Help Us Celebrate Jackie Earle Haley’s Birthday!

Today is Jackie Earle Haley’s birthday, and this amazing actor has a highly recognizable face. There is a good chance you’ve seen a movie featuring this actor, and if you knew his name it’d be impossible not to recognize him in future roles!

Jackie Earle Haley was born on July 14, 1961 in Northridge, California, not to far from where I am writing this right now. He’s been acting since 1966 at the age of 5, and has had his first big break in 1972’s Wait Till Your Father Gets Home. In 1976 he was cast in The Bad News Bears as Kelly Leak, and proceeded to star in the two sequel films.

He isn’t a foreigner to comic book roles, as he stared in an episode of the 1974 series Shazam! based on the comic, Fox’s TV series based on DC’s Human Target, Zack Snyder’s Watchmen, AMC’s Preacher, Amazon Prime’s The Tick, and Alita Battle Angel.

To celebrate his birthday in Comics Round-Up fashion, we thought we’d talk about some of the characters he played and their connection to comic books!

Watchmen (1986)
 
In 1986 Alan Moore introduced the world to Rorschach in Watchmen #1. This anti-hero character was pushed to the edge due to a life of poverty, and a horrible first few steps into hero work. As a result he takes on crime in an ultraviolent manner akin to Marvel’s Punisher. His mask resembles a Rorschach test, in the fact that the inkish forms shift in a mirrored matter. Jackie Earle Haley takes on the mantel of this tortured figure in Zack Snyder’s 2009 adaptation.
 
While there has been an updated comic, focusing on a person picking up the mantle of Rorschach, it Alan Moore never intended for the character to be likeable, to survive or be an icon. He wasn’t a moral flagpost, but a tortured soul who was looking for an end, and I think Jackie Earle Haley did an amazing job portraying that.
Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash (2007)
 
Freddy Krueger is one of the OG’s of horror films. His artistic flair and styling makes him stand out from the rest, with his dreamtime murders. Jackie Earle Haley took over the role for it’s attempted reboot in 2010, but unfortunately it was not successful and viewed as a failure. It’s pretty funny to consider that Johnny Depp beat him out for a role in the original film as a victim. Still, Freddy has seen quite some surprising success in comic books in the past.
 
To this date there has been 28 comic book issues with this character in it, which is impressive considering he only had 9 movies. The character of Freddy was going to face off against Ash (Evil Dead) and Jason (Friday the 13th) in a movie, but unfortunately due to studios it never came to fruition, and while they pushed forward with Freddy vs. Jason in 2003, we still got to enjoy what could have been in t he form of two comic book runs!
Human Target (1972)
 
Human Target, first appearance in Action Comics #419 (1972), is a comic books about a man who takes on the appearance of his client, so that he becomes the target of who ever is intending to hurt them. In the 2010 TV show on Fox, Mark Valley’s Christopher Chance doesn’t specifically take on the identity of his client, the series followed a similar protection scheme with the help of his crew including Guerrero played by Jackie Earle Haley.
 
Jackie Earle Haley’s character Guerrero did not appear in the DC Comics Title that the show took inspiration from, he was a much loved aspect to the show. While Human Target has been portrayed in the Arrowverse, and in it’s 1990s stand-alone series, a lot of people fell in love with this comic book as a result of Jackie Earle Haley and Mark Valley’s work for the 2010 show on Fox.

What’s your favorite role from Jackie Earle Haley? Let us know!

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