After college, Cranston began his acting career in local and regional theaters, getting his start at the Granada Theater in the San Fernando Valley. He had previously performed as a youth, but his show Business parents had mixed feelings about their son being involved in the profession, so he did not continue until years later. Cranston was ordained as a minister by the Universal Life Church, and performed weddings for $150 a Service to help with his income. He also worked as a waiter, a night-shift security guard at the gates of a private Los Angeles community, a truck loader, a camera operator for a video dating Service, and a CCTV security guard at a supermarket. He started working regularly in the late 1980s, mostly doing minor roles and advertisements. He was an original cast member of the ABC soap opera Loving, where he played Douglas Donovan from 1983 to 1985. Cranston starred in the short-lived series Raising Miranda in 1988. Cranston's voice acting includes English dubbing of Japanese anime (under the pseudonym Lee Stone), including Macross Plus and Armitage III: Poly-Matrix, and most notably, the children's series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Cranston did voice work for the 1993-94 first season of that series, playing characters such as Twin Man and Snizzard, for which he was paid about $50.00 an hour for two or three hours of daily work. The Blue Power Ranger, Billy Cranston, was named for him.