Walter Hartwell "Walt" White Sr., also known by his clandestine pseudonym "Heisenberg", was an American drug kingpin. A former chemist and high school chemistry teacher in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he started manufacturing crystal methamphetamine after being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, in order to pay for his treatments and secure his family's financial future.

In graduate school, Walt contributed to research that would win the 1984 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. After getting his degree, he co-founded the company Gray Matter Technologies with his friend Elliott Schwartz and his then-girlfriend Gretchen. Walt abruptly left the company and sold his financial interest for $5,000. Gretchen and Elliot later married and made a fortune when the company went public. Walt resents Elliot and Gretchen for profiting from his work without crediting him. He took up a job as a chemistry teacher at the local high school, but his payment ended up being low to the point where he took up a second job at the car wash, but this did not help his financial woes. Eventually, after he's been diagnosed with lung cancer, he decided to be a drug dealer after seeing how lucrative it is.

Knowing nothing about the drug trade, he enlists the aid of his former student, Jesse Pinkman, to manufacture and, more importantly, sell his meth. Walt's scientific knowledge and dedication to quality lead him to produce crystal meth of unrivaled purity. Walt eventually devised an alternative chemical process utilizing methylamine, giving his product a distinctive blue color. His crystal meth, christened "blue sky" by dealers and users alike, instantly began to dominate the market. While Walt was initially squeamish about the use of violence, he gradually came to see it as a necessity and eventually developed into a ruthless drug lord motivated largely by vanity, ego, and greed. Not only does Walt become more sinister throughout the series, but he rises in power. At the beginning of his new career, he and Jesse make mere thousands of dollars street dealing, and are constantly met with failure, but later on, Walt becomes a millionaire drug lord that supplies crystal meth all across the American Southwest and as far as Eastern Europe. He achieved this by killing Gustavo Fring, establishing his own drug empire, and then going into partnership with Lydia Rodarte-Quayle and a neo-Nazi gang.

After accumulating an $80 million fortune, Walter finally decided to retire from the drug business permanently. However, his brother-in-law Hank eventually discovered his criminal secrets and embarked on a mission to bring White down. After aligning himself with Jesse (who betrayed Walt after learning of his poisoning of Brock), Hank nearly succeeded in bringing Walt to justice, however he was saved at the last minute by Jack, Todd ,and their neo-Nazi gang who killed both Hank and Steven Gomez and took Jesse hostage. After being turned on by his entire family, Walt was forced to go into hiding in New Hampshire with the help of Ed and would remain in hiding for months. Eventually, he returned to Albuquerque and left his remaining millions to his family. Following that, he personally confronted and killed Jack and his crew. After setting Jesse free, he died from a gunshot wound sustained during his own attack.

History

Background information

Walter Hartwell White was born on September 7, 1958. When Walter was young, his father's health rapidly deteriorated upon developing Huntington’s disease, and all the good memories that friends and family tried to implant in the boy’s head never supplanted the terrifying memory of visiting his father in the hospital just before his death ("Salud"). He remembered the twisted body, the empty eyes that didn't seem to focus on him, the terrible disinfectant smell of the hospital, and his breathing: Walter described it as “this rattling sound like if you were shaking an empty spray paint can—like there was nothing in him” ("Salud"). He recalled being tested for Huntington's disease as a child as well as working in a cardboard box factory as a teenager whilst in high school ("Hazard Pay"). He presumably grew up somewhere other than New Mexico, given the fact that he would have to fly to visit his mother. ("4 Days Out")

Walter studied at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) with his best friend Elliott Schwartz, where he proved himself a brilliant chemist with a specialty in X-ray crystallography ("Gray Matter"). In 1985, Walt's groundbreaking research regarding photon radiography contributed to a project that was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, awarded jointly to Herbert A. Hauptman and Jerome Karle for outstanding achievements in the development of direct methods for the determination of crystal structures ("Pilot").

Walt and Gretchen Shwartz discuss the human body's chemical composition ("...and the Bag's in the River")

Following his education, Walter went on to co-found Gray Matter Technologies with Elliott. At this time, he was dating his female lab assistant, Gretchen ("...and the Bag's in the River"). Though the two were briefly engaged, Walter abruptly left her without explanation after meeting her family on a Fourth of July weekend, unable to cope with the feelings of inferiority their wealth and success stirred up in him ("Peekaboo").[2] Soon after, Walt sold his share of the company to Elliott for $5,000 ("Buyout"). Gretchen eventually went on to marry Elliot, and Gray Matter became a highly successful, multi-billion dollar company. Walter would come to feel that the fruits of his hard labor had been stolen from him and bitterly blamed Elliott and Gretchen for his financial problems and overall lot in life, despite the fact it was his own decision to leave.[3] Walter refused to acknowledge his own failures for leaving Gray Matter and regretted his decision of leaving and selling out, which would later become a contributing factor in his decision to build a meth empire ("Buyout").

A younger Walt and his wife Skyler, who is pregnant with their first child Walter Jr..

By the turn of 1990, Walt was working in Application Labs ("Cancer Man"). He also worked in a chemical lab near Los Alamos, where he met his wife Skyler Lambert, who worked as a hostess in a neighboring restaurant ("Cancer Man"). He moved to Albuquerque to work for Sandia Laboratories just prior to his firstborn's birth ("Full Measure"). In Albuquerque, he and his wife settled into a home at 308 Negra Arroyo Lane, despite his desire for a larger house in light of recent business success.

For unknown reasons Walt either left or lost his position at Sandia Laboratories and he eventually went on to become a chemistry teacher at J. P. Wynne High School where his son, Walter White Jr., also attended as a student. At some point, he became the Chair of the Science Department at J. P. Wynne as well. Financially, this job was not enough to support his family, so Skyler did side work writing short stories and selling items on the internet. When Skyler became pregnant with their second child, however, Walt took on a degrading second job at the A1A Car Wash.

text source:https://breakingbad.fandom.com/wiki/Walter_White