| Jerry Haleva | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | Actor, political lobbyst |
| Yearsactive: | 1991–2002 (actor) |
Jerry Haleva (born)[1] is an American actor and political lobbyist. He gained fame as an actor as a doppelgänger of Saddam Hussein due to his physical resemblance to the late Iraqi leader, with all of his film roles having him portraying Hussein.
Jerry Haleva, a Sephardic Jew,[2] is a member of the Republican Party and has worked as a lobbyist for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, among others.[3] [4] In 1973, he was an adviser to a legislative committee investigating prison conditions in California.[5] He served in the California Senate in 1977 as chief of staff for William Campbell.[6]
In 1989, a colleague of Haleva distributed a photo of the then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein among his co-workers with the text "Now we know what Haleva does on his weekends".[7] A few years later, Haleva contacted Ron Smith, who represented doppelgängers in the film industry, and Smith had a small role for Haleva in the feature film Hot Shots! (1991), followed by a more prominent role in its sequel, Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993). Haleva played Hussein in half a dozen films.[8] Besides the Hot Shots! movies and The Big Lebowski, he appeared in a few other films and also appeared in commercials (including for Nintendo).
In the spring of 2003, when Iraq was invaded, he decided to stop working as Hussein's doppelgänger.[9] [10] In January 2004 he came back to this decision and said in an interview that he was interested in continuing his acting career.[11]
As of 2016, he was a contract lobbyist (Sergeant Major Associates) and lived in Sacramento, California.[12]
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Hot Shots! | Saddam Hussein | |
| 1993 | Hot Shots! Part Deux | Saddam Hussein | |
| 1998 | The Big Lebowski | Saddam | |
| Jane Austen's Mafia! | Saddam Hussein | ||
| 2002 | The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest | Saddam Hussein | |
| Live from Baghdad | Hologram Saddam | Television Film | |