Jim Carrey
James Eugene Carrey (born
January 17,
1962), better known as
Jim Carrey, is a
Canadian-born
comedian and
film actor. He is best-known for his manic,
slapstick performances in comedy films such as
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,
Dumb & Dumber,
The Mask,
Liar Liar and
Bruce Almighty. Carrey has also achieved critical success in dramatic roles in films such as
The Truman Show,
The Majestic,
Man on the Moon and
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Early life
Carrey was born in the town of
Newmarket, Ontario to Percy and Kathleen Carrey; he has three older siblings, John, Patricia and Rita. His family is
Catholic and had distant
French Canadian roots (the original surname was
Carré).
A comedian in name only from an early age, Carrey mailed his
résumé to
The Carol Burnett Show when he was 10 years old. The teachers in Carrey's high school gave him a few minutes at the end of each school day to do a
stand-up comedy routine for his classmates.
Carrey's parents fell on hard times and were forced to move to the Toronto suburb of
Scarborough, where they took security and janitorial jobs in the Titan Wheels factory at 1051 Tapscott Rd (now IPSCO Ontario Inc). The Carreys lived in a historical house located on site. Carrey attended
Blessed Trinity Catholic School in
North York for two years, then began at
Agincourt Collegiate Institute, Scarborough's oldest high school. For a time the family was in such financial straits that they lived in their
Volkswagen van on a relative's lawn. In order to help out, Carrey began working eight-hour shifts each day after school.
Start in comedy
Carrey dropped out of high school at the age of sixteen and began to work in
comedy clubs with an act that included impersonations of celebrities such as
Michael Landon and
Jimmy Stewart. In 1979, at the age of 17, he moved to
Los Angeles and started working in
The Comedy Store, where he was noticed by comedian
Rodney Dangerfield. Dangerfield liked Carrey's act so much that he signed Carrey up to open Dangerfield's tour performances.
Carrey turned his attention towards filmed entertainment. He auditioned to be a castmember for NBC's
Saturday Night Live when the show was looking for new cast members for their
1980â€"1981 season. Carrey was never chosen to be a cast member (although he finally hosted the show in May 1996). His first lead role on television was Skip Tarkenton, a young animation producer on
The Duck Factory. The short-lived comedy, which aired from
April 12,
1984 to
July 11,
1984, offered a behind-the-scenes look at the crew that produced a children's cartoon.
Carrey continued performing in small character roles in film and television, which eventually led to a friendship with fellow comedian
Damon Wayans. The two co-starred as aliens in
1989's
Earth Girls are Easy. When Wayans' brother
Keenen were putting together a sketch comedy show for
Fox called
In Living Color, Carrey was hired as a token white cast member. His unusual characters, including mannish female bodybuilder Vera de Milo and the masochistic safety inspector Fire Marshall Bill Burns (whose dangerous, ill-advised "safety tips" were the target of censors and television watchdog groups who saw Carrey's performance as something that younger viewers would see as harmless fun and try to imitate), as well his on-screen behavior amazingly caught America's (and
Hollywood's) attention.
Film career
Carrey made his film debut in the short film
Rubberface (1981). Four years later, he had a starring role in the dark
comedy Once Bitten as Mark Kendall, a teen virgin who is pursued by a 400-year old
vampire (
Lauren Hutton). Carrey did not experience box office success until almost a decade later when he was cast in the starring role in the comedy
Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, which premiered only months before
In Living Color ended. The film was panned by critics, and helped earn him a
1994 Golden Raspberry Award nomination as Worst New Star. However, the film was a huge commercial success, as were Carrey's two other starring roles, in
The Mask and
Dumb and Dumber, both released the same year.
In 1995, Carrey appeared as the
Riddler in
Batman Forever and reprised his role as Ace Ventura in
Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. Both films were successful at the box office and earned Carrey multi-million-dollar paychecks.
Carrey made headlines when it was revealed that he was paid twenty million dollars for his next film,
The Cable Guy (directed by
Ben Stiller), a record sum for a comedy actor. The attention drawn to his salary, coupled with negative reviews for the film and its character's dark mood in contrast to his other performances, all contributed to the film's box office failure. Carrey quickly rebounded with the successful and family-friendly
Liar Liar, a return to his trademark comedy style.
Despite the regular comedy successes, Carrey took a chance and a slight paycut to star in
The Truman Show (
1998), a change of pace that led to forecasts of an
Academy Award nomination. Although the movie was nominated for three other awards, Carrey did not personally receive a nomination, leading him to joke that "it's an honor just to be nominated ... oh no", during his appearance on the Oscar telecast. However, Carrey did win a
Golden Globe (Best Actor in a Drama) and an MTV Movie Award (Best Male Performance). The same year, Carrey appeared as a fictionalized version of himself on the final episode of
Garry Shandling's
The Larry Sanders Show, making an impression by ripping deliberately into Shandling's character.
In 1999, Carrey won the role of comedian
Andy Kaufman in
Man on the Moon. Several actors, including
Edward Norton, were interested in the role, but Carrey's audition, including an act with the
bongo drums Kaufman used in his performances, helped him be cast. Coincidentally, Carrey was born thirteen years to the day after Kaufman. Despite critical acclaim, he was not nominated for an Academy Award (though again, won a consecutive Best Actor
Golden Globe award.)
In 2000, Carrey re-teamed with the
Farrelly Brothers (who had directed him in
Dumb & Dumber) in their comedy,
Me, Myself and Irene, about a state trooper with multiple personalities who romances a woman played by
Renée Zellweger. The film grossed $24 million dollars on its opening weekend and $90 million by the end of its domestic run. Carrey has since continued to appear in successful comedies as well as more dramatic roles. His performance in
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (
2004) earned high praise from critics, who once again incorrectly predicted that Carrey would receive an Oscar nomination, although the film won an Academy Award for
Best Original Screenplay, and co-star
Kate Winslet received a nomination for her performance. (Again, Carrey was nominated for a
Golden Globe for this performance, his sixth.)
In 2003, Carrey re-teamed with
Tom Shadyac for the financially successful comedy
Bruce Almighty. Earning over $242 million in the U.S. and over $484 million worldwide, this film became the second highest grossing live-action comedy of all time.
Carrey has stated that he finds the prospect of reprising a character to be less enticing than taking on a new role,
[JimCarreyOnline.com : "I'm getting the opportunity to do all these new and wonderful things. Why waste my life being repetitive? A lot of people do sequels. I think it's not as enticing as doing something new."] and fans say he rarely turns down roles because he enjoys trying new things.
Personal life
Carrey has been married twice, first to former
actress and
Comedy Store waitress Melissa Womer, with whom he has a daughter, Jane Erin Carrey (b.
September 1987). They were married on
March 28th,
1987 and were officially divorced in late
1995. After his separation from Womer in
1994, Carrey began dating his
Dumb & Dumber co-star
Lauren Holly. They were married on
September 23rd,
1996; the marriage lasted less than a year. Carrey dated actress
Renée Zellweger, whom he met on the set of
Me, Myself and Irene, although their relationship ended in a broken engagement in
December 2000. In
December 2005, Carrey began dating actress/model
Jenny McCarthy. The pair have since denied engagement rumors. [
1]
Jim really does have a chipped tooth; for his role in
Dumb & Dumber, he simply removed the cap.
Jim Carrey is a fan of professional wrestling, with his favorite confirmed to be
Kurt Angle, as at the Glamour Miramax Golden Globes Party (
January 25,
2004), he appeared with a shaved head and told interviewers he shaved it to support Kurt Angle in the
Royal Rumble that night.
Carrey owns a
Gulfstream Aerospace Gulfstream V with tail number N162JC and also owns a
Saleen S7 car (the car Bruce got after he became God in
Bruce Almighty). He received U.S.
citizenship on
October 7,
2004 and now has dual citizenship between the U.S. and his native Canada. He went public about his bouts with
depression in a
November 2004 60 Minutes interview.
* In his movie
Liar Liar the scene where he beats himself up, the bang was his head actually hitting the ground.
* He was originally cast as
Dr. Evil in
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, but he had to drop out of the role due to a scheduling conflict with Liar Liar.
* Wrote letters to
Tupac Shakur when Tupac was in prison to help him laugh and smile. Tupac said that Carrey was his favorite actor.
* Was originally offered the lead role in the movie
Master of Disguise (2002).
* Is a fan of professional wrestling
* He is the celebrity to win the most MTV popcorn awards and also the 2006 MTV Generation Award.
* He is a fan of death metal music and personally requested
Cannibal Corpse's appearance in
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective[IMDb.com Carrey's Biography, Trivia section. Retrieved on 20 June 2006.]* He was going to play the part of
Willy Wonka in the
2005 Tim Burton film
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory but they took about 14 months to tell him he got the part, then it was too late as he was doing
Fun with Dick and Jane.
