Biography
Date of Birth
10 December 1988, Los Angeles, California, USA
Nickname
HJO
Height
5' 4¼" (1.63 m)
Mini Biography
Haley Joel Osment is an American actor who has proven himself as one of the best young actors of his generation. He is the first millennial male to have received an Academy Award nomination for acting.
Osment was born in Los Angeles, California, to Theresa (Seifert), a teacher, and actor Eugene Osment. His sister is actress Emily Osment. His ancestry includes Irish, along with German and English/Scottish. Haley began acting at the age of four, when he tried out for a Pizza Hut commercial in a shopping mall. The commercial launched his career, and he landed his first television role later that year. As a young child, his first film role was as Forrest Gump (1994)'s son, also named Forrest Gump, in the 1994 film of the same name as well as making a small appearance in Mixed Nuts (1994). He had roles in numerous TV series, including Thunder Alley (1994), The Jeff Foxworthy Show (1995), and, most notably, the final season of Murphy Brown (1988), in which he replaced Dyllan Christopher as Murphy's son Avery. Osment also made numerous guest appearances in various TV series, including The Larry Sanders Show (1992), Walker, Texas Ranger (1993) (as a child dying from AIDS), Touched by an Angel (1994), Chicago Hope (1994), The Pretender (1996), and as a child dying from leukemia in the emotional episode 'Angels and Blimps' (1999) of the series Ally McBeal (1997). Osment starred in Bogus (1996) with Whoopi Goldberg and Gérard Depardieu, and appeared in the 1998 made-for-TV movie The Lake (1998) with Yasmine Bleeth, as well as I'll Remember April (2000) with future The Sixth Sense (1999) co-star Trevor Morgan.
He first achieved stardom in 1999 when he appeared in the blockbuster The Sixth Sense (1999), co-starring Bruce Willis. For this role, Osment won the Saturn Award for best young actor. He was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, but lost to Michael Caine, with whom he would later star in Secondhand Lions (2003). Osment (voice) also made three minor guest appearances on Family Guy (1999) in 2000. One of Osment's lines in The Sixth Sense (1999), "I see dead people," is often repeated or parodied on television programs and in other media. The 2000 Academy Awards ceremony honored another of Osment's future co-stars, BestActor Kevin Spacey, who, along with Helen Hunt, appeared in Osment's next film, Pay It Forward (2000). The following year, Osment appeared in Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), cementing his stature as one of the leading young actors in Hollywood. This role earned him his second Saturn Award. Also in 2001, Osment starred in a Polish film, Edges of the Lord (2001), as Romek. The movie was never released theatrically in the United States. Osment has since provided voices for The Country Bears (2002) and The Jungle Book 2 (2003). More recently, Osment was the voice of Sora, the main protagonist of the Walt Disney Company and Square-Enix's Kingdom Hearts (2002) video-game series, which was extremely financially successful as well and generally well-received critically. He was also the voice of Takeshi Jinno in the "Time to Shine" episode of the IGPX: Immortal Grand Prix (2005) anime TV series.
Osment also worked in Home of the Giants (2007), playing a high school journalist opposite Ryan Merriman and Danielle Panabaker. He also played Helmuth Hübener in the film Truth & Treason (????). On July 20, 2006, Osment was injured in a one-car accident. His blood-alcohol content was measured at 0.16%, twice the legal limit in California. On August 18, he was charged with four misdemeanors, including driving under the influence of alcohol and possession of marijuana while driving. He pleaded no contest on October 19 and was sentenced to three years' probation, 60 hours in an alcohol-rehabilitation and education program, a fine of $1,500, and a minimum requirement of 26 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings over a six-month period.
In 2006, Osment took a hiatus from Hollywood and studied acting at the Experimental Theatre Wing at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, graduating with Honors and a Bachelor's Degree of Fine Arts in 2011. He also appeared on Broadway in a 2008 production of David Mamet's American Buffalo, and in John Logan's Red at the Philadelphia Theater Company in 2011.
