Close Up Jackie Earle Haley Born in Northridge, California, 14 July 1961. Jackie became an ac tor at age 5, appearing in commercials and TV shows but it was in the 1976 baseball movie ‘The Bad News Bears’, playing Kelly Leak, that got the attention of Hollywood and his career took off and was widely accepted as a child star; making it to #87 of VH1’s top 100 Greatest Kid Stars. He reprised his role of Leak twice more in The Bad News Bears in Training and The Bad News Bears in Japan. He was a popular actor, mixing with the likes of Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern and Johnny Depp. It was the same audition that Depp got chosen for A Nightmare on Elm Street that saw Haley try out for Freddy Krueger; that went to Robert England. Haley would go on to take on the role of Krueger in the 2010 remake, a film so bad, it halted the reboot of the franchise. He was carving out a decent resume when he decided to walk away from Hollywood in 1993; but was coaxed back by friend Sean Penn...