By MICHAEL KANE
February 25, 2007
Unless you’re a ’70s film buff, you may not recognize the name of Supporting Actor nominee Jackie Earle Haley.
OK, hint. How about Kelly Leak? Yes, that Kelly Leak -the tough-ass, dirtbike- riding punk centerfielder from the “Bad News Bears.”
In 1976, Kelly Leak was the apex of kid cool. He was the Jackie Robinson of juvenile delinquents. He had a Harley-Davidson and Stones tickets. The kid was 11, and lit his smokes with a Zippo. And if Engelberg, Ogilvie and Tanner could get on base and bring Kelly Leak to the plate, it meant bad news for the other teams in the North Valley League.
Thirty years later, actor Jackie Earle Haley is back in the game, nominated for his risky, yet somehow sympathetic performance as a sex offender in Todd Field’s film “Little Children.” Talk about dramatic comebacks.
Also known for playing the pugnacious townie Moocher in 1979’s Oscar winner “Breaking Away” and for the 1983 road-trip film “Losin’ It,” Haley went a decade without a decent role, then quit altogether in 1993 - dropping out for 13 years - to first deliver pizzas and then eventually direct corporate videos and infomercials in Texas.
It’s the kind of has-been cautionary tale that usually ends with an “E! True Hollywood Story” or a self- mocking spot on VH1’s “Surreal Life.” Instead, tonight at the Kodak Theater in L.A., Haley will walk the red carpet alongside better-known nominees Mark Wahlberg, Eddie Murphy, Djimon Hounsou and Alan Arkin.
“This all just seems so unreal,” says Haley, now 45 and balding. “Just the other day, I happened to be pulled over on the side of the road in L.A., looking at some directions. This guy pulls up at the red light, rolls down his window and shouts, ‘Hey, man, glad you’re back.’ I can’t describe how that feels.”
These are good times for Haley, who talks to The Post over a goat-cheese omelet at a Columbus Avenue bistro. Hours earlier, he discussed his career comeback on “The View,” and just before he walked into the restaurant, two paparazzi stopped him to snap pics outside on the sidewalk.
After his teen success, only growing to 5-foot-5 meant there were no leading-man roles for the adult Haley. He took smaller parts in B-movies to pay the bills.
