Paul Gross: Click Here For Paul's Biography |
Paul Gross: Click Here For Paul's Filmography
After the Olympics of 2002, Canada not only achieved a higher standing with the Americans, curling became ...kinda' cool. So maybe Paul Gross and his movie Men With Brooms couldn't have a better time to be unleashed upon the world. I say his movie because this is a full out Paul Gross production, with him doing time as writer, director actor and producer. What with it being a Canadian film, who knows perhaps he edited, scored and is distributing the flick as well. (Nothing like a Canadian joke from a fellow Canuck).
It has been a long time coming for Paul Gross to be the lead in a big screen release again but that is not to say Gross hasn't been busy over the years. He has been everyone's favourite mountie on Due South, he has done several mini-series and even narrated a CBC three part series on the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
Born April 30, 1959 in Calgary, Alberta. Bob Gross, his father, was a Tank Commander in the Canadian Army and when growing up it seemed that every 18 months the family would be uprooted and stationed somewhere else. So Paul moved from Canada to England, to Germany, even the U.S. before returning home to his native land strong and free.
It was during his stint in the U.S., in Washington to be exact that Paul began performing, landing roles in productions of The Canturbery Tales and Faustus. By the time he was 14 he began auditioning for, and getting some TV commercials. Paul's family returned to Canada, this time Toronto and he kept working in commercials. He did enough of them that it paid for his higher education and he began studying acting at the University of Alberta.
Paul has always been entranced with the stage and his dreams became a reality through the Stratford festival. He was invited by the artistic director John Neville to be the playwright-in-residence where Paul's play Sprung Rhythm (about a delusional heart surgeon) was produced.
As his name became known and his writing skills sought Paul began his foray into television. In 1986 his reward was a Gemini nomination for Best TV Drama for his screenplay of In This Corner, an episode of the CBC series For the Record. He also penned the critically acclaimed CBC drama Gross Misconduct about the life of hockey player Brian Spencer...A Canadian? Writing about Hockey? How can this be?
His biggest exposure would be Due South though. A TV series that ran in
Besides film and television, Paul has earned accolades for his stage performances. He won a Dora Award for Best Performance in the title role of Romeo and Juliet (1985) and a Dora Award for Best Performance for his role in the 1988 North American premiere of Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Toward the Somme.
Then came Due South where Paul played Constable Benton Fraser. Fraser is a Canadian mountie who went to Chicago to find his father's killer only to find that the trail led back to another mountie. He was then treated as persona non grata by his other mounties, and the only place he could get posted was Chicago. A simple twist on the fish out of water syndrome sure, but Due South was a hit with women and did some solid business in the ratings though the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp.) never gave the series any support. Despite this, money was always tight on the series and in 1996 the show disappeared for a year and reappeared in 1997 as the Producers sought the cash they needed to keep the show alive.
The sad reality of all this is, by the third season, with Paul doing triple duty as actor, writer and Exec. Producer he was the highest paid Canadian Performer in its history...making $2-3 million per season.
When the final season of Due South wound down Paul found more television work, including a nasty, gutsy little TV movie called Murder Most Likely. This was the first movie to be put out under his own production company (Whizbang Films). He spent the tail end of 2000 and all of 2001 putting his efforts into the aforementioned Canadian Curling Comedy (CCC?) Men With Brooms.
Oh, and as for that crack about writing the score? I don't see why not. As a child he studied classical guitar but that suffered a setback due to a broken finger. It wasn't until 1989 that he returned to this creative outlet and started writing rock'n'roll lyrics and performing with his band, the Bone Men. In the Fall of 1997, he and writing partner David Keeley released their country-western album Two Houses. Another song 'Santa Drives A Pick-up' is available on the CD Holiday Heroes.
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Copyright© Staffwriter: Rob Paul
Paul Gross Filmography
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