A child star grows up

For Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children was a second chance to live the life he wanted

When Jackie Earle Haley shows up for lunch, alone, on time, nobody recognises him. Haley is a little guy, not more than 5-5, with jug ears and a shaved head. He wears a bristly goatee, gone to salt and pepper, and glasses tinted hippie blue. He is 45 years old.

Could there be a more improbable contender for an Academy Award this season? Haley8217;s last feature film role was 13 years ago, in Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence, a zombie movie so lame that when asked about it, Haley just waves his hands, like 8220;Please, no, stop.8221;

Haley was so out of the loop it took the director who eventually brought him back to Hollywood two months just to find him. He had no agent, no manager, no publicist. He was and still is living in San Antonio, directing TV commercials for gas stations and grocery chains. 8220;I would go to the theatres and watch a movie like all of us do,8221; he says, 8220;and every time, dude, there was always this little wince. I wish I could be up there. I wish I could come back.8221;

He did, as convicted flasher Ronnie McGorvey in Little Children, Todd Field8217;s drama of suburban moral malaise which won him a Best Supporting Actor nod.

Haley was blessed with the curse of success as a child actor. Haley confesses he has spent his whole life, from teen dream to lost adult, and Hollywood no longer wanted him. Beginning with The Partridge Family and The Waltons, Haley was that strange and rare hybrid, the professional 10-year-old. A few years later, he was Moocher in the coming-of-age film Breaking Away, starring alongside Dennis Quaid.

At 14, Haley rode limos, not bikes. Girls would chase him through amusement parks. 8220;Oh, yeah, it was cool,8221; Haley says. 8220;It8217;s tough at that age. You walk into a restaurant and all eyes are on you. It can do things to you, especially a kid.8221; He even bought his family a swimming pool.

Ten years later, Haley was back home living with Mom, delivering pizzas, saying he hoped the person who answered the door wouldn8217;t recognise him. 8220;It took me years and years and years to get where I am.8221;

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His mother saved him, introducing him to infomercials. Eight years ago he moved to San Antonio, coaxed there by a work friend, where he started his own company making TV commercials. 8220;For the last five years, I8217;ve been making a good living at it. For the first time in my life, I8217;m not behind on my bills.8221; He got married again, for the third time, happily. He and his wife were honeymooning in France when director Steve Zaillian tracked him down for the part of bodyguard Sugar Boy in All the King8217;s Men, alongside Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Sean Penn.

Beginning of Act II.

8212;William Booth / LAT-WP