Haley Joel Osment is an actor who rose to prominence after working with Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump and winning the Critics’ Choice Movie Award for Best Young Performer for his performance in the movie.
His greatest triumph came when he starred in The Sixth Sense, a box office sensation for which he received critical acclaim and an Oscar nomination for his acting.
Haley Joel Osment – Famous Child Actor
Born in April, 1988 in Los Angeles, California, Haley Joel Osment is the oldest child of Michael Eugene Osment, who was a theater and film actor and her mother is Theresa nee Seifert.
His parents are both Birmingham, Alabama natives. Osment grew up in a Roman Catholic family. He has one sibling, actress Emily Osment, who is also a well-known actress and almost four years younger than him.
Osment was raised in a “good old-fashioned Southern upbringing,” according to his parents. While Osment was starting to speak, his father refrained using baby language when conversing with his kid, according to his father.
Osment attended Flintridge Preparatory School in La Canada Flintridge, California, where he was a student. He used to wrestle and play basketball, football, and golf as a kid.
Osment Almost Lost His Life
Haley Joel Osment was heavily injured in a car accident in 2006 while driving under the influence of alcohol. When he slammed his 1995 Saturn station wagon into a pillar and overturned it at 2:10 a.m, the 18-year-old sustained a broken rib, a fractured right shoulder blade, wounds, and abrasions.
Osment pleaded not guilty to driving while under the influence of alcohol and misdemeanor drug possession, and also was given three years of probation, 60 hours of alcohol rehabilitation and education, a $1,500 fine, and Alcoholics Anonymous attendance.
On The Lust For Fame
When Osment was four years old, he went to IKEA and enrolled with a talent scout. When he was finally called for an audition, he was asked to explain the most massive object he had ever witnessed.
He was blessed with acting skills since childhood and his characterization of an IMAX cinema screen landed him a role in a Pizza Hut television ad.
Haley’s career was sparked by the ad. Even the casting director for Forrest Gump approached him after seeing the commercial. During that year he landed his first role in a tv series, which was an ABC sitcom Thunder Alley.
His acting skills were superb as a kid and his performance was seen by filmmakers. Later in 1994, Haley Joel Osment got his first major role in the Oscar-winning movie, Forrest Gump, as a son of Forrest Gump in the movie.
He has appeared in many TV series such as The Larry Sanders Show, Walker, Texas Ranger, Touched by an Angel, Chicago Hope, The Pretender, and Ally McBeal as a guest star.
He starred opposite Whoopi Goldberg and Gérard Depardieu in the 1996 movie Bogus, and also in the 1998 TV film The Lake and I’ll Remember April (1999), starring fellow The Sixth Sense co-star Trevor Morgan.
Breakthrough
In 1999, Cole Sear, a 9-year-old troubled by visions of dead people in a thriller The Sixth Sense, was his breakthrough performance. Osment was just ten years old when he completed M Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense in 1998.
His character’s most memorable dialogue, “I see dead people,” rapidly became a trademark. He claims he never felt influenced or adversely driven to perform throughout those formative stages.
For his extraordinary performance in the movie, Osment has received critical praise and also Oscar, Golden Globe, and SAG Award nominations.
In The Sixth Sense, Osment was also nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actor, however he lost to Michael Caine unfortunately.
Osment’s parents had a firm policy of never allowing him to go on a shoot alone. Even as his fame proceeded to increase, they worked hard to ensure that his education was not disrupted.
Later On His Life
Following that, a succession of blockbusters followed, with Kevin Spacey starring in Osment’s next film, Pay It Forward in 2000. The next year, he starred in Steven Spielberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence.
He solidified his reputation as one of Hollywood’s most promising young performers. He won his second Saturn Award for Best Younger Actor for this performance, as well as praise from critics.
When he turned 18, Osment started to wonder if he still wanted to continue his career in acting. His parents wished that he attend college, and Osment preferred the college experience as well.
However, with his parents’ support, he went to college anyway after relocating to New York City.
Osment earned a bachelor’s degree in experimental theater from New York University.
In 2011, Osment shifted his focus to more diverse roles, such as an oily podcast host in “Yoga Hosers” and a hesitant sex education instructor in “Sex Ed.”
Haley Joel Osment Now
Haley Joel Osment admits it may have been a tardy struggle against his innocent childhood image, in reality, he grew a beard “to try to hide in public, that didn’t work out so well.” according to Osment.
He aspires to make his next step behind the scenes, or as a writer and director, which he believes was one of the reasons he returned to Los Angeles.
Just as he embarks on the next phase of his professional career, Osment is unafraid to be questioned about his past.
“I’m lucky to have a positive relationship with those periods that can sometimes be difficult for other people,” he says.
“I feel like I’m always building on it.” he adds about his impressive fame and recognition.
“I just feel very fortunate because acting is my first love and I want to keep at it,” Osment said, amid all the peaks and troughs as well as uncertainties he’d faced along the long journey.
Haley Joel Osment’s net worth, which is estimated to be $6 million by Celebrity Net Worth, has grown significantly as a result of her successful films.
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