James Eugene "
Jim"
Carrey (born January 17, 1962) is a
Canadian-American actor and
comedian. Carrey began
stand-up comedy in 1979 while under the management of Leatrice Spevack, performing at
Yuk Yuk's in
Toronto, Ontario. After becoming a major hit in 1981 he began working at
The Comedy Store in
Los Angeles where he was soon noticed by comedian
Rodney Dangerfield, who immediately signed him to open his tour performances. Carrey soon became interested in film and television, and after developing a close friendship with comedian
Damon Wayans landed a role in his brothers sketch comedy hit,
In Living Color in which he portrayed various characters during 1990. Having not had much success in television movies and several low budget films, Carrey was soon cast as the
title character in
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective which premiered in February, 1994 making $159,537,178 domestically and over $400 million worldwide. Despite mixed reviews, this film has been considered the pinnacle of his film career and stardom. The film even spawned a sequel,
Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995), in which he reprised the role of Ventura. These higher-profile roles eventually led to his being cast as
Stanley Ipkiss in
The Mask (1994) for which he gained a
Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, and as Lloyd Christmas in the cult comedy film,
Dumb and Dumber (1994).
Between 1996 and 1999, Carrey continued to strive on his success after earning lead roles in several highly successful films including
The Cable Guy (1996),
Liar Liar (1997), in which he was nominated for another
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and in the critically acclaimed films
The Truman Show and
Man on the Moon, in 1998 and 1999, respectively. Both films earned Carrey two
Golden Globe awards, the
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama and the
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Since earning the two Golden Globe awards, the only two in his three decade career, Carrey continued to star in highly acclaimed comedy films, including
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) where he played the
title character,
Bruce Almighty (2003), where he portrayed the role of unlucky TV reporter Bruce Nolan,
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004),
Fun with Dick and Jane (2005) and
Yes Man (2008). Carrey has also taken on more serious roles including
Joel Barish in
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) alongside
Kate Winslet and
Kirsten Dunst which earned him another Golden Globe nomination, and
Steven Jay Russell in
I Love You Phillip Morris (2010) alongside
Ewan McGregor.
Early life
Carrey was born in
Newmarket, Ontario, the son of Kathleen (
née Oram), a homemaker, and Percy Carrey, a musician and accountant.
He has three older siblings, John, Patricia, and Rita. The family was
Catholic and of part
French Canadian ancestry (as the original surname was
Carré).
After his family moved to
Scarborough, Ontario when Carrey was 14 years old, he attended Blessed Trinity Catholic School, in
North York, for two years, enrolled at
Agincourt Collegiate Institute for another year, then briefly attended
Northview Heights Secondary School, for the remainder of his high school career (altogether, he spent three years in Grade 10).
Carrey lived in
Burlington, Ontario, for eight years and attended
Aldershot High School, where he once opened for 80s
new wave band
Spoons. In a
Hamilton Spectator interview (February 2007), Carrey remarked, "If my career in show business hadn't panned out I would probably be working today in
Hamilton, Ontario at the
Dofasco steel mill." When looking across the Burlington Bay toward Hamilton, he could see the mills and thought, "those were where the great jobs were."
At this point, he already had experience working in a science testing facility in
Richmond Hill, Ontario.
Career
Comedy
In 1979, under the management of Leatrice Spevack, Carrey started doing stand-up comedy at
Yuk Yuk's in Toronto, where he rose to become a headliner in February 1981, shortly after his 19th birthday. One reviewer in the
Toronto Star raved that Carrey was "a genuine star coming to life."
["Up, up goes a new comic star," Bruce Blackadar, Toronto Star, February 27, 1981, p. C1.] In the early 1980s, Carrey moved to
Los Angeles and started working at
The Comedy Store, where he was noticed by comedian
Rodney Dangerfield, who signed the young comedian to open Dangerfield's tour performances.
