There’s so much to tell. In so many ways my upbringing was very typical, and at the same time, so untypical…

I grew up in southern California, Orange County to be exact. Back then it was all orange groves with a scattering of suburban housing tracts. What a wonderland it was for me and my buddies. We would disappear into those orange groves for entire afternoons, playing all sorts of imaginary games. And the building sites – wow! There were all sorts of neat things lying around that we could use for clubhouses and all. I remember we even built a puppet theater modeled after Disneyland’s Tiki Room, charged admission and everything. I don’t remember what kind of reviews we got (ha!), but it was great fun, that’s for sure.

There’s no doubt my love of acting was birthed in those orange groves and role-playing games. I remember Superman was real big back then. Of course everyone wanted to be Superman. I don’t remember how often I got that title role, but what I do remember is that the reason I loved playing Superman was different from the rest of the kids.  They all wanted to play him because he was so powerful, but I wanted to play him “because he saved people.” I remember it distinctly, and looking back, I can’t help but think that even way back then the Lord was shaping my thinking toward the outreach future that He alone knew was before me.

Interesting thing about my growing up, I was by no means the “cool so-cal surfer kid.” I was a chubby kid – loved to eat, and the cultural environment I was raised in was anything but dietary.  My father is Italian and my mother is Syrian, so you can imagine the exotic food I grew up on!  And culturally, the sign of a healthy kid was the quantity he ate! I remember stuffing myself with my grandmother (“Sitto” in Syrian) behind my chair exclaiming in Arabic what a “good eater” I was – wow!

And the family gatherings!  With the Italian side back in New Jersey, everything was Middle Eastern.  I remember belly dancers at the weddings, and the uncles with their traditional instruments providing music.  We’d do a line dance called the “dubke,” and the Syrian women would get together for days before, cooking!  All to say, I was an overweight kid.  My saving grace is that I was pretty athletic, so the way my brother says it, “You never looked really fat, you just looked like a big square.” Hilarious!  Thanks, bro.

I would struggle with my weight on and off until my 20′s, eventually losing the bulk of it (about 60 pounds, if I remember) at twenty-six, and then another 20 a few years later. But that weight was a big thing for me.  I’m convinced that it shaped my sensitivities for the future even more, for to this day, I find myself gravitating toward ”the underdog” – the guy left out, the guy standing last, the one who always seems to be passed by… doing everything I can to impress the unarguable truth that God has a big plan for his or her life.

In terms of my acting, I was on stage for the first time at 13, in a high school production of Oliver. I was in the chorus of orphan boys and had one line: “‘What next,’ is the question?”  I’ll never forget, during one rehearsal the director said to me, “Bruce, I wish all my actors were like you. You’re always in character.” Wow! That validation meant the world, and I knew from that age on that I wanted to be an actor. And I learned another “future shaping” lesson – the huge importance of simple validation. People are so very precious…  

Following high school, university, post-grad, and 2 years in an office job that I thought would drive me out of my mind, I finally moved the 60 miles to Los Angeles. I got an apartment on Beachwood Drive (the street you drive up to view the Hollywood sign), signed up for acting classes, and dove in.  One morning in 1984 my phone rang and it was the casting director for Murder, She Wrote. He asked me if I could do a “walk-on” role with 3 lines. It was my first professional gig, and as far as I was concerned, it was “Next stop, Academy Awards!”

As wonderful as that first acting job was, it would only launch me into several years of struggle. I’d study by night and look for acting jobs by day, doing all I could to get someone on the other side of the desk to take me seriously. There was occasional opportunity, but the bottom line was struggle.  The upside was that everyone else I knew was struggling too! We were a whole community of out-of-work actors, sitting in coffee shops and “talking film” for hours. I made some great friends.  And there’s an interesting thing about struggle – one gets very inventive, learning how to have fun without money – learning that you don’t need money to have fun!  Even to today, I find myself a very simple guy – just give me a coffee and a spot in the sun, and life is complete.  I’m convinced that alot of that contentment in simplity, not needing “stuff,” was forged during my starving actor days.

One of my greatest joys then (and now) was softball. Saturday was the entertainment league, where different TV shows would put teams on the field. It was very competitive, and guys like me who weren’t on a TV show were brought in as “ringers” becasue we played well.  Then Sundays were pick-up games at North Hollywood Park. We’d play game after game, starting in the morning and going all the way to 5 or 6. It was wonderful, sweating in the sun all day long, fielding grounders and running the bases, not even knowing who was winning because you’re having so much fun…

I remember one guy in particular that played with us on Sundays.  His brand new glove was a dead give-away that he wasn’t the most experienced player, but he got better as time went on.  He was quieter than the other guys, but when he did open his mouth, it was so funny that the game would almost stop. He drove an older black Porsche, and I’ll never forget the day he walked on the field and everyone was congratulating him for an appearance on The Tonight Show. Years later I turned on the TV and there he was in his own sit-com. It was Jerry Seinfeld.

