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James Caviezel
at the Giffoni Film Festival
Born	James Patrick Caviezel September 26, 1968 (1968-09-26) (age 40) Mount Vernon, Washington, U.S.
Spouse(s)	Kerri Browitt Caviezel

James Patrick Caviezel, Jr. (pronounced /kəˈviːzəl/; born September 26, 1968) is an American film actor, sometimes credited as Jim Caviezel. He is perhaps best known for playing the part of Jesus Christ in the 2004 film The Passion of the Christ as well as Edmond Dantès in The Count of Monte Cristo and Private Witt in The Thin Red Line.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Career 1.3 Personal life 1.4 Public politics 2 Filmography 3 References 4 External links

Biography

Early life

Caviezel was born in Mount Vernon, Washington, the son of Margaret 'Maggie Moo', a housewife and stage actress, and James Patrick Caviezel, Sr., a chiropractor.¹ He has a younger brother, Timothy, and sisters Ann, Amy, and Erin, and was raised in a tight-knit Roman Catholic family in Conway (Skagit County), Washington. Caviezel's surname is of Romansh origin; his father is of Slovak (maternal) and Swiss (paternal) descent, while his mother's ancestry is Irish.²³ He attended Mount Vernon High School for two years and then moved to Seattle and lived with family friends in order to play basketball at the Catholic O'Dea High School. The following spring, he transferred from O'Dea to another Catholic school, Burien's John F. Kennedy Memorial High. There he starred on the basketball team and graduated in 1987. Following high school, Caviezel enrolled at Bellevue Community College where the 6 ft 3 in athlete also played basketball. A foot injury in his second year, however, put an end to his hopes of a basketball career in the NBA. He later transferred to the University of Washington where he turned his focus to acting and became a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity.

Career

After appearances in Wyatt Earp and G.I. Jane, Caviezel scored a breakthrough performance in Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line. He played Black John, a Missouri bushwhacker, in Ang's Lee's Ride With The Devil (1999), a film budgeted and intended as a summer blockbuster, which fell flat at the box office. He was originally cast to play Cyclops/Scott Summers in X-Men (2000) but dropped out due to a scheduling conflict with his other film, Frequency.

Caviezel starred in such mainstream Hollywood films as Angel Eyes, Pay It Forward and The Count of Monte Cristo (2002). In 2001, he played the lead in Madison, a film that tells the story of the hydro races in Madison, Indiana. Caviezel's character pilots Miss Madison to victory, recounting the 1971 event. The film did not appear in theatres until 2005. In addition, his work in High Crimes (2002) was highly praised by critics.

In 2002, he played a pivotal role in the film I Am David from the Danish novel known by both David and North to Freedom, written by Ann Holm.

In 2004, Caviezel portrayed Jesus Christ in the Mel Gibson film The Passion of the Christ. During filming he was struck by lightning, accidentally whipped, dislocated his shoulder and bruised his eye.

In 2004, he expressed interest in playing the role of Superman/Clark Kent for 2006's Superman Returns, mentioning that he would dedicate his performance to Christopher Reeve. Ultimately, he was passed over by director Bryan Singer, who felt that Caviezel was too well known after starring in The Passion of the Christ. The part went to newcomer Brandon Routh instead.

Caviezel plays a lead role in Unknown, an IFC project distributed by the Weinstein Company. Caviezel also has a role in Tony Scott's 2006 action film, Déjà Vu opposite Denzel Washington and Val Kilmer. He also played the lead role, Kainin, in the 2008 film Outlander.

Caviezel provides the voice of Jesus on the Thomas Nelson Inc.-produced New Testament audio dramatization The Word of Promise,⁴ released in the fall of 2007.⁵

He is currently shooting Long Weekend co-starring Claudia Karvan as directed by Jamie Blanks at Wilson's Promontory, mainland Australia's southern most tip.

Alongside Ian McKellen, Caviezel is due to star in a remake of the British science fiction TV show, The Prisoner, to be released in 2009.⁶⁷

Caviezel is co starring in the film "Blown", a London espionage thriller with Samuel L. Jackson.⁸

Personal life

Caviezel is a devout Roman Catholic and has been a featured public speaker at religious venues since the release of The Passion. On March 19, 2005 he was the main speaker at the first Catholic Men's Conference in Boston. Caviezel stated that he chose to speak at the conference only because he liked Boston Archbishop, Sean Cardinal O'Malley. His wife Kerri Browitt Caviezel, also a devout Roman Catholic, is a teacher and an accomplished flautist. The two are active in their Conejo Valley, California parish. Kerri supports a charity for single mothers and also volunteers with their church's Detention Ministry at a camp for incarcerated youth in Malibu, California.

In 2006, Caviezel enrolled in at least one class at University of Notre Dame.⁹ He was not enrolled as a full-time degree seeking student.

In 2007, he and his wife adopted Bo, a baby Chinese boy with a brain tumor; the Caviezels have also adopted a second child with a brain tumor, a young girl, from the Guangzhou region of China.¹⁰

Public politics

On October 24, 2006, Caviezel was featured (along with Patricia Heaton, Kurt Warner, and Mike Sweeney) in an advertisement opposing embryonic stem-cell research. Caviezel 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' betraying Christ and a phrase used in the Greek version of the Gospel of Luke.¹¹¹² The line however, did not include a translation into English. Caviezel closed the commercial with the line, "You know now. Don't do it," referring to the voting in favor of the amendment.

The advertisement was a response to a commercial, featuring Michael J. Fox, in favor of embryonic stem cell research.

Caviezel donated $2,100 in 2006 to the unsuccessful campaign to re-elect US Senator Rick Santorum.¹³

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Director
1991	My Own Private Idaho	Airline Clerk	Gus Van Sant
1992	Diggstown	Billy Hargrove	Michael Ritchie
1994	Wyatt Earp	Warren Earp	Lawrence Kasdan
1996	Ed	Dizzy Anderson	Bill Couturié
	The Rock	F/A-18 Navigator	Michael Bay
1997	G.I. Jane	'Slov' Slovnik	Ridley Scott
1998	The Thin Red Line	Private Witt	Terrence Malick
1999	Ride with the Devil	Black John	Ang Lee
2000	Frequency	John Sullivan	Gregory Hoblit
	Pay It Forward	Jerry	Mimi Leder
	Madison	Jim McCormick	William Bindley
2001	Angel Eyes	Steven 'Catch' Lambert	Luis Mandoki
2002	The Count of Monte Cristo	Edmond Dantes	Kevin Reynolds
	High Crimes	Tom Kubik	Carl Franklin
2003	Highwaymen	James 'Rennie' Cray	Robert Harmon
	I Am David	Johannes	Paul Feig
2004	The Final Cut	Fletcher	Omar Naim
	The Passion of the Christ	Jesus Christ	Mel Gibson
	Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius	Bobby Jones	Rowdy Herrington
2006	Unknown	Jean Jacket	Simon Brand
	Déjà Vu	Carroll Oerstadt	Tony Scott
2008	Outlander	Kainan	Howard McCain
	The Stoning of Soraya M.	Freidoune	Cyrus Nowrasteh
	Long Weekend	Peter	Jamie Blanks

References

External links

• James Caviezel at the Internet Movie Database
• Jim Caviezel Website - JimCaviezel.us
• Reel Caviezel: Jim Caviezel's work as a storyteller on film
• James Caviezel Fan Website
• yourMovies interview: Jim Caviezel
• Interview with Jim on WHO.com where he talks about his lucky life
• Interview with Jim on Beliefnet.com where he talks about "The Stoning of Soraya M" and his faith