Actors - Jim Carrey

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	Actors - Jim Carrey

James Eugene Carrey (born January 17, 1962), better known as Jim Carrey, is a Canadian-American comical actor. He is best-known for his manic, slapstick performances in comedy films such as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
, Dumb and Dumber, The Mask
, Liar Liar
and Bruce Almighty
. Carrey has also achieved critical success in dramatic roles in films such as The Truman Show
, Man on the Moon
and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
.

Biogrpahy

Early life

Carrey was born in the Toronto suburb of Newmarket, Ontario to Percy Carrey and Kathleen; he has three older siblings, John, Patricia and Rita. His family was Catholic and had distant French Canadian roots (the original surname was Carré). A comedian 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. Carrey began working eight-hour shifts each day after school where he attended Agincourt Collegiate Institute, Scarborough's oldest high school. Eventually, the Carrey family adjusted by living on a relative's lawn out of the family Volkswagen van until they could move back into town.

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. His first lead role on television was Skip Tarkenton, a young animation producer on NBC's 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 was putting together a sketch comedy show for Fox called In Living Color, Carrey was hired as a cast member. His unusual characters, including female bodybuilder Vera de Milo and the masochistic Fire Marshall Bill, as well his on-screen behavior 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.

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Actors - Jim Carrey

Biogrpahy

Early life

Start in comedy

Film career

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