Fanshawe graduate and creator of Walker, Texas Ranger, Paul Haggis, is up for Best Director at next week's Academy Awards, but unfortunately, or fortunately depending on the way you see it, Hollywood would like everyone to think the Oscar nod has nothing to do with Chuck Norris.

But does it?

Haggis directed/co-wrote/co-produced the racism- awareness film Crash, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2004 and became a box office hit in 2005. The film has been nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor, Best Film Editing and Best Original Song.

Crash captures two days of racial tension in nine different, yet connected, storylines, when lives collide and bring forth an already heightened cultural division. The film places demeaning slang, prejudices and hatred right out front for viewers and leaves a lasting moral impression. Haggis developed the screenplay, with co-writer Bobby Moresco, after personally experiencing a carjacking in Los Angeles in the early 90's.

Although Haggis left his TV creating/producing/writing days behind in 2000, due to his frustration with the business and to focus on films, the days of Walker, Texas Ranger still haunt him.

“I agreed to write the pilot because I thought it would just go away,” Haggis has said about the notorious Chuck Norris production. “But it became this huge hit and I remember waking up at 3 or 4 in the morning in a cold sweat, dripping wet. I mean, I was drenched. I just pictured my tombstone and it said: ‘Paul Haggis: Creator of Walker, Texas Ranger.' So the impetus for making these movies is really just to wipe that image from my mind.”

Even after suffering a heart attack during the production of Crash, Haggis's drive to improve his credentials was still full speed ahead. Two weeks after the medical emergency, he was back on set and refused to let anyone else take direction.

When Crash was bought for $4 million at the Toronto International Film Festival, making it the largest sale at the festival, Haggis has no idea it would go onto gross $55 million at the box office.

The 52-year-old London native graduated with a diploma in Cinematography from Fanshawe College in the mid-70's and moved to Los Angeles soon after to pursue a career in television. Haggis began writing for television hits like Who's the Boss, Diff'rent Strokes, and L.A. Law. He also wrote for Facts of Life in 1978, which starred a young George Clooney.

Haggis returned to Canada in 1994, a year after he created Walker, Texas Ranger, and wrote the pilot for an uniquely Canadian television show about a Mountie and his dog. Due South became a huge hit in Canada.

This is not Haggis's first trip to the Oscars. Last year he was nominated for Best Original Screenplay for Million Dollar Baby, which was his first crack in the film industry. He was set to direct the film, but when Clint Eastwood showed interest, the production took off. A year after Eastwood read the script, Million Dollar Baby was in the theatres. Even though he lost the Oscar to Sideways, Haggis's credentials shot up the Hollywood ladder.

Just recently Haggis wrote another script for Eastwood called Flags of Our Fathers, a Spielberg produced film based on the book by James Bradley.

NBC just recently picked up 13 television episodes of The Black Donnellys, which Haggis is the executive producer. He also re-wrote the current James Bond script, Casino Royal. With four other projects in post-production, Haggis is quickly making the most of his transition from television to films.


With the Oscars fast approaching and Crash up for six awards, we can all thank Walker, Texas Ranger, and ultimately Chuck Norris, for Haggis's ambition and success.