Haggerty Is Back, With the Pope’s Blessing for Strength

Four years and 18 operations after a motorcycle accident left him close to death, Dan Haggerty is back making movies again. The brawny, bearded actor who became famous in films and a TV series as the nature-loving outdoorsman Grizzly Adams is starring in “Grizzly Mountain.� The movie, which features two of Haggerty’s real-life children--Dylan and Megan--opens today in 122 theaters and wider on Nov. 14.

To hear Haggerty tell it, the road back to Hollywood has been rocky. It all began the day a van pulled in front of him in Chatsworth and he slid his Harley-Davidson underneath the vehicle, crushing one leg, breaking his pelvis and opening a wound in his forehead that required more than 200 stitches. Rumors flew that Haggerty had died on the operating table.

“My wife got a letter from the Screen Actors Guild saying, ‘Sorry to hear your husband passed away,’ � Haggerty recalled, adding that SAG even dropped him for failing to pay his dues. When a supermarket tabloid wrote about his plight, Haggerty said, he received 50,000 letters from fans saying, “Hang in there. We’re with you.� He then decided to write Pope John Paul II.

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“I wrote the pope that I had received so much fan mail and adulation from the public that ‘I need you to pray for me to get strong and not let these people down,’ � Haggerty said. “My wife said, ‘He’ll never write you back.’ � But Haggerty got a reply.

“[The pope] wrote me the most wonderful letter back [saying], ‘Not only is the Vatican praying for you, but I’m sending a rosary to every Catholic church in the world so you’ll get strong.’ . . . I even got his personal phone number to call him up.�

Haggerty, who has never had an agent or a manager during his long Hollywood career, said people just seem to like the character Grizzly Adams. The moral of his movies? “Families should stick together and learn from nature,� Haggerty said.