Bryan Cranston revealed that he was once a suspect in a real murder case during an appearance on Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s podcast, “Dinner’s On Me” Tuesday.
Cranston, famed for his role as a methamphetamine manufacturer in the series “Breaking Bad,” recounted an episode from his past that could rival any of his on-screen exploits. Cranston claimed it happened during the 1970s when he and his brother found themselves embroiled in a murder investigation.
Cranston and his sibling were on a cross-country motorcycle odyssey when financial constraints led them to stop in Daytona Beach, Florida. The duo secured employment as waiters at the Hawaiian Inn, a local eatery plagued by a chef named Peter Wong, according to Cranston. “There was this cantankerous chef named Peter Wong, who just hated everyone,” Cranston said on “Dinner’s On Me” podcast. “There was just no way on earth you were ever going to get on his good side. But he liked the ladies. And so, all the men knew … if we had any problem in the kitchen, we had to send [the ladies] in … He was awful.”
The plot thickened when Wong vanished around the same time Cranston and his brother left Florida. Weeks later, the chef was discovered dead. The circumstances surrounding his death pointed to foul play, with evidence suggesting he was lured into a lethal trap and robbed. As investigators delved into the case, they probed the staff at the Hawaiian Inn for potential leads. The casual banter about Wong’s hypothetical demise suddenly cast a shadow of suspicion over the Cranston brothers, now absent from the scene. (RELATED: ‘Malcolm In The Middle Star’ Bryan Cranston Recalls Stunt That Could Have Killed Him)
“So they’re taking out all this information … Little did we know they put out an APB on us and to find us. We were somewhere in the Carolinas, I think, at that point,” Cranston recounted. “And we didn’t know any of this. So we’re just tooling along. I can just imagine if someone really pulled us over and down on the ground with the guns [inaudible].”
“And then before that came to happen, they put the pieces together and realized … They’ve had some witnesses and some cameras at the dog track. And they saw what was going on and made an arrest. And so we were this close,” he added.