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Biography
Caviezel Country
"If I never meet you in this life, let me feel the lack. A glance from your eyes and my life will be yours."
~Welsh "Thin Red Line"
Jim's Family:
Mom - Maggie
Dad - Jim
Sister -Ann,
Sister - Amy,
Brother - Tim,
Sister - Erin
Jim's wife is Kerri (seen below).
They do not have any children yet.
Jim's Birthname: James Patrick Caviezel
Jim's Birthday: September 26, 1968
Jim's Heritage: 50% Irish, 25% Slovak, and 25% Romanch
**What is Romanch?**
My friend Mattias Caviezel (no relation) from Switzerland tells me this:
"The region is in the eastsouth of switzerland. The old language of this part is called romanch. It's something between italien and latin. But only 4% speak this language here. It's an official language because switzerland has 4 official languages german,french,italien and romanch. Most of the romanch names begins with ca.... like caviezel,casanova,carisch,cavelti...and more. The ca is for case (case means house) but the - viezel hasn't a function. We don't know what i could mean maybe it's something about coffee (i hear that one time but i think i can't be true)...So my homevillage is Siat. But there are about 3 different homevillages for the name caviezel. i hope this informations will help you... regards Mattias
Jim's Favorite Food: Mexican (or a good steak)
Sports Jim Plays: Basketball, Baseball, Football, Swimming, Fencing
Jim's Favorite Athlete: Roger Staubach
Fun Jim Fact: Jim writes left handed, but seems to be ambidextrous (uses both hands)
A Brief (did I really say brief?)History:
Jim was born and raised in Skagit (prounounced Skaa-Jit) County Washington, the exact place of his birth has been named as Conway or Mount Vernon. I have also read that his family moved to Mount Vernon from Burlington.
Jim's earlier years were centered around home, family, religion and basketball. His entire family is athletic, with at least one sister (Erin) and his brother (Tim) (Player of the Year in Washington State in the 90's) also playing basketball through college. I have heard recently that perhaps his father also played ball in college, but I cannot say whether or not that source was 100% accurate.
Jim was planning on making basketball his life, however, injuries to his foot suspended that career (his sister, Erin also spent some time on the benches with an injured foot, could this be the Caviezel Achilles Heel?). I have never been able to gather exactly when he was injured, but it seems to have happened in his early 20's.
Although I have never found an article that specifically details Jims career growth...I have managed to piece together bits of information gleaned from various articles and interviews. Here is what I believe to be a vague account of Jims rise to stardom.
1984 and 1985 - Attended Mount Vernon High School (apparently he couldn't get dates because girls thought he was wierd...which just goes to show hindsight is 20/20!)
1986 - Transferred to O'Dea High School in Seattle (to play basketball) and lived w/friends of the family
1987 - Transferred again to Kennedy High School and was voted "prettiest eyes", graduated here
1988-1990 - Attended Bellevue Community College and then Washington, no mention of his major. Played ball at Bellevue College and had his first acting role in Come Blow Your Horn at Washington .
1990 and 1994 - Moved to Los Angeles, was a waiter, lived with (in a strictly platonic sense) Chuck Weber a USC Professor
1991 - First major role as an airline clerk in My Own Private Idaho (the movie is horrible and Jim's cameo is the only saving grace! Thank God for that little flash of smile we get to see. Jim looks very young in this one.)
1992 - A small role as the adorable Billy Hargrove in Diggstown (We get to see him bare chested and playing pool, I love those natural moments. However, we also see him get his butt spanked by Louis Gossett, Jr. - not a banner moment in anyone's acting career.)
He also appeared in an episode of the Wonder Years as Bobby Riddell (surprise, surprise!) a basketball star. I enjoyed this because I have a feeling it is one of the few times we will ever see Jim playing basketball.
1993 and 1994 - Appeared in Wyatt Earp (bye bye Julliard) (this is also where he met Dennis Quaid) (Another side note, apparently the director liked Jim so much he kept him on the set for the entire shoot even though Jim was only scheduled for 4 days of shooting...AND Kevin Costner gave him a ride back to L.A. on his own private jet, talk about a charmed life!) During this time Jim was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia and met his wife, Kerri (also a basketball star, literature teacher and coach) on a blind date at a mall set up by one of his sisters
1995 - Appeared in A Good Day to Die (a tv movie) as the whiny younger brother, Dexter (look for the sexy (yeah, right) look in a full length fur coat). Also appeared on Murder She Wrote.
1996 - Met Sean Penn at auditions for "Hi Lo Country". Jim had dreamed about meeting Sean Penn, and thought this movie would be his big break, however, neither one of them appeared in the movie. Jim considered giving it all up. Here is also a good time to mention Jim's breakthrough appearance as "Rear F-18 Pilot" you can't actually see his face, but you can hear his voice. Jim also made an appearance in the corny baseball movie "ED" with Matt LeBlanc. His character was cut from the team, but you do get to see a short few seconds of Jim in the shower (sorry ladies, no shots below the waist).
1997 - Did some modeling for the Gap This was also the year he got the part of Slovnik in "GI Jane" with Demi Moore. I love him in this role because it is so unlike his usual characters. He has a shaved head (yuck!) but he is very buffed out and there is one nice scene of him sleeping in his skivies (lucky Demi gets to be in the cot next to him). If you watch this scene closely you will see that Slovnik gets dressed in a hurry (some issues with Tampax) and puts his shirt on inside out.
1998 - All I can say here is thank you Terrence Malick. Jim's big break in "Thin Red Line" not only is he devastatingly handsome as Private Wit, his performance is heart stopping. His facial expressions, southern accent and perfectly timed watering eyes steal the show. I don't know how he missed the Oscar on this one. See this movie more than once and try to get past the "war" theme...it is so much more.
1999 - Jim appears as Black John in "Ride with the Devil" now this movie is long, but good and beautifully filmed. Jim's character doesn't have a huge part, but it is well worth seeing. (Side note, apparently Jim made Ang Lee explain why all the violence was necessary before they shot the scenes...the man never ceases to amaze me!) There are some interesting notes on the making of this film if you have time to "surf" for them. Jim was also Tom D'Amato in "Any Given Sunday" but his part ended up on the cutting room floor, and we never see him. He did get to meet Al Pacino though.
2000/2001 - Banner years for Jim. He made his first guest star appearance on any talk show...the Rosie O'Donnell show! He did "Frequency" (also worth seeing more than once, or for that matter, more than 8 times which is about what I'm up to...all I can say is "I will love Ron Swoboda 'til the day I die!") with Dennis Quaid and filmed the movies "Madison" with Jake Lloyd (which premiered at Sundance but is not yet available to the mass public), "Pay it Forward" with Haley Joel Osment, "Angel Eyes" with Jennifer Lopez (Jim's first love scene which was filmed with undies on according to Jim, still...how lucky is Jennifer anyway?? ** Also, Jim is looking very cut in this movie, I'm loving it!**) He also did a short film for the American Bible Socitey "Resurrection" (please see screen caps from this film which is available on video) which is faith affirming and a testament that God still knows what he is doing.
2002 - The "Count of Monte Cristo" with Guy Pearce. The DVD release date on this is September 10, 2002.
Jim is starring in "High Crimes" with Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman, (read the book if you get time, it is AWESOME!). The DVD release date is August 27, 2002.
Talks are in the works for a film called "Paradise Park" with Val Kilmer? Also in the rumor mill are the movies "The Highwayman" and "Rebles" where Jim would play Ethan Allen.
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