Osment returned to the screen in 2012 with Continuum (2013), co-starring with Gillian Anderson, Rufus Sewell, and Victor Garber, Sassy Pants (2012) with Anna Gunn and Diedrich Bader, then appeared in two seasons of Amazon Studios' comedy series Alpha House (2013), written by Pulitzer Prize winner Garry Trudeau and starring John Goodman. His many additional credits include Comedy Bang! Bang!, Kevin Smith's horror comedies Tusk (2014) and Yoga Hosers (2016), Entourage (2015) (Warner Bros.' silver screen extension of the award-winning HBO dramedy), the award-winning independent comedy Sex Ed (2014), the hit FX series What We Do in the Shadows (2019), the Hulu science fiction comedy Future Man (2017), and the true crime thriller and 2019 Sundance Film Festival Selection Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019) starring Zac Efron as Ted Bundy, and featuring Lily Collins, Kaya Scodelario, Jim Parsons, and John Malkovich.
Trivia
Older brother of actress Emily Osment.
Auditioned for Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999), but didn't get a callback.
Son of Eugene Osment, who has also acted.
Became the eighth-youngest nominee for a competitive Academy Award in 2000.
He's a big lover of lizards. He owns two leopard geckos from Pakistan as pets and, as a favorite pastime, likes to catch and release lizards in his backyard or on vacations.
He is a straight-A student
His favorite cuisine is Chinese, and he eats it constantly.
Started acting at age 4.
Ran cross country for Flintridge Prep.
Favorite authors: J.R.R. Tolkien and Edgar Allan Poe
Favorite music: R.E.M., Coldplay, Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Flying Lotus, and Led Zeppelin.
His father, Eugene Osment, frequently makes cameo appearances in his movies.
Though Osment is now a well-known actor, what many people don't know is that Forrest Gump (1994), a very popular contemporary classic, was one of his first films. That is not surprising, since his screen time was only about two minutes, despite playing the son of the title character. It was another five years before he became famous with The Sixth Sense (1999), another popular contemporary classic.
He took a two-year break from filming after making A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), before making a brief comeback with Secondhand Lions (2003), but he had plenty of commitments during those two years of absence from the screen. His work included making promotional tours for AI during the summer holiday in 2001, making TV appearances, and doing voice-over work.
Although rumored to be Steven Spielberg's favorite to play the title role in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), had Spielberg directed the film as once planned, Osment himself denied this and was vehemently against the series even being made into films lest the magic of the novels be ruined.
He donated many items to Rocky Stone to be given to less-fortunate kids as part of the Toy Mountain Campaign.
[2005] Was ranked #7 in E's 50 cutest child stars all grown-up.
Fractured his right rib and right shoulder, and received lacerations to his body when he lost control of his car and crashed into a brick mailbox. [July 2006]
Making his Broadway debut on the play American Buffalo. [October 2008]
Just finished some additional scenes for Home Of The Giants (2006) [August 2006]
Doing voice recording for _Kingdom Hearts II (2005) (VG)_. [December 2005]
Philadelphia, Pa USA: Starred in the stage play "Red" at The Philadelphia Theatre Company (Closed November 13th) [November 2011]
Studying Experimental Acting at New York University [September 2006]
In the novelization for Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), it uses the line sixth sense; Frank Marshall produced this and The Sixth Sense (1999) and Steven Spielberg later directed Osment in A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) as well as produced Holmes.
He is the first male born in the 1980s, and the first millennial male, to have received an Academy Award nomination for acting (for The Sixth Sense (1999)). Eddie Redmayne is the first millennial male to have won an acting Oscar (for The Theory of Everything (2014)), while Anna Paquin is the first millennial female to have received an Oscar nomination, and the first to win (for The Piano (1993)). Daniel Kaluuya is the first person born in the decade to win Best Supporting Actor, for Judas and the Black Messiah (2021).
He is of Irish, and smaller amounts of English, German, Austrian, and Scottish, as well as distant French, descent.
Quotes
[about his inspiration for acting] I think I got the feel for it from my dad. He's a great actor. He's been acting on stage for 12 years now. And I got the feel immediately. Dad's been helping me all the way. It comes naturally for me. I think it got passed down from dad. acting.
[on his acting performances] It's a team effort at my home, even when I'm nine time zones away.
I try to keep away from being big-headed. That's what causes people to lose the acting thing. They start being commercial, and then they stink for the rest of their lives. But there are several respected adult actors who were child actors that started very young. I'm going to try and model myself after Kurt Russell and Jodie Foster. Just keep learning from the role and not just go for the money.
[on what he takes from home with him] I carry my sense of trying to learn, my curiosity and my memory.
That professionalism comes from what I've watched people do on the set. I'm just trying to be as respectful to the environment, as they have been. I think I still act like a kid. I just try to be as professional as I can.
