Brian Haley

Last updated
Brian Haley
Brian Haley circa 2001.JPG
Haley circa 2001
Born
Brian Carlo Haley

(1963-02-12) February 12, 1963 (age 61)
Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Occupations
  • Actor
  • comedian
Years active1988–present
Spouse
Marj McCoshen Haley
​
(m. 1987)​
Children5

Brian Carlo Haley (born February 12, 1963) [1] is an American actor and comedian. His stand-up act is characterized by playing his all-American looks against manic outbursts and absurd situations. As an actor, he may be best known for his roles as Veeko the incompetent kidnapper in the movie Baby's Day Out , the over-the-top football father Mike Hammersmith (aka Spike's dad) in Little Giants , Mitch Kowalski in the movie Gran Torino , and Budd Bronski in Season 7 of Wings.

Contents

Early life

Haley was born in Seattle, Washington to a large Catholic family, the fifth of six children. His father was an airline executive and his mother was a homemaker and part-time maid. His father is of Irish and Italian descent, which is where he gets his Italian middle name Carlo. At the age of three his family moved to Saint-Jovite, Quebec and he was put in a boarding home where he learned to speak fluent French. He disliked the experience so much that upon his return to Seattle 18 months later, he refused to speak the language except to translate for his younger sister, who only spoke French. He began acting as a child in the Seattle area doing community and school theater. As a teenager, he stumbled upon the film set of Scorchy (1976) in downtown Seattle. After seeing some of the movie being filmed, jumping into a few shots as an extra and meeting the star, Connie Stevens, he decided to pursue a career in show business.

At 15 he moved to rural Ellensburg, Washington. After high school, he took on several jobs, including lumberjack, hay buck, and ranch hand. He eventually enlisted in the U.S. Army to join the Green Berets. He was in the service from 1980 to 1985 where he won letters of commendation and the Army Achievement Medal, but left early to pursue a career in show business. While in the Army (1983), he was in the play Guys and Dolls starring Joe Namath at the Ft. Bragg Playhouse.

Career

After his tour in the Army, he began doing stand-up comedy in his native Seattle and quickly rose to headliner status. In 1988, he moved to Los Angeles where he had immediate success, winning a "Hollywood's Hottest New Comic" competition, appearing on several stand-up comedy TV shows such as An Evening At The Improv and was picked up by ABC Television for a one-year holding deal. In July 1988, Haley was a contestant on the Alex Trebek hosted game show "Classic Concentration". His appearance spanned multiple episodes as he won $11,285 worth of prizes. However, it was his proverbial big break on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1990 that launched his career in earnest. His first appearance led to a flood of television and film roles and an HBO comedy special.

In 1994, he starred in the movie Baby's Day Out . The movie was very popular in overseas markets, especially India, where it played at the largest theater in Calcutta for over a year [2] and was even remade with an Indian cast under the title Sisindri . In 1994, he had a stand out role in the comedy film Little Giants as over the top dad Mike Hammersmith, aka "Spike's Dad".

In 1995, he replaced Thomas Haden Church on NBC's TV series Wings playing the part of mechanic Budd Bronski. That same year he was in a Clio Award winning Super Bowl ad for Miller Lite beer playing hard luck football quarterback Elmer Bruker, a man that was on every winning Super Bowl team but never played. In 1997, he portrayed "The Hooded Avenger" on the Weird Al Show . From 1998 to 1999 he played bartender Tom Vanderhulst on the short lived CBS series Maggie Winters . He has made numerous guest appearances on TV shows such as 30 Rock , The Drew Carey Show , and ER , including reoccurring roles on The Hughleys , Third Watch and Law & Order: Criminal Intent .

In 1998, Haley played firefighter Roger Parks in the episode "Fire Station 32" in Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction .

He has been cast frequently in dramatic roles, playing a detective in the Coen Brothers film The Man Who Wasn't There and Martin Scorsese's The Departed and Police Captain Hill in Tony Scott's The Taking of Pelham 123 . In 2003, he was cast in the television pilot for the CBS one-hour drama The Brotherhood of Poland New Hampshire as one of three brothers along with Randy Quaid and John Carroll Lynch, but was replaced later by Chris Penn due to story restructuring and his lack of similarity to the other two brothers. [3] In 2009, he played Clint Eastwood's discontented son Mitch in the award-winning movie Gran Torino .

In February 2007, he appeared on Broadway as tennis commentator Ryan Becker in the Terrence McNally play Deuce , directed by Michael Blakemore.

He currently lives in New York City and has a production company, Haleywood Productions.

He is currently doing the commentary, along with Tim Kitzrow for NFL Blitz .

Personal life

Haley owns the Frank Sinatra booth and several other items from Chasen's restaurant. [4] He is active with the relief organization World Vision. [5]

Selected filmography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nigel Planer</span> British actor, comedian and writer (born 1953)

Nigel George Planer is a British actor, writer and musician. He played Neil in the BBC comedy The Young Ones and Ralph Filthy in Filthy Rich & Catflap. He has appeared in many West End musicals, including original casts of Evita, Chicago, We Will Rock You, Wicked, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He has also appeared in Hairspray. He won a BRIT award in 1984 and has been nominated for Olivier, TMA, WhatsOnStage and BAFTA awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haley Joel Osment</span> American actor (born 1988)

Haley Joel Osment is an American actor. Beginning his career as a child actor, Osment's role in the comedy-drama film Forrest Gump (1994) won him a Young Artist Award. His breakthrough came with the psychological thriller film The Sixth Sense (1999), which won him a Saturn Award and earned him nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. He achieved further success with the drama film Pay It Forward (2000), the science fiction film A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) which won him a second Saturn Award, the comedy film Secondhand Lions (2003) which won him a Critics Choice Award, and the animated film The Jungle Book 2 (2003). He has voiced Sora in the Kingdom Hearts video game franchise since 2002, and voiced Vanitas in the same franchise from 2010 to 2020.

