Jackie Earle Haley - Hollywood's Comeback Kid

The name probably doesn't ring a bell. The face might look a tad familiar. If you don't know him yet you will remember him. After this year there is a good chance you won't have to remember Jackie Earle Haley because he is part of one of the best comebacks in Hollywood in many years.

Haley is probably best known to fans of "The Bad News Bears" and its two sequels (The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training; The Bad News Bears Go To Japan) as motorcycle driving, cigarette smoking bad boy Kelly Leak. Or you might remember him as Moocher, the kid who hated to be called "Shorty," who, along with his three friends, helps to win the Little 500 Bicycle Race in "Breaking Away."

Haley has not been seen in a major motion picture in well over 20 years and now he is back on screen in "Little Children," playing a man accused years earlier of exposing himself to a child, now ostracized by the community where he lives with his mother. It's a low-key performance that has garnered him some of the best critical notices of the year for any actor. He recently was named Best Supporting Actor by the New York Film Critics and Chicago Film Critics Associations and has been nominated by the Screen Actors Guild. Can an Academy Award nomination be on the horizon?

If Haley is nominated it will complete an almost unheard of comeback in Hollywood. His first role was in "The Day of the Locust," (1975), but came to prominence the next year in "The Bad News Bears." In between the second and third films in the series, Haley had a featured role in a low budget sci-fi thriller called "Damnation Alley," which also starred George Peppard, Jan-Michael Vincent and Paul Winfield. Then came "Breaking Away" which was nominated for Best Picture in 1979.

Haley's star should have been on the rise but he took on television work including a guest stint of The Love Boat. His last major film was a barely seen teen comedy called "Losin It" starring a still unknown Tom Cruise. Then the offers started to dry up. What little work he did get was in television or straight to video movies. His last role had come in 1993.

To make ends meet Haley took on a plethora of jobs including furniture refinisher, limousine driver, and pizza deliveryman and security officer. In the mid 90's Haley formed a production company that produced local commercials in Texas. Haley soon began directing many of those commercials.

In 2004, while preparing the film "All The King's Men," director Steven Zaillian was looking for someone to play the role of Sean Penn's ever-faithful driver. Zaillian asked Penn if he had anyone in mind and Penn asked to think about it for 24 hours. The next day Penn came to Zaillian's office and offered up the name 'Jackie Earle Haley.' Zaillian laughed and pulled out a folded piece of paper that he handed to Penn. Penn opened it to reveal that Zaillian had written down the name Jackie Earle Haley.

Haley came in and did the small role, with virtually no dialogue, and returned to Texas. Kate Winslet, co-star, had moved on to her next film "Little Children," where director Todd Field was looking for someone to play the sinister role of the sexually deviant mother's boy. Though Winslet had no scenes with Haley in "King's Men," she had seen his performance during dailies and recommended Haley to Field.

Haley was honeymooning in a tropical location when he got word that his agent was looking for him regarding a major movie role. Thinking it was a joke, Haley did not return the call for two days. When he did return the call he was informed to report for a screen test as soon as possible. Believing the test would go nowhere, Haley decided to finish out his honeymoon. Upon his return, Haley met with Field and was immediately cast in the film.

"All The King's Men" opened to mostly negative reviews and was a box office flop. Haley was the recipient of many of the few favorable things that were said. "Little Children" has been in limited release for a few months now and the reviews have been glowing, especially for Haley. Now that the film has been nominated for Best Picture at the Golden Globes, and Haley (along with Winslet) has been nominated for a S.A.G. Award and is a frontrunner to be nominated for an Academy Award, perhaps "Little Children" will reach a wider audience.

No matter what happens, Jackie Earle Haley has leaped an enormous hurdle that many actors are unable to reach. He was a teenage star who was forgotten and now he is back with a flourish as a character actor. Let's hope this leads Jackie Earle Haley to the top once again and, this time, Hollywood allows him to stay there.