HAAS is often the answer to the crossword clue
[Lukas of “Witness”] or [Tennis great Tommy]
The [Actor Lukas] HAAS is best remembered in puzzles as [Lukas who portrayed an Amish boy in “Witness“]. I remember my parents renting the movie when I was seven or eight. To this day, I doubt I’ve ever identified with a character in a movie as much as I did in that bathroom scene. Probably time to watch that movie again and see if it holds up.
But with over fifty credits to his name, HAAS might show up as [Lukas of “Rambling Rose” (1991)], [Lukas of “Mars Attacks!“], [Lukas of Gus Van Sant’s “Last Days”], and [Lukas who played Ryan White]. He even showed up in a cameo in Zoolander.
Outside the gird and off the screen, HAAS is famously a longtime pal of of Leonardo DiCaprio, with whom he appeared when he was [Lukas of “Inception“], [Lukas of “The Revenant“]. Haas and Tobey Maguire were among those in what was once referred to as DiCaprio’s “Pussy Posse.”
While that’s a big enough resume for most crosswords, The New York Times has shifted away from cluing HAAS as the actor, and lately has namechecked the German [Tennis star Tommy] HAAS.
From the world of golf, there’s [Nine-time P.G.A. Tour winner Jay] HAAS, and now we even see the clue [Golfer Jay or his son Bill]
And then there’s [Berkeley’s ___ School of Business]. Walter HAAS, the [Businessman who gave his name to Berkeley’s business school], ran his wife’s family business, Levi Strauss, for about fifty years in the middle of the last century and is credited with saving the brand.
Amazingly, HASS, the [World’s most cultivated avocado, named for its developer, Rudolph Hass, has only appeared once in a Los Angeles Times puzzle, and has never appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, or Universal crossword. I hate to say it, but that’s just pitiful.