Carrey then turned his attention to the film and television industries, auditioning to be a cast member for
1980–1981 season of NBC's
Saturday Night Live. Carrey was not selected for the position (although he did host the show in May 1996).
Joel Schumacher had him audition for a role in
D.C. Cab, though in the end, nothing ever came of it.
His first lead role on television was Skip Tarkenton, a young animation producer on
NBC's short-lived
The Duck Factory, airing from April 12, 1984, to July 11, 1984, and offering a behind-the-scenes look at the crew that produced a children's cartoon.
Carrey continued working in smaller film and television roles, which led to a friendship with fellow comedian
Damon Wayans, who co-starred with Carrey as an
extraterrestrial in
1989's Earth Girls Are Easy. When Wayans' brother
Keenen began developing a sketch comedy show for
Fox called
In Living Color, Carrey was hired as a cast member, whose unusual characters included
masochistic, accident-prone safety inspector Fire Marshall Bill, and masculine female bodybuilder Vera de Milo.
Film
Carrey made his film debut in
Rubberface (1983), which was released as
Introducing...Janet. Later that year, he won the leading role in
Damian Lee's Canadian skiing comedy
Copper Mountain, which included his
impersonation of
Sammy Davis Jr. Since the film had a less than one hour runtime consisting largely of musical performances by
Rita Coolidge and Rompin'
Ronnie Hawkins, it was not considered a genuine feature film. Two years later, in 1985, Carrey saw his first major starring role in the dark
comedy Once Bitten, in the role of Mark Kendall, a teen virgin pursued by a 400-year old female
vampire (played by
Lauren Hutton). After supporting roles in films such as
Peggy Sue Got Married (1986),
Earth Girls Are Easy (1988), and
The Dead Pool (1988), Carrey did not experience true stardom until starring in the 1994 comedy
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, which premiered only months before
In Living Color ended.
Ace Ventura was panned by critics, and earned Carrey a
1995 Golden Raspberry Award nomination as Worst New Star.
[Razzie Awards: 1995] But the film was as embraced by fans as it was derided by critics. The Ventura character became a pop icon, and the film made Carrey a superstar. It was a huge commercial success, as were his two other starring roles from that year:
The Mask and
Dumb and Dumber. 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 earned $20 million for his next film,
The Cable Guy (directed by
Ben Stiller), a record sum for a comedy actor. The film did not do well at the box office or with critics, but Carrey quickly rebounded with the successful (and lighter)
Liar Liar, a return to his trademark comedy style.
Carrey took a slight pay cut to play a more serious role to star in the critically-praised
(
1998), a change of pace that led to forecasts of
Academy Award nominations. 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 for Best Actor in a Drama and an
MTV Movie Award for Best Male Performance. That same year, Carrey appeared as a fictionalized version of himself on the final episode of
Garry Shandling's
The Larry Sanders Show, in which he deliberately ripped into
Shandling's character.
In 1999, Carrey won the role of comedian
Andy Kaufman in
Man on the Moon. Despite critical acclaim, he was not nominated for an Academy Award, but again won a Best Actor Golden Globe award for the second consecutive year.
In 2000, Carrey reteamed with the
Farrelly Brothers, who had directed him in
Dumb and Dumber, in their comedy,
Me, Myself & Irene, about a state trooper with
multiple personalities who romances a woman played by
Renée Zellweger. The film grossed $24 million on its opening weekend and $90 million by the end of its domestic run.
In 2003, Carrey reteamed 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.
His performance in
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in
2004 earned high praise from critics,
[CNN.com "the best, most mature and sharply focused performance ever from Jim Carrey"][Rolling Stone "Jim Carrey [...] has never done anything this deeply felt. [...] grounded and groundbreaking by Carrey"][Washington Post "[1] rises to the challenge with ease, humor and depth of feeling"] who again predicted that Carrey would receive an Oscar nomination; the film did win for
Best Original Screenplay, and co-star
Kate Winslet received an Oscar nomination for her performance. (Carrey was also nominated for a sixth
Golden Globe for his performance).
