Bryan Cranston collects a Tony Award. The 'Breaking Bad' actor has revealed he has recovered from Covid-19. Evan Agostini / AP
Bryan Cranston collects a Tony Award. The 'Breaking Bad' actor has revealed he has recovered from Covid-19. Evan Agostini / AP
Bryan Cranston collects a Tony Award. The 'Breaking Bad' actor has revealed he has recovered from Covid-19. Evan Agostini / AP
Bryan Cranston collects a Tony Award. The 'Breaking Bad' actor has revealed he has recovered from Covid-19. Evan Agostini / AP

'Breaking Bad' star Bryan Cranston recovers from Covid-19


Hayley Skirka
  • English
  • Arabic

Breaking Bad actor Bryan Cranston revealed on Thursday that he had recovered from the coronavirus.

The star shared a video of himself donating plasma at a Los Angeles blood bank.

The five-time Emmy winner took to Instagram to reveal the news.

He said that he had experienced mild symptoms including a headache, tightness of the chest and had temporarily lost his sense of taste and smell.

Best known for his role as Walter White – the chemistry teacher in AMC's Breaking Bad series – the actor is seen visiting the blood and platelet donation centre at the University of California, Los Angeles.

There, staff collected 840 millilitres of his plasma to be used in processes that can treat some patients with the coronavirus or work to aid scientific research into it.

“Hopefully the plasma donation can help some other people,” says the actor in the video.

Bryan Cranston played Walter White in the hit series 'Breaking Bad'. Ursula Coyote/AMC
Bryan Cranston played Walter White in the hit series 'Breaking Bad'. Ursula Coyote/AMC

During the hour-long donation process, Cranston wore a surgical face mask and passed the time by watching an old black-and-white movie called A Face in the Crowd.

He seemed in good spirits, joking with staff about their needle aim and calling the collected plasma "liquid gold".

At a time when the United States has seen record Covid-19 case numbers, Cranston urged people “to wash your hands, social distance and wear a mask!”.

He joins a growing list of celebrities who have spoken publicly about having Covid-19.

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Director: Hasan Hadi

Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem 

Rating: 4/5

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Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi

From: Dara

To: Team@

Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT

Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East

Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.

Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.

I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.

This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.

It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.

Uber on,

Dara

Timeline

2012-2015

The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East

May 2017

The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts

September 2021

Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act

October 2021

Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence 

December 2024

Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group

May 2025

The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan

July 2025

The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan

August 2025

Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision

October 2025

Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange

November 2025

180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE