Background

Ethnicity: Jim Carrey is of French-Canadian ancestry on his father's side, and has French, Irish, and Scottish ancestry on his mother's side.

James Eugene Carrey was born on January 17, 1962, in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. His father was a professional musician. Jim Carrey got his start with a spot doing stand-up at a Toronto comedy club when he was just 15 years old.

Education

The youngest of four children, Jim Carrey spent his teenage years working as a janitor in an effort to help his struggling family make ends meet. At one point, when his parents found themselves out of work, the family was forced to live out of their car.

Jim began his education at Blessed Trinity Catholic Elementary School in North York. When his family moved to Burlington, he became s pupil of Jim Aldershot High School.

Moving back to Scarborough, Jim studied at Agincourt Collegiate Institute and was a straight-A student until quit education to help support his family.

But the renowned comic was a performer from day one, and his talents simply demanded an audience. Indeed his high school teachers let him give a five-minute show at the end of each day, in return for not making his fellow students laugh during their lessons.

In 2014 he received an honorary degree from Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa.

Career

Jim Carrey made his professional debut as a stand-up comedian in a Toronto club at age 15 and by 1979 he was able to make a living as a comedian. He wrote most of his own material as an opening act for such comics as Buddy Hackett and Rodney Dangerfield. Known for his racing energy level and frenetic improvisation, he had a comic appeal that was mainly visual. He was a technically brilliant mimic and boasted more than 100 characterizations, with a repertoire ranging from Humphrey Bogart to Kermit the Frog.

At age 19 Carrey moved to Hollywood, where he acted in films and on television; he obtained dual citizenship to the United States in 2004. In 1983 he played a role in the Canadian television film Introducing…Janet. The following year he made his feature film debut in Finders Keepers, which was followed by a leading role in the film Once Bitten (1985). Carrey then played an intergalactic alien named Wiploc in the comedy Earth Girls Are Easy (1988). His first TV special, Jim Carrey: Unnatural Act (1991), received rave reviews and led to a regular role on the television sketch comedy series In Living Color. The show ended in 1994, and Carrey concentrated on his film career. He scored an immediate hit with Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and had continued box-office success with Dumb and Dumber and The Mask (all 1994). In the latter film, Carrey played a timid bank clerk who becomes a hip wisecracking green-faced dandy when he dons a magical mask. His performance earned Carrey the first of several Golden Globe Award nominations. He subsequently starred in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995) and played the Riddler in Batman Forever (1995).

After the black comedy The Cable Guy (1996) - which fared poorly at the box office - Carrey scored a hit with Liar Liar (1997). In that film, he played a fast-talking lawyer forced - by a magic spell invoked by his young son’s birthday wish - to tell the truth for one day. Carrey received Golden Globes for his work in The Truman Show (1998), a tale of a man who discovers that his apparently ordinary life is really a popular television show, and Man on the Moon (1999), in which he portrayed the comedian Andy Kaufman. In 2000 he appeared in the film adaptation of Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas. After receiving mixed reviews for The Majestic (2001) and Bruce Almighty (2003), Carrey earned critical acclaim for his performance as a man who decides to have his memories of a former girlfriend erased in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). He subsequently starred in such films as Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004), the mystery-thriller The Number 23 (2007), and Yes Man (2008).

In 2009 Carrey provided the voice of Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, an animated adaptation of Charles Dickens’s novel. That year he also starred as a homosexual con man who, while in prison, falls in love with a fellow inmate in the dark comedy I Love You Phillip Morris. In the family comedy Mr. Popper’s Penguins (2011), based on the children’s book of the same name, Carrey portrayed a businessman who inherits several gentoo penguins. His later credits included The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013), Kick-Ass 2 (2013), and Dumb and Dumber To (2014). Carrey took a new direction with Dark Crimes (2016), a gloomy thriller based on a 2008 New Yorker article about a police officer investigating a murder that resembles one described in a crime novel. He then starred as a popular children’s television show host coping with a recent tragedy in the television series Kidding (2018–). In 2020 Carrey returned to the big screen with the family comedy Sonic the Hedgehog.