<i>Starsky & Hutch</i> 1975 American action television series

Starsky & Hutch is an American action television series, which consisted of a 72-minute pilot movie and 92 episodes of 50 minutes each. The show was created by William Blinn, produced by Spelling-Goldberg Productions and starred Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul in the title roles, Starsky and Hutch. It was broadcast from April 1975 to August 1979 on the ABC network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Keith</span> American actor (1921–1997)

Robert Alba Keith, known professionally as Brian Keith, was an American film, television, and stage actor who in his six-decade career gained recognition for his work in films such as the Disney family film The Parent Trap (1961); Johnny Shiloh (1963); the comedy The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966); and the adventure saga The Wind and the Lion (1975), in which he portrayed President Theodore Roosevelt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wendie Malick</span> American actress (born 1950)

Wendie Malick is an American actress and former fashion model, known for her roles in various television comedies. She starred as Judith Tupper Stone in the HBO sitcom Dream On, and as Nina Van Horn in the NBC sitcom Just Shoot Me!, for which she was nominated for two Primetime Emmys and a Golden Globe Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanley Kowalski</span> Fictional character

Stanley Kowalski is a fictional character in Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire.

Kowalski is the second most common surname in Poland. Kowalski surname is derived from the word kowal, meaning "[black]smith".

<i>Babys Day Out</i> 1994 film by Patrick Read Johnson

Baby's Day Out is a 1994 American adventure comedy film directed by Patrick Read Johnson and written by John Hughes, who also served as producer. Starring Joe Mantegna, Lara Flynn Boyle, Joe Pantoliano, and Brian Haley, the film centers on a wealthy baby's abduction by three criminals, his subsequent escape and adventure through Chicago while being pursued by the criminals.

Michael Dennis Henry was an American football linebacker and actor. He was best known for his role as Tarzan in the 1960s film trilogy and as Junior in the Smokey and the Bandit trilogy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leo Rossi</span> American actor

Leo Rossi is an American actor, writer and producer. A character actor with over 100 credits to his name, he is known for his role as foul-mouthed EMT Vincent "Budd" Scarlotti in the 1981 horror film Halloween II, as the serial killer Turkell from the 1990 horror sequel Maniac Cop 2, and as Detective Sam Dietz in the Relentless franchise. His other films include Heart Like a Wheel (1983), River's Edge (1986), The Accused (1988), Analyze This (1999), One Night at McCool's (2001), and 10th & Wolf (2006).

<i>Little Giants</i> 1994 American family sports comedy film

Little Giants is a 1994 American family sports comedy film directed by Duwayne Dunham and written by James Ferguson, Robert Shallcross, Tommy Swerdlow, Michael Goldberg from the story by Ferguson and Robert Shallcross. The film stars Rick Moranis and Ed O'Neill as Danny and Kevin O'Shea, two brothers living in a fictional Ohio town who coach rival Pee-Wee Football teams. The film was produced by Amblin Entertainment and distributed by Warner Bros. under their Warner Bros. Family Entertainment label.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rick Ducommun</span> Canadian stand-up comedian, actor, writer and producer (1952–2015)

Richard Ducommun was a Canadian stand-up comedian, actor, writer and producer known for his supporting turns in various films, most prominently Die Hard (1988) and Groundhog Day (1993).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sinbad (comedian)</span> American comedian and actor (born 1956)

David Adkins, better known by his stage name Sinbad, is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He became known in the 1990s from being featured on his own HBO specials, appearing on several television series, most notably as Coach Walter Oakes in A Different World (1987–1991) and as David Bryan on The Sinbad Show (1993–1994). He has also appeared in films such as That's Adequate (1989), Coneheads (1993), Houseguest (1995), Jingle All the Way (1996), Good Burger (1997), Crazy as Hell (2002) and Planes (2013).

Brian Howe is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of stockbroker Jay Twistle in the film The Pursuit of Happyness.

<i>Gran Torino</i> 2008 American film by Clint Eastwood

Gran Torino is a 2008 American drama film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood, who also starred in the film. The film features a large Hmong American cast, as well as one of Eastwood's younger sons, Scott. Eastwood's oldest son of record, Kyle, composed the film's score with Michael Stevens, while Jamie Cullum and Clint Eastwood provide the theme song.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bee Vang</span> American actor

Bee Vang is an American actor of Hmong Thai descent. He is best known for starring in Clint Eastwood's 2008 film Gran Torino as Thao Vang Lor.

Nick Schenk is an American screenwriter known for writing the Clint Eastwood-directed feature film Gran Torino in 2008 for which he won Best Original Screenplay from the National Board of Review. He continued his collaborations with Eastwood on The Mule (2018) and Cry Macho (2021).

Haley Alexandra Tju is an American actress. She is known for her role as Pepper in the Nickelodeon television series Bella and the Bulldogs, Stella Zhau in the Nickelodeon animated series The Loud House and Marcy Wu in the Disney Channel animated series Amphibia.

References

  1. ↑ Brian Haley Biography (1963–)
  2. ↑ http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090806/PEOPLE/908069969 Roger Ebert Chicago Sun Times article – John Hughes: In Memory, August 6, 2009
  3. ↑ http://www.eonline.com/news/No__quot_Brotherhood_quot__for_Kelley_Actor/45302 Eonline article No "Brotherhood" For Kelley Actor, June 11, 2003
  4. ↑ "Brian Haley - Carson". carsonpodcast.com.
  5. ↑ NBC News NBC News article Brian Haley Lends Hand To Poverty Relief July, 20th 2011
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.