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]