Jackie Earle Haley: Nerdage’s #11 actor

Star of this weekend’s “Nightmare on Elm Street” remake Jackie Earle Haley comes in at No. 11 in Nerdage’s top 25 list of actors with geek appeal.   He plays the slain murderer Freddy Krueger, who then haunts people in their dreams. Haley also appears on “Human Target,” based on the DC comic book, and starred as Rorschach in “Watchmen,” based on the Alan Moore-Dave Gibbons graphic novel.

In a 2009 interview with Nerdage, Haley said the vigilante character Rorschach was created by a neglected upbringing.

“He’s a victim of his mom’s own self-centeredness. … He ended up in a home at age 11 only to discover they weren’t much better at raising him than his mom was,” he said. “And I think he finally reached this point in life where he needed this black and white sense of the world. Because he was such a victim of the grey complexities.

“His whole life was falling through the cracks. And if it weren’t for becoming a masked vigilante, this guy would have no purpose in life.”

Haley broke into acting as a child, and was best-known for his role in “Bad News Bears.”  His comeback as an adult started in “All the King’s Men” with Sean Penn, and was cemented with his Oscar-nominated role in “Little Children,” in which he played a paroled sex offender.

- Matt Price