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Jim Caviezel

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Jim Caviezel
Born
James Patrick Caviezel

(1968-09-26) September 26, 1968 (age 56)
Mount Vernon, Washington, U.S.
OccupationActor
Years active1991–present
Spouse
Kerri Browitt
​
(m. 1996)​
Children3

James Patrick "Jim" Caviezel[1] (born September 26, 1968) is an American actor, best known for portraying Jesus Christ in the 2004 film The Passion of the Christ. Other notable roles include Private Witt in The Thin Red Line (1998), Detective John Sullivan in Frequency (2000), Jim McCormick in Madison, Catch in Angel Eyes (2001), Johannes in I Am David, Edmond Dantès in The Count of Monte Cristo (2002), golfer Bobby Jones in Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004), and Carroll Oerstadt in Déjà Vu (2006). From 2011 until 2016, he starred as John Reese on the CBS science-fiction crime drama series Person of Interest.

Early life

Caviezel was born in Mount Vernon, Washington, the son of Margaret (née Lavery), a former stage actress and housewife, and James Caviezel, a chiropractor.[2][3] He has a younger brother, Timothy, and three sisters, Ann, Amy, and Erin. He was raised in a tightly knit Catholic family in Conway, Washington.[4][5] His surname is of Romansh origin. His father is of Slovak and Swiss descent, while his mother is of Irish descent.[6][7] His father attended UCLA and played basketball for coach John Wooden, prompting all the Caviezel siblings to play the sport.[8]

Caviezel attended Mount Vernon High School for two years before moving to Seattle, Washington, where he lived with family friends in order to play basketball at O'Dea High School, a Catholic all boys high school. The following spring, he transferred from O'Dea to another Catholic school, John F. Kennedy Memorial High School in Burien, Washington, where he played basketball and graduated in 1987. He then enrolled at Bellevue College, where he played college basketball. A foot injury in his second year put an end to his dream of becoming an NBA player, and he transferred to the University of Washington, where he turned his focus to acting and became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.[8]

Career

Caviezel began acting in plays in Seattle. He earned his Screen Actors Guild card with a minor role in the 1991 film My Own Private Idaho. He then moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting. He was offered a scholarship to study acting at New York's Juilliard School in 1993, but he turned it down to portray Warren Earp in the 1994 film Wyatt Earp.[9][10] He later appeared in an episode of Murder, She Wrote and The Wonder Years. After appearing in G.I. Jane (1997), he had a breakthrough performance in the 1998 Terence Malick-directed World War II film The Thin Red Line. He played Black John, a Missouri bushwhacker, in Ride with the Devil (1999), an American Civil war film.

Caviezel was originally cast to play Scott Summers / Cyclops in X-Men (2000), but dropped out because of a scheduling conflict with the film Frequency (2000). He starred in mainstream films such as Pay It Forward (2000), The Count of Monte Cristo (2002), Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004). In 2000, he played the lead role in Madison, a film about hydroplane racing in Madison, Indiana. The film was completed in 2001, but it sat on the shelf for several years and did not appear in theaters until a limited release in 2005. In 2002, he played a pivotal role in the film I Am David.

Caviezel at Comic-Con, July 2012

Caviezel portrayed Jesus Christ in Mel Gibson's 2004 film The Passion of the Christ. During filming, he was struck by lightning, accidentally scourged, had his shoulder dislocated, and suffered from pneumonia and hypothermia.[11] Prior to filming, Gibson reportedly warned Caviezel that playing Jesus would hurt his acting career. In 2011, he admitted that good roles had been hard to come by since, but stated he had no regrets about taking the role.[12][13]

He had leading roles in the 2006 films Unknown and Déjà Vu. He played Kainan in Outlander (2008) and provided the voice of Jesus on the 2007 New Testament audio dramatization The Word of Promise.[14][15] In 2008, he starred in Long Weekend.

In 2009, Caviezel played French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam in The Stoning of Soraya M., a drama set in 1986 Iran about the execution of a young mother. When asked about how his Catholic faith was affected by this story, he said, "you don't have to go any further than the gospels to figure out what the right thing to do is, whether you should be more concerned helping someone regardless of their religion or where they're from".[16] That same year, he reprised the role of Jesus in the latest installment of The Word of Promise.[17]

Caviezel starred in The Prisoner, a remake of the British science-fiction series The Prisoner, in November 2009.[18][19] From 2011 to 2016, he starred in the CBS drama series Person of Interest as John Reese, a former CIA agent who now works for a mysterious billionaire as a vigilante. The show received the highest rating in the past 15 years for a series pilot and consistently garnered over 10 million weekly viewers.[20]

Caviezel starred in the 2014 football film When the Game Stands Tall as De La Salle High School coach Bob Ladouceur, whose Concord, California Spartans prep team had a 151-game winning streak from 1992 to 2003, surpassing all records for consecutive victories in any American sport.[21] He appeared in the 2013 film Escape Plan, playing a warden who maintains order in the world's most secret and secure prison.

Personal life

In 1996, Caviezel married Kerri Browitt, a high school English teacher. They have adopted three children. They are both devout Catholics.[22] Caviezel has been a featured public speaker at religious venues since the release of The Passion of the Christ. On March 19, 2005, he was the spokesman for the first Catholic Men's Conference in Boston.[23] Caviezel's wife is the sister-in-law of Dallas Cowboys coordinator Scott Linehan. She and Linehan's wife, Kristen, are sisters.[24] In 2006, Caviezel enrolled in at least one class as a part-time student at the University of Notre Dame.[25]

On October 24, 2006, Caviezel was featured with Patricia Heaton, Kurt Warner, and Mike Sweeney in an advertisement opposing Missouri Constitutional Amendment 2, which allowed any form of embryonic stem cell research and therapy in Missouri that is otherwise legal under federal law. He began the advertisement by saying "Le-bar nash be-neshak" (Aramaic for "You betray the Son of Man with a kiss"), a reference to Judas' betrayal of Jesus Christ and a phrase used in the Greek version of the Gospel of Luke.[26][27] (The line did not include a translation into English.) Caviezel closed the commercial with the line, "You know now. Don't do it. Vote no on Amendment 2." The advertisement was a response to a commercial featuring Michael J. Fox, who favored embryonic stem cell research.

