Jackie Earle Haley

From 70's child actor to Oscar nomination, you would be pressed to remember him by name.

He's Jackie Earle Haley.

Born on July 14, 1961 in Northridge, California, Jackie Earle Haley began his career in commercials at age six. Throughout the 70's Haley became known for playing sarcastic kids like Kelly Leak in the Bad News Bears series. At 17 he played Moocher in the Peter Yates' film"Breaking Away" opposite Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern and Dennis Christopher. He also reprised the character in the short-lived tv adaptation of the same name.

He made various guest appearances on TV shows such as Marcus Welby, M.D., Planet of the Apes, MacGyver, The Love Boat and Murder, She Wrote.

"I started acting when I was 5 years old. And I was pretty well known for a while. Your self-esteem and your identity start to become wrapped up in that celebrity, and when that starts to fade away, your self-esteem and your identity start to fade away with it. Those roles that I played and the success that I had, that is not who I am. It's part of who I am, but it's not everything. So when it drifts away and you start to feel increasingly insecure, it's kind of a long battle out of that."

During the 90's and 2000's Haley wasn't seen very much in front of the camera, he started his own production company, JEH Productions. It was in 2006 when friend Sean Penn convinced Steven Zaillian to hire him for the role of Sugar Boy in the remake of "All the King's Men." That role led to his Oscar nominated role as a paroled sex offender in Todd Field's "Little Children." Haley was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for this portrayal and in 2007 was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

"[Getting back into acting after so many years away] I was starting to reach this pretty cool place in life where I was emotionally the most accepting of where life had taken me, and financially, finally, not behind the eight ball -- far from rich, but at least not late on stuff. I met this beautiful lady who is an awesome life partner, and we're on our honeymoon in France, and life is good. And out of the clear blue, Steve Zaillian [the director] calls and he wants me to audition for this part in "All the King's Men." When I got back from the honeymoon, I got a shooter and an actor and a sound guy and we did this audition tape and sent it off to Steve. It had been a long time since I did this. But there was this feeling inside. Over the years, people had called about a movie here, a TV show there, and it never really panned out. There was something about this; it felt different and, I don't know why, but it kind of felt like, "Hmm, this could actually happen." The way this whole thing went down, it almost seems like kismet, karma, divine whatever. It felt like this was supposed to happen."

In 2009, Haley played the role of Rorschach in Zack Snyder's "Watchmen", a live action adaptation of Alan Moore's seminal graphic novel. The role earned Haley praise from critics in an otherwise unimpressive showing at the box office. (Note: I loved the movie but a lot of people didn't.) From there he went on to play Freddy Kruger in the remake of "A Nightmare on Elm Street". This year he is signed up for a role in Steven Spielberg's historical film "Lincoln"


Quotes provided by: IMDB.com