I've been unable to revive an actor, so I went to the wiki and found this note under the resurrect() function: "Resurrect won't work when 'starts dead' is flagged in the reference window."

Sure enough, the reference is set to start dead. I need this on because I'm setting his body in a specific position, which would be impossible otherwise.

Any ideas?

In oblivion, click on the character in console and type "Resurrect 1" which is a different command than its not 1 counterpart.

That should work in Skyrim too.

Thanks for the help but I need to do it through scripting and the resurrect function doesn't have any parameters.

I'm no expert but try deleting him and put someone similar. If "He's" a bandit then that should not be hard.

Approaching it from a different angle, would it be viable having the actor start as paralyzed

Can you use the http://www.creationkit.com/Kill_-_Actor function inside an OnLoad() or OnCellAttach() event in order to get around the restriction of the Resurrect() function?