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1991 My Own Private Idaho Airline Clerk
1992 Diggstown Billy Hargrove
1994 Wyatt Earp Warren Earp
1996 Ed Dizzy Anderson
1996 The Rock FA-18 Pilot
1997 G.I. Jane "Slov" Slovnik
1998 The Thin Red Line Private Witt
1999 Ride with the Devil Black John
2000 Frequency John Sullivan
2000 Pay It Forward Jerry
2001 Angel Eyes Catch
2001 Madison Jim McCormick
2002 The Count of Monte Cristo Edmond Dantès
2002 High Crimes Tom Kubik
2003 Highwaymen James "Rennie" Cray
2003 I Am David Johannes CAMIE Award[citation needed]
2004 The Passion of the Christ Jesus Christ MovieGuide Grace Award[citation needed]
2004 The Final Cut Fletcher
2004 Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius Bobby Jones
2006 Unknown Jean Jacket
2006 Déjà Vu Carroll Oerstadt
2008 Outlander Kainan
2008 Long Weekend Peter
2008 The Stoning of Soraya M. Freidoune
2011 Transit Nate
2013 Escape Plan Willard Hobbes
2013 Savannah Ward Allen
2014 When the Game Stands Tall Bob Ladouceur
2017 The Ballad of Lefty Brown Governor Reece Filming

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1992 The Wonder Years Bobby Riddle Episode: "Hero"
1995 Murder She Wrote Darryl Harding Episode "Film Flam"
1995 Children of the Dust Dexter Movie
2009 The Prisoner Michael / Six Miniseries
2011–2016 Person of Interest John Reese 103 episodes
Nominated – People's Choice Award for Favorite TV Dramatic Actor (2014, 2015)

References

  1. ^ "winners | The Movieguide® Awards". Retrieved 2016-06-26.
  2. ^ "James Caviezel profile at". Filmreference.com. Retrieved 2012-05-02.
  3. ^ "Parents of actor portraying Jesus in controversial film met in Q-C". Qctimes.com. 2004-02-21. Retrieved 2012-05-02.
  4. ^ "Jim Caviezel". About.com. Retrieved 2010-06-22. One of five children, he grew up as part of a devout Roman Catholic family.
  5. ^ "James Caviezel (Film and TV actor)". Parade. Retrieved 2011-02-18.
  6. ^ "Passion loses realism with its blue-eyed Jesus (commentary)". The Virginian Pilot. highbeam.com.
  7. ^ "I almost died on the cross - just like Jesus; My Irish mother called acting 'blarney' but..(News)". The People (London, England). highbeam.com.
  8. ^ a b "James Caviezel" NNDB
  9. ^ Lee, Luaine (January 21, 1999). "Small-town Boy: Unknown Jim Caviezel Mostly Plays Himself In `The Thin Red Line'". Chicago Tribune. Knight-Ridder/Tribune.
  10. ^ "Jim Caviezel". Encyclopedia of World Biography. Retrieved April 7, 2012.
  11. ^ "'Passion' Filming Takes a Toll on Jim Caviezel". FOX News. December 1, 2011. Retrieved December 22, 2011.
  12. ^ "Jim Caviezel: 'Playing Jesus Christ cost me my acting career'". SFGate.com. May 3, 2011.
  13. ^ Zakarin, Jordan (May 2, 2011). "Jim Caviezel: 'Rejected By My Own Industry' For 'Passion Of The Christ'". Huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2012-05-02.
  14. ^ "The Official Word of Promise Audio Bible Website". Thewordofpromise.com. Retrieved 2012-05-02.
  15. ^ Kwon, Lillian. "Jim Caviezel Back as Jesus in New Audio Bible", The Christian Post, December 26, 2006; accessed June 10, 2008.
  16. ^ James Caviezel on "The Stoning of Soraya M.", CBN.com.
  17. ^ "BELIEFS : Stars lined up for elaborate audio Bible : Michael York, Jason Alexander and many others gave voice to a 79-CD reading of Old and New Testaments".
  18. ^ "Ian McKellen cast in The Prisoner". BBC News. July 1, 2008.
  19. ^ "Prisoner series set for remake". The Scotsman. Edinburgh. July 1, 2008.
  20. ^ "New shows explore evolving role of surveillance". The Columbian. 2015-10-02. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  21. ^ Siegel, Tatiana (April 4. 2013). "Jim Caviezel, Laura Dern, Michael Chiklis to Star in 'When the Game Stands Tall'". Hollywood Reporter.
  22. ^ Christ Complex - Interview with actor Jim Caviezel - Gayle MacDonald; Globe and Mail, December 27, 2002
  23. ^ "James Caviezel" Superior Pics website, Celebrity profiles
  24. ^ "About Scott Linehan". Retrieved October 21, 2012.
  25. ^ Sydlik, Ryan. "Caviezel takes Notre Dame course", The Observer, August 31, 2006; accessed June 10, 2008.
  26. ^ "Response to Michael J. Fox ad". Youtube.com. Retrieved 2012-05-02.
  27. ^ Jesus' words used vs. stem-cell initiative, The Washington Times, October 25, 2006. Accessed June 10, 2008.
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