Chicago PD

Season 2 e.tv (*194) 20:30 Action

Jason Beghe is fighting crime on two fronts. He plays Sergeant Hank Voight on action show Chicago PD (2014-current), head of the Intelligence Unit. And in real life, Jason is leading an attack on Scientology, his former religion that he calls “a cult that is dangerous for your physical and mental well-being”.

1 The 57-year-old got into Scientology in 1994 after learning about it from his acting teacher. He appeared in their promotional videos and was also trained as a high-ranking auditor – after he’d donated over $1 million (R13 million) to the church.

2 He quit in 2007 after his wife of seven years Angie Janu fell pregnant, saying that “I wanted to be the best father and husband, so I did a fearless inventory of my life. I realised that Scientology wasn’t me. I walked in the next day and said, ‘It’s in both our best interests that we part ways’.” The couple live in LA with their sons Bear and Bix, who are both under the age of 10.

3 His two best friends at 3 New York prep school Collegiate School For Boys were David Duchovny (Fox Mulder in sci-fi series The X-Files, 1993-current) and John F Kennedy Jr, the late son of President JFK.

4 Jason almost never got to be in Chicago PD – or anything after 1999 for that matter. A car crash left him with a broken neck, ribs, punctured lungs and in a coma for a month.

5 There was an upside to his crash, says the actor. “They intubated me and it left me with a gravelly voice. That is one of Voight’s strong points – when he talks, people listen.”

6 And while he is New York bornand-bred, Jason is a life-long fan of the Chicago Cubs baseball team.