For me, choice is the most important thing because I'm going to be an adult actor pretty soon. So I've got to be choosing the right roles now so that by the time I get to that age there will be wide options available.
Age is definitely a factor because, at this age, you're very age-specific. As a younger kid, you can play a wider variety of ages. As a younger kid you can play a wider variety of ages, I guess, because the voice hasn't changed and there's a physicality that progresses as you get older. Now you can't play a 17-year-old when you're a 15-year-old, whereas when you're 10 you can play 8 or even 12. The good part is that, especially with this movie, the changes that I am going through are within the context of the film. So people pretty much know where I am, age-wise, at this point, and that was one of the great things about this film. It demonstrates that that's the direction I'm going in.
It's hard to act terrified when you have 200 crew members around you.
My friends are definitely more important than my career. If I had to choose, I'd choose my friends over my career.
Being different personalities brings out some of the personalities that you have, too. So I guess I have become a more well-rounded person.
It makes me feel great when other young actors say they look up to me. I hope I can be a positive role model.
It's important in selecting films that have that feeling behind them, there's a place for films that are just light and entertaining, but for me it's most important to find the films that will last.
[about if not getting as much attention as he used to] I guess it's not so much a relief because being recognized is not a problem. It is more relaxing not being noticed as much. Also, it's not just that I'm not recognizable. I think people relate better when you're older, because I think they have more respect for your age. As time goes on, I think people are becoming more respectful out in public. So it's never been a problem. It's just been interesting to watch.
Academically, it's actually pretty easy learning between the tutor and actual school, with people at school, it's been pretty easy as well. There's just a great group of kids in my school and they've been real understanding of my career.
[his feelings about the possibility of " being forgotten"] O don't think there's any fear. With acting, you can never count on there being work available. It's whatever's there, so I don't think there's any fear. It's possible. Someday, there may not be any work, but I guess that's not something I'm worried about. If I just keep doing the right roles, I think that won't be a problem.
Harry Potter, we were never really interested in. It never crossed a desk with us. Nothing really happened with it. Myself, I felt that it should have stayed a book. I never would have wanted to do the film. It's a great book and 70 percent of the book is your own imagination and putting in where the author has purposely left the gaps so kids can sort of put in their input and sort of custom read the book and I think that's one of the most brilliant parts of the novels and when the movie comes out it's going to be a stereotype for people when they read the book.
[about his character in Home of the Giants (2007)] It's important to find roles with characters growing up. Gar is one of those characters that moves me along the time line in my career."
I try not to let the fame part of it be a factor in everyday life. Because when it comes down to it, the only thing that's important to me that has to do with the fame is just the work on the set and the acting part of it. And the result of that acting is, as you say, can be fame, but I try not to concentrate on that too much because that's not the most important thing about this business for me. It's about the work. And I think if I continue to focus on that, I hope that my career will be able to continue as well as it has been going so far.
Being a teenager and stuff, where you have the responsibility to do things right, I mean sometimes people are going to look up to you, that's your obligation as an actor, or as someone who's in the public eye, to do the right thing. You've got to keep your record clean because it's your responsibility to everyone who's ever watched your film, and that's something that you sign on to when you work on a film, when you get into this business that is something that you take with the acting, you know, the responsibility of life outside of that. So I guess that it's a little more pressure, but it's good pressure, you know? It's a motivation to do good things. Not that I wouldn't anyway.
[About his drunk-driving accident] With regard to that incident, whatever attention has been given to it, I brought it upon myself. So I would definitely not say that my childhood in this business caused that in any way but the response to it is definitely something that is affected by my place in the business. So for me it was a good lesson. You can't blame the press for giving attention to incidents like that. It was an extremely important learning experience for me to try and stay in check and do the right things, like I always should.
[About his 2006 conviction for drunk driving] That night was an example of being a foolish high schooler sort of screwing around before college starts. It's unfortunate that when those things happen, they just talk about Hollywood when really we have a national problem . . . with all types of substances and types of dangerous behavior . . . You know, by treating it just as a Hollywood thing, we ignore the fact that . . . it can happen to anybody.
There's so much to learn about acting and performance in general . . . I mean, acting is a very complex art, and there are a lot more theories and methods and techniques to it than I think anybody would think . . . Some of our best respected film and stage performances come from people like (Marlon Brando and everything, and they studied their entire lives.
I'm never interested in the business of promoting myself. I really don't care if people know who I am or what's said about me. I'm just here to do a job.
