GERARD STRAUB'S RICHES-TO-RAGS STORY IS NOT unlike that of his spiritual role model, St. Francis of Assisi, who also gave up wealth and high living to pursue a life devoted to God and the poor. For decades Straub was a successful Hollywood television producer more likely to hobnob with the rich and famous than the poor and downtrodden. He started as a 21-year-old intern on the Ed Sullivan Show and at the peak of his career was the executive producer of several soap operas, including General Hospital during the famed Luke and Laura years. "It didn't get any bigger than that," recalls Straub, who admits that for many years, "Television was my life." Although he didn't have a sick-bed conversion like St. Francis, Straub did become increasingly disillusioned with the industry in which he made his living. "It pandered to the least common denominator," he says. "If the ratings were low, just throw another hot babe in the hot tub." Finally, the artist-at-heart realized he just couldn't do it anymore.

Career disillusionment was compounded by a crisis of faith for the former high school seminarian, who had drifted away from his native Catholicism during his Hollywood years, until a Franciscan friar friend invited him to visit the Franciscans in Rome. His first night, after not having been in a church for years, Straub went into the chapel to pray and opened his Bible to Psalm 63. "I read this thing and something happened," he remembers. "I can't explain it, but I just became overwhelmed with the reality that God was real and that God loved me. It was the thing I had been searching for." Like a soap opera storyline, Straub's life took a dramatic turn. He's still financing films, but the subject matter is decidedly different. Rather than probing the love lives of fictional socialites or philandering doctors, he is more likely to be behind the camera at a soup kitchen or on Skid Row. His first two films after his conversion-We Have a Table for Four Ready about a soup kitchen in Philadelphia and Room Enough for Joy about a L'Arche community in Tacoma, Washington-have aired on PBS stations nationwide.

Another of Straub's creative outlets-writing-also took a spiritual turn. He wrote a memoir, The Sun and Moon Over Assisi (St. Anthony Messenger), in which he weaves together the story of St. Francis with his own spiritual journey. Although the book won several awards, one aspect of St. Francis' life continued to stump Straub: his love of poverty and the poor. "I didn't even know any poor people," says Straub. "I had always made a lot of money." To broaden his perspective, he decided to spend a year and a half living among poor people in 19 cities in nine countries, armed with only a camera and a pen. The result was a book (published by St. Anthony Messenger) and a film (narrated by Martin Sheen), both titled When Did I See You Hungry? and featuring only a fraction of his 10,000 black-and-white photos from the trip. "I was shocked by the overwhelmingly horrifying conditions that people live in," says Straub, who now understands Francis' mission and has made it his own. "I want to make people aware of these conditions and what the gospel compels us to do."

STRAUB STILL WORKS IN BURBANK, HOME TO DISNEY AND DOZENS of other television and film studios, but now he's president of the nonprofit San Damiano Foundation (named after the church in Assisi), which he founded two years ago to promote Franciscan values through the medium of film. He just finished its fourth film, a two-part documentary about Los Angeles' Skid Row, and is already at work on the next one about migrants. He also spends lots of time speaking and fundraising. He admits he hasn't even seen a movie in five years, partially because of his demanding schedule. But does he ever miss his Hollywood life? "Sometimes you miss the glamour of it all," he says. "But I would never go back to it. I prefer to take my gifts in filmmaking and use them in service of the poor."

GERARD STRAUB, DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER
PARISH: St. Charles Borromeo, North Hollywood
FAVORITE ACTOR/ACTRESS: Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep
FAVORITE TV SHOW: I think people should unplug their TVs and only hook them up for special events. I wish I had the courage to throw my TV away.
WHAT INSPIRES ME MOST ABOUT ST. FRANCIS: His complete dependence on God for all things and his passion to become more like Christ each day.
SOMETHING MOST PEOPLE DON'T KNOW ABOUT ME: I harbor a secret wish to play second base for the New York Yankees.