HAGGIS, Paul 1953-

(Paul Edward Haggis)

PERSONAL: Born March 10, 1953, in London, Ontario, Canada; son of Edward H. and Mary Yvonne (Metcalf) Haggis; married Diane Christine Gettas, April 9, 1977 (marriage ended); married Deborah Renard, 1997; children: (first marriage) three; (second marriage) one.

ADDRESSES: Agent—Larry Becsey, Becsey/Wisdom/Kalajian, 9200 Sunset Blvd., Ste. 820, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

CAREER: Writer, producer, and director. Director of television programs, including episodes of Family Law, Ghost of a Chance, EZ Streets, Due South, You Take the Kids, and Thirtysomething. Artists for Peace and Justice, cofounder; Hollywood Education and Literacy Project, board member; Center for the Advancement of Non-Violence, advisory board member.

MEMBER: For the Arts—For Every Child, Environmental Media Association, Earth Communications Office (founding member), Defenders of Wildlife (member of president's council).

AWARDS, HONORS: Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series, and Outstanding Drama Series as Supervising Producer, Humanitas Award for Best Dramatic Writing, Golden Globe Award for Best Drama Series, Writer's Guild Award, nominated for Best Writing in a Drama Series, People's Choice Awards for Best New TV Dramatic Program, and Monitor Award for Producing, all 1988, all for Thirtysomething; Luminas Award for Best Comedy Episode for Facts of Life; Chrysler Choice Award for Canada's Most Popular Television Series, Gemini Awards for Best Writing for Dramatic Series and Best Television Movie, Crusader Award, Houston Worldfest Gold Awards for Best Television Series and Best Television Pilot, and San Francisco Festival's Golden Gate Award, all 1995, all for Due South, and Banff International Television Festival Award for Best Continuing Series, Chrysler Choice Award for Canada's Most Popular Television Series, and Gemini Awards for Best Dramatic Series and Best Writing for Dramatic Series, all 1996, all for Due South; Program of the Year award, Television Critics Association, Viewers for Quality Television Founder's Award, and The Best Show Nobody Saw Award, TeeVee Awards, both 1997, all for EZ Streets; Valentine Davis Award, Writers Guild of America, 2001; Golden Satellite Award for Best Screenplay (Adapted), USC Scripter Award (with F.X. Toole), Academy Award nomination for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and San Francisco Film Society Maurice Kanbar Award for Excellence in Screenwriting, all for Million Dollar Baby.

WRITINGS:

SCREENPLAYS

Return of the Shaggy Dog (television), American Broadcasting Companies (ABC), 1987.

Personal Column, New Horizon Pictures, 1988.

(And director and co-producer) Crash, Bull's Eye Entertainment, 2004.

(And co-producer) Million Dollar Baby, Warner Bros., 2004.

Also author and director of screenplay for Red Hot, 1993, and Honeymoon with Harry, 2005; author of screenplays for Flags of Our Fathers, 2006, and The Last Kiss, 2006.

TELEVISION SCRIPTS

Also author of scripts for television series, including The Facts of Life, Due South, Family Law, The Love Boat, Diff'rent Strokes, One Day at a Time, Three's Company, Thirtysomething, L.A. Law, and EZ Streets. Also author of scripts for television pilots, including Charmed Lives, You Take the Kids, Due South, EZ Streets, and Ghost of a Chance.

SIDELIGHTS: Paul Haggis began his career writing for television and moved on to write screenplays for major motion pictures. He is also a producer and a director. He initially won widespread critical acclaim in the 1980s for his scripts for the television series Thirtysomething. In the mid-1990s Haggis was the creator, executive producer, and a writer for the critically acclaimed but short-lived series Due South, about a Canadian Mountie who ends up in Chicago looking for his father's murderer. Writing in People, David Hiltbrand acknowledged that the show was based on "an old formula" but added that Haggis "breathes fresh life and intelligence into" the story.

Haggis also created, produced, directed, and helped write the television series EZ Streets. Once again, the show received good reviews but not enough viewers to keep it on the air. The show features a disturbed police detective who teams up with an ex-con who was falsely imprisoned. In a review in People, Elaine Showalter called the series the "most innovative show of the season" and noted that "Haggis's vision is brilliant TV-noir." Time contributor Ginia Bellafante commented that "EZ Streets somehow manages to avoid melodrama," adding that "Haggis brings a mordant wit" to the series.

