He probably has no idea, but I've long held a weird, obsessive interest in the actor Jackie Earle Haley. He first made an imprint on me as as Kelly Leak, the smoking, motorcycle riding punk of the Bad News Bears movies. He was everything I wasn't: tough, independent, good at sports and able to tell adults to take a flying leap. He was also Tatum O'Neal's romantic interest, and I had a crush on Tatum as a kid and tomboys in general. Envy, envy, envy.
Jackie could act, too. In Bad News Bears in Breaking Training it was Kelly's conflicted relationship with his father hat gave the otherwise formulaic swearing-brat comedy some emotional depth. The scene where Kelly briefly tousles with the Texas ballplayers and sprints away in frustration is my favorite. If you ever reached that breaking point as an adolescent, and tried to run or hit something or scream as hard as you could, or did whatever it took to get IT out of you ... you could relate.
Haley was later in Breaking Away with Daniel Stern and Dennis Quaid, another brilliant film and another good role. But he's had some lean years since. Thankfully, he never whored himself out as some reality TV washup, like Emmanuel Lewis or Christopher Knight. After years of delivering pizzas and security guard-type jobs, he did OK for himself as a television commercial producer. This I found out through Wikipedia, where I ran Haley's name a year or two ago to see if he was still acting.
The guy finally got another at-bat in Hollywood last year. And damn did he swing for the fences.
Earlier this month Haley was nominated for an Oscar for a supporting role as a sex offender Ronnie McCorvey in the film Little Children. I hope he gets it. Yeah, I know child molesters are a hot film role these days. But I can't recall anybody who was nearly as good at being both creepy and sympathetic. An unforgettable character.