In 2020 Carrey published the semiautobiographical novel Memoirs and Misinformation (written with Dana Vachon).

Achievements

• 

  Jim Carrey combined the rubber-faced rubber-boned antics of a Jerry Lewis with the zany improvisational style of a Robin Williams (with a heavy dash of Williams's acting ability thrown in) to make some of the most successful and entertaining comedies of the 1990s and to launch him into the superstar stratosphere.
  
  In 2004, Carrey received a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame, right between household names Pierre Berton and Karen Kain. In 2014, Carrey was one of several comedians to grace a special limited-edition set of postage stamps issued by the Canada Post.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Memoirs and Misinformation: A novel

    (Memoirs and Misinformation is a fearless semi-autobiograp...)

    2020

• movie

  • The Truman Show

    (Truman doesn’t realize that his quaint hometown is a gian...)

    1998
  • Kick-Ass 2

    (Self-made superhero Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and s...)

    2013
  • Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!

    (A playful pachyderm named Horton becomes a reluctant hero...)

    2008
  • Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

    (The wait is over, America - Ron Burgundy is back! After l...)

  • The Bad Batch

    (After Arlen (Suki Waterhouse) leaves the Texas wasteland ...)

    2016
  • Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

    (He's the best there is, in fact, he's the only one there ...)

    1994
  • Dumb and Dumber

    (Jim Carry and Jeff Daniels star as two good-natured but i...)

    1994
  • The Mask

    (Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz star in this story of a sweet...)

    1994
  • Dumb And Dumber To

    (Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels reprise their signature roles...)

    2014
  • Finders Keeper

    (Richard Lester (Juggernaut, How I Won the War) directs th...)

    1984
  • Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls

    (Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, returns from a spiritual ques...)

    1995
  • The Number 23

    (Jim Carrey in this dark psychological thriller, which rev...)

    2007
  • Dark Crimes

    (From the producer of The Revenant and Black Mass, Officer...)

    2018
  • Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

    (A thrilling misadventure involving three ingenious orphan...)

    2004
  • Peggy Sue Got Married

    (An unhappy woman (Kathleen Turner) tries to change her fu...)

    1986
  • Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

    (Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet lead an all-star cast in this...)

    2004
  • Yes Man

    (Jim Carrey stars in the hilarious comedy about a man who ...)

    2008
  • I Love You Phillip Morris

    (Incarcerated at the state penitentiary, con artist Steven...)

    2009
  • Once Bitten

    (A centuries-old vampiress comes to Los Angeles and stalks...)

    1985
  • The Cable Guy

    (The out-of-control comedy features Jim Carrey at his hila...)

    1996
  • Mr. Popper's Penguins

    (Workaholic businessman Jim Carrey gets a lesson in father...)

    2011
  • Bruce Almighty

    (Jim Carrey reveals in spiritual glory as a TV reporter wh...)

    2003
  • The Majestic

    (A young Hollywood screenwriter loses his job and sets off...)

    2001
  • Liar Liar

    (A fast-talking attorney discovers he can't tell a lie for...)

    1997
  • Me, Myself & Irene

    (Jim Carrey stars as a policeman whose split personality w...)

    2000
  • Simon Birch

    (Even though Simon Birch is the smallest kid in town, deep...)

    1998
  • Fun With Dick And Jane

    (An out-of-work couple become upscale suburban Robin Hoods...)

    2005
  • Earth Girls Are Easy

    (Three aliens (Jim Carrey, Damon Wayans, and Jeff Goldblum...)

    1988
  • Pink Cadillac

    (Jump bail and skip-tracer Tommy Nowak (Clint Eastwood) wi...)

    1989
  • The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

    (Superstar magicians Burt Wonderstone and Anton Marvelton ...)

