His 1999 directorial debut, The Minus Man, won the Special Grand Prize of the Jury at the Montreal World Film Festival.

[citation needed] Fancher was born to a Mexican mother[3] and an English-American father, a physician, in East Los Angeles, California.

[7] Fancher played Deputy Lon Gillis in seven episodes of the ABC Western Black Saddle with Peter Breck.

[12] This made Fancher the executive producer, which led to disagreements with eventual director Ridley Scott, who then brought in David Peoples to continue reworking the script.

[citation needed] Fancher appeared in a cameo role in the independent film Tonight at Noon (2009), directed by Michael Almereyda and starring Rutger Hauer.

[16] Fancher provided voiceover commentary for The Criterion Collection edition DVD extras of the film noir adaptations of Ernest Hemingway's short story "The Killers", which included the 1946, 1956 and 1964 versions.