• Faith: Christian - Catholic
• Career: Actor
• Birthday:  September 26, 1968

Jim Caviezel is an actor best known for playing Jesus in “The Passion of the Christ,” Tim Ballard in “Sound of Freedom,” and John Reese on the CBS show “Person of Interest.” He also played Slov in “G.I. Jane,” Private Witt in “The Thin Red Line,” Detective John Sullivan in “Frequency,” Catch in “Angel Eyes,” and Edmond Dantes in “The Count of Monte Cristo.”

Caviezel was born in Mount Vernon, Washington and raised in a tight-knit Catholic family in Conway, Washington. He has three sisters and a younger brother. He started acting in plays in Seattle, Washington and earned a Screen Actors Guild card with a small role in the 1991 movie “My Own Private Idaho.” Then, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. He said people thought he was out of his mind when he moved, but he did so anyway. Cavaziel was offered a scholarship to study acting at New York’s Julliard School in 1993, but he turned it down to play Warren Earp in the 1994 movie “Wyatt Earp.”

He later appeared in episodes of “The Wonder Years” and “Murder, She Wrote.” After appearing in “G.I. Jane,” he had a breakthrough performance in the 1998 movie “The Thin Red Line.” He played Black John, a Missouri bushwhacker, in “Ride with the Devil,” an American Civil War film. Caviezel was initially cast to play Scott Summers/Cyclops in “X-Men” but dropped out due to a scheduling conflict with the movie “Frequency.” He starred in the films “Pay It Forward,” “Angel Eyes,” “The Count of Monte Cristo,” and “Boddy Jones: Stroke of Genius.”

In 2000, he played the lead role in “Madison,” a movie about hydroplane racing in Madison, Indiana. The film was finished in 2001 but didn’t appear in theaters until a limited release in 2005. In 2002, he played a pivotal role in “I Am David.” Caviezel played Jesus Christ in Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ.” During filming, he was scourged by accident, struck by lightning, dislocated his shoulder, and suffered from hypothermia and pneumonia. Before filming, Gibson allegedly warned Caviezel that playing Jesus in the controversial film could negatively affect his career. In 2011, he said good roles had been challenging to come by since, but in this movie, in particular, the role of Christ was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

“The Passion of the Christ” went on to take in a box office of $612.1 million. From 2011 to 2016, he starred in the CBS 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 ratings in 15 years for a series pilot and consistently garnered over 10 million weekly viewers. Caviezel was nominated for a People’s Choice Award for Favorite Dramatic TV Actor in 2014 and again in 2016 for his work on “Person of Interest.”

What religion is Jim Caviezel?

Caviezel is a devout Catholic. In an interview, he discussed the importance of his Catholic faith, the lasting impact that “The Passion of the Christ” has had on his life, and his devotion to the Virgin Mary. During the filming of “The Passion of the Christ” in Italy, he received daily counsel, confession, and Holy Communion from a local Catholic priest with an interpreter.