Paul Haggis is an Oscar winning film director, screenwriter and producer. He was recently arrested on sexual assault charges.
Let’s find out some trivia and facts about the director.
- His full name is Paul Edward Haggis
- He was born on March 10, 1953
- He is a Canadian screenwriter, film producer, and director of film and television
- He is best known as screenwriter and producer for consecutive Best Picture Oscar winners Million Dollar Baby (2004) and Crash (2005)
- The latter of which he also directed
- Haggis also co-wrote the war film Flags of Our Fathers (2006) and the James Bond films Casino Royale (2006) and Quantum of Solace (2008)
- He is the creator of the television series Due South (1994–1999) and co-creator of Walker, Texas Ranger (1993–2001), among others
- Haggis is a two-time Academy Award winner, two-time Emmy Award winner
- And seven-time Gemini Award winner
- He also assisted in the making of “We Are the World 25 for Haiti”
- Paul Edward Haggis was born in London, Ontario
- He is the son of Mary Yvonne and Ted Haggis
- His father was a World War II veteran and Olympic sprinter in the 1948 Summer Olympics
- He was raised as a Catholic
- Attending Catholic school and facing confrontations with children from Ontario’s Protestant majority
- His family had stopped going to Mass after finding their parish priest driving a Cadillac
- He considered himself an atheist by early adulthood
- The Gallery Theatre in London was owned by his parents
- Haggis gained experience in the field through work at the theatre
- Haggis attended St. Thomas More Elementary School
- He started secondary school at Ridley College in St. Catharines
- He began getting into bad behavior by skipping his required Royal Canadian Army Cadets drills, breaking into the prefect’s office to erase his demerits, and reading the radical magazine Ramparts
- After a year Haggis’ parents transferred him to a more progressive preparatory school in Muskoka Lakes
- Paul Haggis was taught by a producer of the CBC Radio One news program As It Happens
- The producer allowed him to sit with him as he edited John Dean’s testimony to the Watergate hearings for broadcast
- After being inspired by Alfred Hitchcock and Jean-Luc Godard, Haggis proceeded to study art at H. B. Beal Secondary School
- He opened a theater in Toronto to screen films banned by the Ontario Board of Censors such as The Devils and Last Tango in Paris
- After viewing Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 film Blowup in 1974, he traveled to England with the intent of becoming a fashion photographer
- Haggis later returned to Canada to pursue studies in cinematography at Fanshawe College
- While in London, Ontario, Haggis was converted to the Church of Scientology
- In 1975, Haggis moved to Los Angeles, California, to begin a career in writing in the entertainment industry
- Haggis began to work as a writer for television programs, including Dingbat and the Creeps, Richie Rich, Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, The Love Boat, One Day at a Time, Diff’rent Strokes, and The Facts of Life
- With The Facts of Life, Haggis also gained his first credit as producer
- He has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the Writer’s Branch since 2005
- This allows him to vote on the Academy Awards
- He gained recognition in the film industry for his work on the 2004 film Million Dollar Baby
- With Million Dollar Baby and then Crash, Haggis became the first individual to have written Best Picture Oscar-winners in two consecutive years
- Haggis lives in Santa Monica, California
- He has three daughters from his first marriage to Diana Gettas and one son from his second marriage to Deborah Rennard
- Haggis founded the non-profit organization Artists for Peace and Justice to assist impoverished youth in Haiti
- In an interview with Dan Rather, Haggis mentioned that he is an atheist
- After maintaining active membership in the Church of Scientology for 35 years, Haggis left the organization in October 2009
- He was motivated to leave Scientology in reaction to statements made by the San Diego branch of the Church of Scientology in support of Proposition 8, the ballot initiative which banned same-sex marriage in California
- Haggis wrote to Tommy Davis, the Church’s spokesman, and requested that he denounce these statements
- Haggis went on to list other grievances against Scientology, including its policy of disconnection, and the smearing of its ex-members through the leaking of their personal details
- In an interview with Movieline, Haggis was asked about similarities between his film The Next Three Days and his departure from the Scientology organization
- In February 2011, The New Yorker published a 25,000-word story, “The Apostate”, by Lawrence Wright, detailing Haggis’s allegations about the Church of Scientology
- On January 5, 2018, Haggis was accused of sexual misconduct
- He is facing a civil lawsuit over these allegations
- Haggis has denied the allegations, claiming one of the accusers attempted to extort him for $9 million
- In July 2019, Haggis was ordered to provide a DNA sample as part of legal proceedings
- According to published reports, Haggis and his legal team have worked to block the testimony of additional alleged victims, as the initial civil case headed to trial
- Following the initial accusation, three additional women came forward with various accusations of sexual assault and misconduct
- Fellow Scientology defectors Leah Remini and Mike Rinder have defended him, suggesting that the Church of Scientology may be involved, an assertion both the accusers and the Church itself deny
- On June 19, 2022, Haggis was arrested in southern Italy on charges that he had non-consensual sex with a “young foreign woman”
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