After nearly two decades concentrating on television, Haggis turned his talents to motion pictures. For the film Crash, he served as director and co-producer, as well as co-writing the screenplay with Bobby Moresco. The film focuses on race relations in Los Angeles, and the plot revolves primarily around a car accident and a car jacking. In a review in Daily Variety, Todd McCarthy noted that the film depicts "few positive or strong relationships" and also commented that "it never bores." Andrew Sun, writing in the Hollywood Reporter, called the movie "an effective ensemble piece."

Haggis received wide acclaim for his screenplay for the feature film Million Dollar Baby, based on a series of stories by F.X. Toole. The movie is about a female boxer and Frank, an aging, tough trainer who operates a run-down boxing gym in Los Angeles. Estranged from his daughter, Frank is cantankerous but thoughtful. He attends Catholic Church and reads Irish writers. When the unsophisticated Maggie turns up at the gym announcing that she wants to box, Frank is not impressed and tries to discourage her. However, Maggie is determined and sees boxing as her only chance to escape a failed life. Eventually, Frank relents and begins to hold high hopes for Maggie as she strings together several victories over tough opponents. Just as Maggie seems destined for stardom, tragedy strikes.

In a review of Million Dollar Baby in Variety, Todd McCarthy noted that Haggis's script "provides the piece with a perfectly balanced three-act structure, although he has somewhat diluted the piss-and-vinegar of Toole's gritty prose." McCarthy went on to write, "Eastwood [the film's director] and Haggis never take their eyes off the heart of the matter. At center, this is the story of two people, one forty years older than the other, who have no one but each other—if they drop their guard enough to let the other in." In a review for People, Leah Rozen felt that "movies don't come better or richer in meaning."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Contemporary Theatre, Film and Television, Volume 48, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 2003.

PERIODICALS

Daily Variety, September 23, 2004, Todd McCarthy, review of Crash, p. 6; September 27, 2004, Todd McCarthy, review of Crash, p. 81; December 6, 2004, Todd McCarthy, review of Million Dollar Baby, p. 6.

Entertainment Weekly, September 19, 1997, Jamie Bufalino, review of Michael Hayes, p. 40; October 3, 1997, Ken Tucker, review of Michael Hayes, p. 63.

Hollywood Reporter, August 7, 2001, Cynthia Littleton, "'Family' Patriarch Haggis Exits," p. 4; June 25, 2004, Borys Kit, "Haggis Takes 'Honeymoon' with New Line," p. 3; September 15, 2004, Andrew Sun, review of Crash, p. 12: February 6, 2005, Stehen Galloway, "Best Adapted Screenplay: For These Nominees, Tailoring the Creations of Others for the Big Screen Is an Art Perfected," p. 49; February 22, 2005, "'Baby' Wins Scripter for Toole, Haggis," p. 6; February 25, 2005, "San Francisco Fest to Fête Haggis," p. 103.

New York, October 28, 1996, John Leonard, review of EZ Streets, p. 133; September 22, 1997, John Leonard, review of Michael Hayes, p. 94.

New York Times, October 26, 1996, Caryn James, review of EZ Streets, pp. 12, 15; September 15, 1997, Caryn James, review of Michael Hayes, p. B3; November 4, 1997, James Sterngold, review of Michael Hayes, p. B1.

People, February 21, 2005, Leah Rozen, review of Million Dollar Baby, p. 31; April 25, 1994, David Hiltbrand, review of Due South, p. 11; October 28, 1996, Elaine Showalter, review of EZ Streets, p. 20.

Time, November 4, 1996, Ginia Bellafante, review of EZ Streets, p. 92.

Variety, November 4, 1987, review of Return of the Shaggy Dog, p. 56; December 24, 1990, review of You Take the Kids, p. 41; April 18, 1994, Dominic Griffin, review of Due South, p. 32; November 4, 1996, Jeremy Gerard, review of EZ Streets, p. 40; September 20, 1999, Ray Richmond, review of Family Law, p. 43.

Wall Street Journal, November 4, 1996, Barbara D. Phillips, review of EZ Streets, p. A21.