SPOTLIGHT ON: JACKIE EARL HALEY
More than any actor, the diminutive and thin-lipped Jackie Earle Haley molded a typecast as the chain-smoking underdog in the late '70s. But the fitness craze of the '80s snuffed out Haley's high-life as a familiar film actor. His distinct, high-pitched, and scratchy voice is still used for cartoons, and his deft touch as a producer has made educational gems like Straight Talk on Eating Disorders and Teens Talk to Teens. But his early movies are wonderful examples of a by-gone genre.
• Bad News Bears (1976)--Flicking his cigarette at the tight-sphinctered field manager and tearing around the bases on his motorbike, Haley is Kelly Leak, a 12-year-old charismatic bad boy. With a slingshot arm and Mark McGwire batting power, Kelly is the engine behind the ragtag team's Cinderella success story. Even with a predictable outcome, the genuine anger, respect, and affection between Walter Matthau (as the bumbling alcoholic coach) and Haley is still combustible.
• Bad News Bears: Breaking Training (1977)-- Without Matthau, the Bears takes off to the Houston Astrodome for a national championship. With a cheap disguise of mirrored sunglasses and a hunting cap, Haley takes the wheel as the underage chaperone for the ball team. Odd and giddy plot twists ensue!
• Breaking Away (1979)--The surprise success of this low-budget film mirrored the underdog plot: Four working-class childhood friends meander aimlessly and somewhat resentfully into blue collar adulthood. To actualize their big talk, the four enter into a local bike race, the Little 500, and challenge the richie-rich college boys. In his breakout role, Dennis Quaid plays the aging, former high school football star. Dennis Christopher plays Dave, the son of a used car salesman who fantasizes of being an Italian bike racer. But as a sweet, yet quick-tempered half-pint, it is Haley who lends the necessary gravity for the story's success. Haley was the only actor who stepped over to a failed TV series in an attempt to replicate the film's smash success.
• Losin' It (1983)--For Tom Cruise and Shelly Long, it was their last stop in B-movies before big time fame. For Haley, who starred as a boisterous but insecure teen who impersonates Frank Sinatra to score some booty, it was his last chance at big screen glory (before a string of lousy sci-fi movies). Forecasting the tangy cleverness of Swingers and American Pie, four high-schoolers (led not by Cruise, but by Haley) go south to Tijuana with the most important of purposes: losing their virginity.
