Trivia: Multi-talented actor/writer Paul Gross stayed true to his Canadian roots and became famous as the crime-busting Royal Canadian Mountie in the TV series Due South. Born in Calgary, Army brat Gross was inspired by his high school drama teacher to become an actor, and he entered the University of Alberta in Edmonton to study the craft. Leaving school early to forge a dual career as an actor and writer, Gross appeared in several TV productions and wrote the screenplay for Atom Egoyan's TV movie In This Corner (1985). By the late '80s and early '90s, he began to score more prominent roles in Canadian and American films, including the Canadian TV movies Getting Married at Buffalo Jump (1989) and Cold Comfort (1990), the well-received TV adaptation of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City (1993), the marital dramedy Married to It (1993), and the skiing drama Aspen Extreme (1993). Gross also worked again with Egoyan as the screenwriter for Egoyan's 1993 TV movie Gross Misconduct. After appearing in the Canadian features Paint Cans (1994) and Whale Music (1994), Gross became a primetime regular when his TV movie Due South (1994), about a Mountie who heads to Chicago to track a killer, became a series. Running from 1994 to 1998, Due South's hunky fish-out-of-water hero earned Gross an avid following on both sides of the Canadian border. After Due South went off the air, Gross continued to stick with Canadian TV, starring in the telefilm Murder Most Likely (1999). In the several years to follow, Gross would find success with a number of TV series, like Slings and Arrows, Eastwick, Men with Brooms, and The Yard.