But movies were my life, and unfortunately, it was a pretty one-sided affair. I loved them, but they had yet to love me. And when I did work, it was always a character somewhat “rough around the edges.” A boxing manager, an ex-con living in his car, a black market dealer, . . . It was undoubtedly my dark looks, and that was just fine with me (at the time), as long as it got me work.

Then in 1987 things took off.  I secured a talent manager who was getting me into doors that had been shut for years, and I began auditioning for big things - it was wonderful!  At the same time, I hooked up with an actress-girlfriend, which seemed to complete the picture.  It was like the lifelong dreams of a chubby 13 year old boy in his high school play were beginning to take shape.  But then suddenly, all at once, it all disappeared.  The girl moved on and the acting opportunities dried up… and I found myself (seemingly) with nothing.  I’ll tell you, there’s only one thing worse than never seeing your dreams come true, and that’s catching a taste of it, only to have it snatched away. Dear Father, have mercy…

Well, over the years, many of my friends had given their lives over to Jesus, “receiving Him” as Savior. They would talk to me about it, but I thought they were nuts. I called them “Bible-beaters,” and mourned our never being able to have fun together anymore.  I remember this one actor buddy of mine.  He was this incredible looking guy, and I used to hate going anywhere with him because the girls all swooned as he passed by. But he was a great guy and we had great fun together.  Then one day he told me he was born again – yikes!  I thought, “There goes a good friend.” But you know, as much as the sudden Bible in his hand was an irritation, that’s how much I silently respected him.

You see, his agent was negotiating for him to star in a soap opera.  But after he came to Jesus he told him, “I’m a Christian now, and I can’t do a show like that.”  I was blown away by that!  At the same time, he was living with his longtime girlfriend. He loved her lots, but when he came to Jesus, he said he had to move out. He slept on my sofa for months!  Again, I was blown away and respected that choice so much – and you’ll be happy to know that today they’re married and have a family, praise Jesus! 

Well, aside from sharing the Lord with me, little did I realize that this actor guy and so many others were praying for me. And so, one July afternoon, in the pit of all my dreams falling apart, on a hillside overlooking Universal Studios, all by myself… all those prayers and all that sharing took root and gripped my spirit.  It was “my moment.”  I got on my knees in the dirt and gave my life to Jesus. “Jesus, you’ve got to save me!” were my exact words, and I never looked back.  Praise His holy name!

Well, then my career really took off! I started working from show to show, LA Law, Hardball, Columbo, . . . never losing once on an audition. I remember screen-testing for a lead opposite Academy Award winner F. Murray Abraham in By The Sword, and for another lead at Universal for the brat-pack film, Mobsters.  When you’re having those kinds of opportunities, you’re playing “in the big leagues” and it’s only a matter of time before you hit a home run.

My confidence was skyrocketing, but as I look back, I can easily see that it was the Lord making sure that I knew that He was very real and very interested in me. Glory to Jesus!  He began working in my heart also, healing, cleansing and shaping. As I dove into His Word and nestled into a great church (Church On the Way, then pastored by Jack Hayford), I began to grow and grow.  

Then in 1991 I felt the Lord calling me to join a drama ministry that was traveling to Australia. I fought that call all the way, then finally cried, “Uncle!” as it felt like the Lord was twisting my arm behind my back. Kicking and screaming, I joined this mssionary team that I was certain would ruin my career.  And ruin my career, it did. When I returned from the tour my manager dropped me, saying, “Bruce, this Christian thing is getting in the way.” Boy, was I angry with God. The next year-and-a-half would take me back to out-of-work struggle all over again. After tasting success, I remember it being bitterly shameful, like chewing on glass 24 hours a day.

But somehow I clung to my faith (it was all I had!), and then one day my phone rang. It was the leader of that missionary team that had seemingly ruined my career. I can still hear his words today: “Bruce, I got this letter from a South African director who’s making a new Jesus movie. He’s looking for a more down-to-earth, more real-looking Jesus. He’s looking for a professional actor who’s born again. I think you might be right for this.”  The next thing I knew, I had a beard and long hair, and I was on a plane to Morocco to play the role of a lifetime in Matthew - The Son of the Living God made Man – JESUS!!!!

One detail I left out… When I was a kid in university, I had a history professor who loved Jesus as his Savior. He was a real mentor to me in those days, and I’ll never forget, once he looked at me and spoke these words: “Bruce, God has something big planned for your life. I don’t know what it is, but it’s really, really big.”  And so, these many years later, there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t receive a letter from someone whose life is changed by that Jesus movie, or the ministry and books and speaking that has all been born from it. There isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not blown away by where the Lord has taken, and what He has done with (and here’s the bottom line of my whole story…), a chubby 13 year old who had one line in a high school play.

Every time I stand in front of an audience, every time I hold a child in Africa, every time I walk by a book rack and see my name under “written by;” every time a flight attendant stops and says, “Aren’t you the guy who played Jesus?” Every time, every day, every week, every month, every year, I stand amazed, astounded, awestruck… by Him.

He is God… and His plans for each and every one of us – yes, you, right where you’re at in your life today – are so far above and beyond anything we could dream up for ourselves.  

He is good, and so far beyond good.  He is God – and ”so God!”  Glory to the name of Jesus!