Living the Braveheart Life: Finding the Courage to Follow Your Heart

Author Bio: Randall Wallace

Randall Wallace is the Oscar-nominated creative force behind the epic storytelling of such box-office hits as Braveheart, We Were Soldiers, Pearl Harbor, and Secretariat. In addition to his work in film and television, he is also an author. Wallace’s skill with unusual yet true tales of loyalty, courage, and commitment throughout human history has set him apart in Hollywood. He attended Duke University, where he studied Russian, religion, and literature, which he says made him acutely aware of how the past can be shockingly relevant to the present. After Duke, he put himself through a graduate year of seminary by teaching martial arts. He continued down an ever-shifting path, managing an animal show at Nashville’s Opryland, signing a contract as a songwriter, and writing articles for Architectural Digest. It was only when he moved to California in 1980 that he found what he was looking for when he read his first screenplay. Wallace was taken under the wing of leading television producer Stephen J. Cannell and spent several years writing for television series in the late 80s and early 90s. In addition to his work as a filmmaker and novelist, Wallace is the founder of Hollywood for Habitat for Humanity.