FACTBOX-Late Austrian far-right leader Joerg Haider

(Reuters) - The Austrian far-right leader Joerg Haider was killed in a car accident Saturday.

Following are some facts about Haider, a charismatic populist who helped to thrust anti-immigrant politics into the European mainstream:

EARLY YEARS

-- Haider was born on January 26, 1950 in Upper Austria. His father was a shoemaker and ex-member of the Nazi party who served in the German army in World War Two. His mother, now 90, was a member of Hitler's League of German Maidens.

-- Haider earned a law doctorate in Vienna in 1973.

POLITICS

-- Haider was active in politics as a teen-ager and in 1977 became a full-time politician for the Freedom Party (FPOe).

-- After becoming party chief in 1986, the youthful Haider transformed the FPOe from a fringe group into Europe's leading far-right bloc with anti-immigrant, tough-on-crime rhetoric.

-- When the FPOe formed a government with the conservative People's Party in 2000, the European Union imposed sanctions until Austria convinced it that its democracy was not in danger.