Biography
Date of Birth
16 December 1976, West Hollywood, California, USA
Birth Name
Lukas Daniel Haas
Nickname
Freddy
Height
5' 10½" (1.79 m)
Mini Biography
Lukas was born on April 16, 1976 in West Hollywood, California. His Texas-born mother, Emily Tracy, is a writer, and his German-born father, Berthold Haas, is an artist. He has twin brothers, Simon and Nikolai. It's widely noted that Lukas was discovered at the age of five by casting director Margery Simkin while he was in kindergarten.
While his first screen role was as the youngest of the doomed children in the 1983 nuclear Holocaust film Testament (1983), it was his second appearance, in Witness (1985) opposite Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis, that earned attention and acclaim. In Peter Weir's 1985 film, Lukas portrayed Samuel, an Amish child who was the sole witness to an undercover cop's murder, and his work earned him starring roles in such films as Lady in White (1988), The Wizard of Loneliness (1988), and Alan & Naomi (1992) - the latter film co-written by his mother.
He continued to distinguish himself in film in starring roles including: Music Box (1989) with Jessica Lange and director Costa-Gavras; Convicts (1991) and Rambling Rose (1991) (both with Robert Duvall); and Boys (1996) with John C. Reilly and Winona Ryder.
On stage, in 1988, Lukas performed alongside Steve Martin and Robin Williams in Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" at Lincoln Center in New York City for director Mike Nichols. He also starred with Martin in the film Leap of Faith (1992).
Lukas went on to work with directors Woody Allen in Everyone Says I Love You (1996), Tim Burton in Mars Attacks! (1996), and Alan Rudolph in Breakfast of Champions (1999). He had a pivotal role in Brick (2005), Rian Johnson's directorial debut with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. He next appeared in the Kurt Cobain-inspired Last Days (2005), directed by Gus Van Sant, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Roles in Material Girls (2006), slasher movie send-up The Tripper (2006), Who Loves the Sun (2006), Gardener of Eden (2007), While She Was Out (2008), and Death in Love (2008) followed.
Recently, Lukas had a supporting role in Christopher Nolan's Inception (2010) opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, Elliot Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Caine and Marion Cotillard. He then appeared in Red Riding Hood (2011) for director Catherine Hardwicke, and Contraband (2012), director Baltasar Kormákur's English-language remake of the movie he starred in, Reykjavik-Rotterdam (2008).
Lukas was most recently seen in Crazy Eyes (2012). He has several projects in production, including Meth Head (2013) written and directed by Jane Clark.
Also a talented musician, Lukas plays drums and piano in the band The Rogues.
Trivia
Son of Emily Tracy.
Drummer and pianist for a band called the Rogues
Brothers are fraternal twins named Simon and Nikolai Haas. Like Lukas, they are also musicians.
Lukas enjoyed ice skating (hockey) and turned up on occasion at the ice rink at Northcross Mall in Austin (1986-1988). He was a good skater, by the way, and the employees were quite fond of him.
Eleven years after playing the title role in Witness (1985), opposite Harrison Ford, he appeared in Mars Attacks! (1996). At the end of the film, he receives a medal, just as Ford did in Star Wars (1977). Ford received the medal from Carrie Fisher, playing Princess Leia. Haas received his from Natalie Portman, who would go on to play Princess Leia's mother, Queen Amidala.
Good friends with Leonardo DiCaprio.
Was considered for the role of Dr. Spencer Reid on Criminal Minds (2005), but did not want to commit to a television series at the time. The role went to Matthew Gray Gubler instead, and Haas later guest starred in the series as a store clerk who ends up being the elusive "Footpath Killer".
He was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame on March 11, 2010 during the occasion of their 10th anniversary awards ceremony.
He made guest appearances on both The Twilight Zone (1985) and The Twilight Zone (2002).
Has appeared in two Kiefer Sutherland shows: 24 (2001) and Touch (2012).
As of 2016, has appeared in four films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: Witness (1985), Inception (2010), Lincoln (2012) and The Revenant (2015).
His father is a German immigrant. His mother, who was born in Texas, is of English and German ancestry.
He appeared in two films with Natalie Portman in 1996: Mars Attacks! (1996) and Everyone Says I Love You (1996).
Quotes
In choosing any role, I ask the same questions: what kind of part is it? is the role challenging? does the director have a vision? is the story moving? etc.
I like both music and acting, and they both have a lot in common - timing, immediacy, stuff like that. But acting is more regimented. You wait around for hours, you don't get to write the script, you get hired. Music represents me better. I'm not acting; I'm just expressing myself.
I was in Kansas for about a month, and we worked most of the time in a very small town, so it felt like the production basically took the whole town over. In a way, we were the Martians in Kansas.
On a low-budget film, you don't have all the luxuries.
It's cool to play a sinister bad guy who also has a human side.
It was a wonderful experience to work with Sylvia. She pushed me to be more powerful with my acting, and she told me scores of the most incredible stories I've ever heard. She is amazing.
I've been into music for a long time. I started playing drums when I was 8 and piano when I was 10, then bass and guitar when I was 18.
I've had offers to sign a record deal, but the people I've talked to have wanted to package me and have me meet with songwriters who've written stuff for Whitney Houston, that sort of thing. That's not at all my style.
One day when I was like 9, I heard the Beatles on the radio, and I asked my dad who they were. He told me they were the best band in the world, and I became obsessed. He started giving me their albums in sequential order, and I listened to them - and only them - until I was probably in high school.
This was basically the first time I got to act in action scenes, with things blowing up all around me. It sounds corny, but I think every actor would like to - at least once in his or her career - play the person who saves the entire world.
Material Girls was so different for me, I'd never done a teen movie.
I also couldn't pass up the opportunity to be in the same movie as Jack Nicholson and Glenn Close.
I love seeing people having fun. Everyone over in L.A. is too cool for it. That's the problem.
Balancing my film career and my music will be something I'm just going to have to deal with, as it happens. I think I can balance it out; the choices will probably be pretty clear. If there's a movie I just have to do, I will work the music around it.
I'm remixing an R.E.M. track called 'I've Been High' from their last album, 'Reveal.' It's a beautiful song, but record execs didn't put it out as a single because it didn't sound like the R.E.M. we're used to. So I asked Michael Stipe if I could have the tapes to do a remix, and he agreed.
A low budget is uncomfortable.
I've built an 8-track studio in my house that's virtually identical to what they used at Abbey Road, and I also own the 16-track set-up that Led Zeppelin used to record 'Houses of the Holy.' I'm interested in producing, but I'm mostly recording my own stuff.
