By NEAL WATSON --

It is a long way from waiting on tables in Edmonton to a standing offer from CBS to develop projects and a place in history as the most famous film Mountie since Nelson Eddy.

But writer/actor/Due South star Paul Gross is a bonafide Alberta success story.

Gross also learned much of what he knows about acting and the theatre during his four years in the fine arts department at the U of A in the early '80s. He describes it as a "heady" experience. "Some of it's kind of blurry."

Gross is back in Alberta tonight to host the Rockie Awards at the Banff Television Festival. (Due South, which appears on neither CBS nor CTV's fall schedules, competes with ER, NYPD Blue and Murder One for best continuing series).

Although born in Calgary, Gross wasn't raised in Alberta. His father was in the Canadian Army and the family lived in Germany, England and Washington D.C. Gross attended high school in Toronto.

Gross wrote his first play, The Deer and the Antelope Play, while starting his acting career. It won an Alberta Cultural Playwriting Award and was produced in Edmonton -- and reviewed.

"It was a catastrophic review," he said. "Which is around the time I stopped reading reviews. I thought, I can't bear this."

Gross has managed to work on both sides of the border. He is considering directing a Canadian feature film. He is also heading to Hollywood where parts in big movies may be in the near future.


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