In 2004, he played the villainous
Count Olaf in
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, which was based on the popular children's novels
of the same name. In 2005, Carrey starred in a remake of
Fun with Dick and Jane, playing Dick, a husband who becomes a bank robber after he loses his job.
In 2007, Carrey reunited with
Joel Schumacher, director of
Batman Forever, for
The Number 23, a
psychological thriller co-starring
Virginia Madsen and
Danny Huston. In the film, Carrey plays a man who becomes obsessed with the number 23, after finding a book about a man with the same obsession.
Carrey has stated that he finds the prospect of reprising a character to be considerably 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."] The only time he has reprised a role was with Ace Ventura. (Sequels to
Bruce Almighty,
Dumb and Dumber, and
The Mask have all been released without Carrey's involvement.)
Despite having a 20-year career with no
Academy Award nominations,
Jack Nicholson (who in the first 20 years of his career had five) has named Carrey the "Jack Nicholson" of the next generation.
Personal life
Carrey has been married twice, first to former actor and
Comedy Store waitress Melissa Womer, with whom he has a daughter, Jane Erin Carrey
[No Lie - Jim Carrey Will Be a Grandfather - Jim Carrey's 21-year-old daughter is expecting! Jul 10, 2009, Source: People.com] (b. September 6, 1987 in
Los Angeles County). They were married on March 28, 1987, and were officially divorced in late 1995. After his separation from Womer in 1994, Carrey began dating his
Dumb and Dumber co-star
Lauren Holly. They were married on September 23, 1996; the marriage lasted less than a year. Carrey dated actress
Renée Zellweger, whom he met on the set of
Me, Myself & Irene, but their relationship ended in a broken engagement in December 2000.
In the May 2006 issue of
Playboy Magazine (p. 48), it was mentioned that he has dated model
Anine Bing. In December 2005, Carrey began dating actress/model
Jenny McCarthy. The pair have since denied engagement rumors.
[Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy Laugh Off Engagement Rumors] They did not make their relationship public until June 2006. She announced on
The Ellen DeGeneres Show on April 2, 2008 that the two are now living together, but have no plans to marry, as they do not need a "piece of paper."
Carrey has a chipped tooth; for his role in
Dumb and Dumber, he simply removed the tooth cap.
He attended a
Presbyterian Church with his family in the early 1990s.
He is a fan of
death metal band
Cannibal Corpse,
[Interview to Jack Owens of Cannibal Corpse][www.imdb.com/name/nm0000120/bio#ba] who made a cameo appearance in
Ace Ventura, at his request for the band to be featured in the film.
Carrey received U.S.
citizenship on October 7, 2004, and now maintains dual citizenship of the U.S. and his native Canada, where he has had a star on
Canada's Walk of Fame[Canada's Walk of Fame: Jim Carrey, comedian, actor] in Toronto since 1998.
He went public about his bouts with
depression in a November 2004 interview on
60 Minutes.
Carrey has made calls to the public, by way of Internet videos, to try to bring attention to the political
repression in
Burma, especially of
Nobel Prize winner
Aung San Suu Kyi, whom he describes as a personal hero.
Together with
Jenny McCarthy Carrey is a prominent spokesperson and activist for the
Generation Rescue foundation.
[Generation Rescue] He believes that
autism and related disorders are caused by
vaccination.
In Los Angeles on February 27th, 2010, Carrey announced from his Twitter
[twitter.com/JimCarrey] that he had become a grandfather when his 22-year-old daughter, Jane, gave birth to her first child with rocker husband Alex Santana, who performs in the band Blood Money under the stage name Nitro. His Twitter comments were, "Jackson Riley Santana, My Grandson, Born today! This is what 7lbs.11oz. of Calfornia dynomite
[2] looks like!".
Filmography
Film
Television
Other accolades
