Jerry Haleva

Born: None

Jerry Haleva (born May 26, 1946) 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, is a member of the Republican Party and has worked as a lobbyist for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, among others. In 1973, he was an adviser to a legislative committee investigating prison conditions in California. He served in the California Senate in 1977 as chief of staff for William Campbell. 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". 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. 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. In January 2004 he came back to this decision and said in an interview that he was interested in continuing his acting career. As of 2016, he was a contract lobbyist (Sergeant Major Associates) and lived in Sacramento, California.


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as Saddam Hussein
Released: 1991-07-31

The gang that created Airplane and The Naked Gun sets its sights on Top Gun in this often...

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as Saddam
Released: 1998-03-06

Jeffrey 'The Dude' Lebowski, a Los Angeles slacker who only wants to bowl and drink White...

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Superhero Movie

as Saddam Hussein
Released: 2008-03-28

The team behind Scary Movie takes on the comic book genre in this tale of Rick Riker, a nerdy...

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as Saddam Hussein
Released: 1993-05-21

Topper Harley is found to be working as an odd-job-man in a monastery. The CIA want him to lead...

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Jane Austen's Mafia!

as Saddam Hussein
Released: 1998-07-24

Takeoff on the Godfather with the son of a mafia king taking over for his dying father.

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Live from Baghdad

as Saddam Hussein
Released: 2002-12-07

A group of CNN reporters wrestle with journalistic ethics and the life-and-death perils of...

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