad's_ Bryan Cranston Recalls That One Time He Was a Real-Life Murder Suspect by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Oct 13, 2016 4:45 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Oct 13, 2016 4:45 PM UTC Bryan Cranston may find his [_Breaking Bad_ ](http://time.com/4292409/breaking-bad-easter-egg-vince-gilligan-missed/?iid=sr-link2)character slightly more relatable than you’d expect. On _The Tonight Show_ on Wednesday night, [Cranston](http://time.com/4426083/bryan-cranston-voting-rights/?iid=sr-link1) admitted that he was a murder suspect, not on television, but in real life. Before Cranston played the meth-making chemistry-teacher-turned crime lord, Walter White on [_Breaking Bad_](http://time.com/4465850/bob-odenkirk-better-call-saul-fring/?iid=sr-link8)_,_ he and his brother took a motorcycle trip across country. Things took a turn when they holed up in Daytona Beach for a few weeks to earn some money by working at a Polynesian restaurant. That’s where [Cranston](http://time.com/4368330/bryan-cranston-robert-mazur-the-infiltrator/?iid=sr-link4) and his brother met a chef who they both truly hated, like the rest of the servers. But this hate was so intense that they joked about how they would plot his demise. It was all the twisted sort of fun and games until the chef ended up killed and Cranston and his brother were considered to be prime suspects. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4529822/bryan-cranston-murder-joke-suspect/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4529822/bryan-cranston-murder-joke-suspect/"},"headline":"Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston Recalls That One Time He Was a Real-Life Murder Suspect","datePublished":"2016-10-13T16:45:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:37:37.518Z","description":"As seen on TV, except real","url":"https://time.com/4529822/bryan-cranston-murder-joke-suspect/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","jimmy fallon","walter white","breaking bad","The Tonight Show","Bryan Cranston"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4529822/bryan-cranston-murder-joke-suspect/","name":"Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston Recalls That One Time He Was a Real-Life Murder Suspect"}}]}] ```