*In 1998, Jim Carrey sang a cover of
The Beatles song "I Am The Walrus" on
George Martin's album
In My Life (album)* He was considered for the role of
Captain Jack Sparrow, in the
Disney film,
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
* Went through depression in the 1980s while struggling to make ends meet as a comedian.
| Year | Title | Role | U.S. Box Office |
|---|
| 2009 | Believe It or Not | Robert Ripley | - | 2007 | The Number 23 | Walter Sparrow/Fingerling | - | 2005 | Fun with Dick and Jane | Dick Harper | $110,332,737 |
| 2004 | Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events | Count Olaf | $118,634,549 |
| 2004 | Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind | Joel Barish | $34,400,301 |
| 2003 | Bruce Almighty | Bruce Nolan | $242,829,261 |
| 2001 | The Majestic | Peter Appleton | $27,807,266 |
| 2000 | Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas | The Grinch | $260,044,825 |
| 2000 | Me, Myself and Irene | Officer Charlie Baileygates/Hank Evans | $90,570,999 |
| 1999 | Man on the Moon | Andy Kaufman/Tony Clifton | $34,607,430 |
| 1998 | Simon Birch | Adult Joe Wenteworth | $18,253,415 |
| 1998 | The Truman Show | Truman Burbank | $125,618,201 |
| 1997 | Liar Liar | Fletcher Reede | $181,410,615 |
| 1996 | The Cable Guy | The Cable Guy | $60,240,295 |
| 1995 | Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls | Ace Ventura | $108,385,533 |
| 1995 | Batman Forever | Riddler/Edward Nygma | $184,031,112 |
| 1994 | Dumb & Dumber | Lloyd Christmas | $127,175,374 |
| 1994 | The Mask | Stanley Ipkiss | $119,938,730 |
| 1994 | Ace Ventura: Pet Detective | Ace Ventura | $72,217,396 |
| 1992 | The Itsy Bitsy Spider | The Exterminator (voice) | |
| 1992 | Doing Time On Maple Drive (TV) | Tim Carter | |
| 1991 | High Strung | Death | |
| 1990 | In Living Color (TV-Series) | Various | |
| 1989 | Earth Girls Are Easy | Wiploc | $3,916,303 |
| 1989 | Mike Hammer: Murder Takes All (TV) | Brad Peters | |
| 1989 | Pink Cadillac | Comedian | $12,143,484 |
| 1988 | The Dead Pool | Johnny Squares | $37,903,295 |
| 1986 | Peggy Sue Got Married | Walter Getz | $41,382,841 |
| 1985 | Once Bitten | Mark Kendall | $1,212,601 |
| 1984 | The Duck Factory (TV-Series) | Skip Tarkenton | |
| 1984 | Finders Keepers | Lane Bidlekoff | $1,467,396 |
| 1983 | All in Good Taste | Ralph Parker | |
| 1982 | Copper Mountain (TV) | Bobby Todd | |
| 1981 | Rubberface (TV) | Tony Moroni | |
Golden Globe Awards*2005 - Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy,
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Nominated)
*2001 - Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy,
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Nominated)
*2000 - Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy,
Man on the Moon (Won)
*1999 - Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama,
The Truman Show (Won)
*1998 - Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy,
Liar Liar (Nominated)
*1995 - Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy,
The Mask (Nominated)
People's Choice Awards*2005 - Favorite Funny Male Star (Won)
*2001 - Favorite Motion Picture Star in a Comedy (Won)
MTV Movie Awards*2006 - MTV Generation Award
*2005 - Best Villain (
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events) (Nominated)
*2004 - Best Comedic Performance (
Bruce Almighty) (Nominated)
*2004 - Best Kiss with
Jennifer Aniston (
Bruce Almighty) (Nominated)
*2001 - Best Villain (
Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas) (Won)
*2001 - Best Comedic Performance (
Me, Myself, & Irene) (Nominated)
*2000 - Best Male Performance (
Man on the Moon) (Nominated)
*1999 - Best Male Performance (
The Truman Show) (Won)
*1998 - Best Comedic Performance (
Liar Liar) (Won)
*1997 - Best Comedic Performance (
The Cable Guy) (Won)
*1997 - Best Villain (
The Cable Guy) (Won)
*1997 - Best Fight with
Matthew Broderick (
The Cable Guy) (Nominated)
*1996 - Best Male Performance (
Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls) (Won)
*1996 - Best Comedic Performance (
Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls) (Won)
*1996 - Best Kiss with
Sophie Okonedo (
Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls) (Nominated)
*1996 - Best Villain (
Batman Forever) (Nominated)
*1995 - Best Comedic Performance (
Dumb & Dumber) (Won)
*1995 - Best Kiss with
Lauren Holly (
Dumb & Dumber) (Won)
*1995 - Best Comedic Performance (
The Mask) (Nominated)
*1995 - Best Dance Sequence ((
The Mask) (Nominated)
*1995 - Best On-Screen Duo (
Dumb & Dumber) (Nominated)
*1994 - Best Comedic Performance (
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective) (Nominated)
Footnotes
*
Jim Carrey Online *
Carrey: Life Is Too Beautiful, a summary of a November 2004
60 Minutes interview with Carrey
*
Jim Carrey Biography - Cinema.com*
In My Lifeon
Amazon
