James Eugene "Jim" Carrey (born January 17, 1962)
Jim Carrey was born in Newmarket, Ontario, the son of Kathleen, a homemaker, and Percy Carrey, a musician and accountant. He has three older siblings, John, Patricia, and Rita. 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." 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. 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 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. 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.