    2013
  • Batman Forever

    (Val Kilmer is the Dark Knight, Chris O'Donnell is his tru...)

    1995
  • Man on the Moon

    (Man on the Moon is a biographical movie on the late comed...)

    1999
  • Sonic The Hedgehog

    (The world needed a hero, we got a hedgehog. Superpowered ...)

    2020
  • All In Good Taste 1983

Religion

Jim Carrey and his three older siblings (two girls and a boy) were raised Roman Catholic. All through Jim's life, he had been exposed to various religions ranging from Presbyterian, Buddhism and even connected to the Eckhart Tolle spirituality.

Politics

In 2018 Carrey came under fire for tweeting an unflattering portrait of someone who resembled White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, with the caption, "This is the portrait of a so-called Christian whose only purpose in life is to lie for the wicked. Monstrous!" A spokesperson confirmed that the piece was rendered by Carrey but did not confirm whether or not Sanders was the subject.

Views

Dating Jenny McCarthy from 2005-2010, Jim became famous proponents of the anti-vaccine community, believing the MMR vaccine to be the cause of autism. While criticized for his controversial views, Carrey continues to publicly advocate for the "Green Our Vaccines" campaign, which works to rid vaccinations of what they says are toxic ingredients. Carrey is an advocate of the Law of Attraction, the pseudoscientific theory that thinking about something hard enough will make it happen.

As for charity, he donated a signed head-shot to Rocky Stone to be auctioned off to raise money to buy more toys for less fortunate kids as part of the Toy Mountain Campaign 2004.

Personality

Like a lot of comedians, Carrey has battled depression. He took Prozac for a time but, since then, has been off medication and avoids stimulants of any kind, including coffee.

In 2017 the short documentary Jim Carrey: I Needed Color revealed Carrey’s growing interest in painting and sculpting.

Physical Characteristics: Carrey has a height of 186.7 cm (6 ft 1.5 in) and a weight about 82 kg (181 lb).

Interests

• painting, sculpting
  
  Favorite Food: Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
  
  Favorite Color: Green

• Writers

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

• Sport & Clubs

  soccer

• Music & Bands

  Tupac Shakur

Connections

Carrey has a daughter, Jane, from his marriage to Melissa Womer (from 1987 to 1995). He was married briefly to Dumb & Dumber co-star Lauren Holly before entering a yearlong romance with his Me, Myself and Irene leading lady Renee Zellweger. He was later involved with actress/model Jenny McCarthy.

In 2015, Carrey's girlfriend, Cathriona White, died from a drug overdose in what was ruled a suicide. Both White's estranged husband and mother sued Carrey for wrongful death, though the charges were eventually dismissed.

Father:

Percy Carrey

Mother:

Kathleen Carrey

ex-wife:

Melissa Womer

ex-wife:

Lauren Holly

Friend:

Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman calls him her best male friend.

Friend:

Ewan McGregor

Friend:

Steven Tyler

Friend:

Jeff Daniels

References

• Twitter - Jim Carrey
• Jim Carrey: The Biography
  2000
• Jim Carrey: Unmasked! Traces the life of the popular comedian, describes his work as a standup comic and in television, and looks at each of his major film roles
  1995
• Jim Carrey: The Joker is Wild: The Trials and Triumphs of Jim Carrey This is the absorbing, touching story of a lonely boy from a troubled family who found the secret of making people laugh - and dreamed of becoming a comedy star.
• The Essential Jim Carrey The main purpose of The Essential Jim Carrey is to celebrate the life and career of this man - an enormous talent, who has inspired people through laughter and instilled a sense of hope with his acting craft.
  2010
• Jim Carrey - Life & Comedy
• Jim Carrey: Fun and Funnier
  2000
• Jim Carrey: The Biography History Hub presents a short and captivating look into Jim Carrey’s complete life from beginning to end, one of history’s great notable figures worthy to discover.