Paul Johansson

**Paul Joseph Otto Johansson** is an American actor and director in film and television, best known for playing Dan Scott on the WB/CW series, One Tree Hill, and for his role as Nick Wolfe on the short lived Highlander: The Series spin-off Highlander: The Raven. He directed the 2011 film adaptation of Ayn Rand's novel, Atlas Shrugged: Part I.

## Life and career

### **Early life**

Paul Johansson was born in Spokane, Washington, the son of ice hockey player Earl Johnson, but raised in Kelowna, British Columbia.

### **Acting career**

Johansson landed his first role on the soap opera Santa Barbara. He played Greg Hughes from 1989 to 1990. Soon he made appearances in other television shows such as *Parker Lewis Can't Lose* and *Beverly Hills, 90210*, and later recurred on *Lonesome Dove: The Series* and starred on *Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years*.

Johansson became well-known to fans of *90210* for playing John Sears, a fraternity brother who unsuccessfully vied for the affections of Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) and set up Steve Sanders (Ian Ziering) to burglarize a professor's office. The character returned for the season 4 finale.

He also appeared in commercials, most notably as the delivery man in a Diet Coke commercial. He has appeared in the films *Soapdish*, *John Q* and *Alpha Dog*, and had a small uncredited role in *The Notebook*. He portrayed the role of Dan Scott in One Tree Hill beginning in 2003 until the show's end in 2012. He subsequently featured in Takashi Miike's 2003 film Gozu, appearing as a man with a cow's head. In 2003 Johansson wrote and directed the film *The Incredible Mrs. Ritchie*. He has also directed several episodes of *One Tree Hill*. In 2006 he starred in Emily Skopov's *Novel Romance*, alongside Traci Lords and Sherilyn Fenn. He appeared in the 7th season of *The Drew Carey Show*, playing a sportscaster.

He is the director of *Atlas Shrugged: Part I* (2011), the first third of a proposed trilogy based on the novel by Ayn Rand. The film received a "13% Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, indicating that only five of thirty-nine reviewers liked it.

### **Personal life**

His mother, Joanne Leone Johansson, died on October 14, 2011, after a 20-year battle with breast cancer. Season 9, episode 11 of the CW's One Tree Hill (titled "Danny Boy", in which Paul's character Dan Scott dies) was dedicated to her memory.

## Filmography

### **As a director**

 2003
 2005–2012
 2011
 2017

## Trivia

* Paul was born in the US, but raised in Canada. He has citizenship in both countries.
* Played with the Canadian National Basketball team touring for two years. 1986 in Korea and China and in 1987 to Israel and Greece.
* He is the son of professional hockey player Earl "Ching" Johnson (a member of the 1954 Stanley Cup-winning Detroit Redwings team). Earl went by Johnson when he was playing hockey, but he later changed the family name to Johansson to reflect his Swedish heritage.
* Became good friends with fellow Canadian Jason Priestley when both were scouted in Vancouver and brought to Los Angeles to pursue their careers in showbiz. They went on to work together in Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990), Conversations in Limbo (1998), and Dark Side (2003).
* Speaks French.
* Wilmington, North Carolina acting and directing Season 5 of One Tree Hill [January 2008]
* Produced the first movie in the Atlas Shrugged Trilogy based on Ayn Rand's novel, Atlas Shrugged. [August 2010]
* He briefly appeared on the television series Beverly Hills, 90201.
* He directed the film Atlas Shrugged: Part I, based on the Ayn Rand novel.
* He was married to actress Gabriela Oltean.
* He played a role on One Tree Hill with Chad Michael Murray.