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Bad News Bear Makes Good
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No worries for all you out of work, over-the-hill actors out there -- there is hope. Consider Jackie Earle Haley, former child star and recent pizza delivery man. Haley is a surprise Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Ronnie McGorvey in the drama Little Children.
Haley reached the peak of his fame in the seventies as Kelly Leak, the freckle-faced, motorcycle riding, bad-ass leader of the Bad News Bears baseball team. After a series of Bears movies, Jackie Haley acted on and off throughout the eighties and early nineties -- his last role before Little Children was in the TV movie Prophet of Evil: The Evril LeBarron Story in 1993.
After '93 Jackie moved to San Antonio, Texas, remarried and held a variety of jobs, including commercial director, limo driver, pizza deliverer, as well as moonlighting as a security officer for a bit. Director Steve Zaillian happened to "just remember" Haley's earlier angst-ridden work and cast him in 2006's All the Kings Men, which started the ball rolling to, well, the Oscars.
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Its unlikely he'll take home the statue, but here's to comebacks. For a list of all of this year's Oscar nominees, and to see whom Jackie is up against, click here
Photo by: Hello, I'm H. Michael Karshis' photos
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