Jim Carrey, a Canadian-born U.S. citizen since 2004, is a renowned actor and producer celebrated for his exceptional physical comedy and facial expressions. He rose to fame as a cast member of the Fox sketch comedy In Living Color (1990),but it was his leading roles in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994),Dumb and Dumber (1994),and The Mask (1994) that solidified his status as a bankable comedy actor.
Born on January 17, 1962, in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada, Jim Carrey is the youngest of four children to Kathleen (Oram),a homemaker, and Percy Carrey, an accountant and jazz musician. The family surname was originally "Carré", and he has French-Canadian, Scottish, and Irish ancestry. Carrey was an extroverted child who performed constantly, even mailing his résumé to The Carol Burnett Show (1967) at age 10.
Carrey's early adolescence took a turn for the tragic when his family was forced to relocate from their cozy town of Newmarket to Scarborough, a Toronto suburb. They all took security and janitorial jobs in the Titan Wheels factory, with Jim working 8-hour shifts after school let out. When they finally left the factory, the family lived out of a Volkswagen camper van until they could return to Toronto.
Carrey made his stand-up debut in Toronto after his parents and siblings got back on their feet. He made his professional stand-up debut at Yuk-Yuk's, one of the many local clubs that would serve as his training ground in the years to come. He dropped out of high school, worked on his celebrity impersonations, and in 1979 worked up the nerve to move to Los Angeles. He finessed his way into a regular gig at The Comedy Store, where he impressed Rodney Dangerfield so much that the veteran comic signed him as an opening act for an entire season.
During this period, Carrey met and married waitress Melissa Womer, with whom he had a daughter (Jane). The couple would later go through a very messy divorce, freeing Carrey up for a brief second marriage to actress Lauren Holly. Wary of falling into the lounge act lifestyle, Carrey began to look around for other performance outlets. He landed a part as a novice cartoonist in the short-lived sitcom The Duck Factory (1984); while the show fell flat, the experience gave Carrey the confidence to pursue acting more vigorously.
Carrey also worked on breaking into film around this time. He scored the male lead in the ill-received Lauren Hutton vehicle Once Bitten (1985),and had a supporting role in Peggy Sue Got Married (1986),before making a modest splash with his appearance as the alien Wiploc in Earth Girls Are Easy (1988). Impressed with Carrey's lunacy, fellow extraterrestrial Damon Wayans made a call to his brother, Keenen Ivory Wayans, who was in the process of putting together the sketch comedy show In Living Color (1990). Carrey joined the cast and quickly made a name for himself with outrageous acts.
Following his time on In Living Color (1990),Carrey's transformation from TV goofball to marquee headliner happened within the course of a single year. He opened 1994 with a starring turn in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994),a film that cashed in on his extremely physical brand of humor. Next up was the manic superhero movie The Mask (1994),which had audiences wondering just how far Carrey's features could stretch.
Finally, in December 1994, he hit theaters as a lovable dolt in the Farrelly brothers' Dumb and Dumber (1994) (his first multi-million dollar payday). Now a box-office staple, Carrey brought his manic antics onto the set of Batman Forever (1995),replacing Robin Williams as The Riddler. He also filmed the follow-up to his breakthrough, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995),and inked a deal with Sony to star in The Cable Guy (1996) (replacing Chris Farley) for a cool $20 million--at the time, that was the biggest up-front sum that had been offered to any comic actor.
The movie turned out to be a disappointment, both critically and financially, but Carrey bounced back the next year with the energetic hit Liar Liar (1997). Worried that his comic shtick would soon wear thin, Carrey decided to change course.
In 1998, he traded in the megabucks and silly grins to star in Peter Weir's The Truman Show (1998) playing a naive salesman who discovers that his entire life is the subject of a TV show. Carrey demonstrated an uncharacteristic sincerity that took moviegoers by surprise. He won a Golden Globe for the performance, and fans anticipated an Oscar nomination as well--when it didn't materialize, Carrey
