Occupation: Actor, Comedian
Date of Birth: January 17, 1962
Place of Birth: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Sign: Sun in Capricorn, Moon in Gemini
Relations: Father: Percy (jazz musician, accountant); mother: Kathleen; siblings: Pat, John, Rita; ex-companion: Linda Ronstadt; ex-wives: Melissa Womer (waitress), Lauren Holly; daughter: Jane (with Womer); companion: Renee Zellweger
Education: High school dropout
Jim Carrey has created some of the most popular and entertaining characters in modern film and television history. Who could ever forget the crispy dementia of Fire Marshall Bill, or Ace Ventura's talking butt? Nearly all his films have conquered the international box office, with each exceeding the $100 million mark in domestic grosses alone. Totaled, Carrey's worldwide box office has exceeded the $1 billion mark.
The actor's gifts are a unique combination of improvisation, mimicry and innovation with an outrageous style of physical comedy that has captured the attention of film audiences throughout the world.
Carrey was born in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada and began performing in Toronto comedy clubs at age 15. He decided to move to Los Angeles in 1981 and soon became a regular performer at the famed Comedy Store. The next year he won a starring role on the NBC series Duck Factory and moved into film work with his first starring role opposite Lauren Hutton in the vampire comedy Once Bitten (okay, so that one didn't conquer the international box office). Several smaller roles followed in the films The Dead Pool, Earth Girls Are Easy, and Peggy Sue Got Married.
He then juggled film and television work with comedy performances, starring as the alcoholic son of a dysfunctional family in the Fox drama Doing Time On Maple Drive and joining the ensemble cast of the Fox Network hit series In Living Color.
He also starred in the Showtime Special Jim Carrey's Unnatural Act, which highlighted his stand-up comedy routines, before he began headlining motion pictures with the blockbuster hit Ace Ventura: Pet Detective in 1994.
After the success of Dumb and Dumber in 1995, Carrey was voted NATO/ShoWest Comedy Star of the Year and Dumb and Dumber was voted Favorite Film by the People's Choice Awards. That same year, Carrey was nominated for the People's Choice Award for Favorite Actor in a Comedy Motion Picture, an honor he won that year for Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. Carrey has been nominated for several other major awards, including the Golden Globe Award for The Mask and The Truman Show and he has won multiple MTV Movie Awards. Although Truman brought him an Academy Award nomination, he has yet to add an Oscar to his trophy collection.
When Carrey was cast as the late comedian Andy Kaufman in Milos Forman's Man on the Moon, more than a few people were perplexed... until they saw the trailers, and then the film. Carrey didn't just portray Kaufman; he channeled the offbeat character's soul. In addition to the physical resemblance, Carrey captured every last quirk of the hard-to-understand Kaufman, leading to even more award nominations.
MOVIES
2000 How the Grinch Stole Christmas
2000 Me, Myself and Irene
1998 Simon Birch
1999 The Man in the Moon
1998 The Truman Show
1997 Liar Liar
1996 The Cable Guy
1995 Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls
1995 Batman Forever
1994 Dumb and Dumber
1994 The Mask
1994 Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
1992 The Itsy Bitsy Spider
1991 High Strung
1989 Pink Cadillac
1988 The Dead Pool
1986 Peggy Sue Got Married
1985 Once Bitten
1984 Finders Keepers
1983 All in Good Taste
1983 Copper Mountain
1983 Introducing . . . Janet
1983 The Sex and Violence Family Hour
TV
1990 In Living Color
1984 The Duck Factory
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
