Biography
The career of Jackie Earle Haley should be inspirational for any former child star or out-of-work actor. In his preteen years, Haley earned his living as a TV commercial actor and voice-over artist (he voiced the son on Hanna-Barbera's animated
All in the Family clone
Wait Till Your Father Gets Home). At 13, Haley was cast as the juvenile delinquent with home-run power in
Michael Ritchie's superb little-league comedy
The Bad News Bears, earning a cult following for his portrayal of the swaggering, cool loner. He repeated the iconic role in two sequels, one of the few members of the original cast to do so.
Peter Yates cast Haley, alongside future celebrities
Dennis Quaid and
Daniel Stern, as a member of the bike-racing team in the Oscar-winning
Breaking Away (1979). Earle disappeared from screens after some fitful television work through the '80s, but stayed busy behind the camera as a writer and an accomplished director of commercials. After more than a decade off the big screen, Haley made a spectacular return in 2006, first as the menacing bodyguard/driver Sugar Boy in
All the King's Men, and then with an Oscar-nominated turn as a suburban pedophile in
Todd Field's
Little Children. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide