Jim Carrey

Name: Jim Carrey
Born: 17 January 1962 (Age: 49)
Where: Newmarket, Ontario, Canada
Height: 6' 2"
Awards: Won 2 Golden Globes, nominated for 1 BAFTA.

Arguments may occasionally rage over the acting abilities of Keanu Reeves and Brad Pitt, but no one, absolutely NO ONE divides opinion like Jim Carrey. With his elastic features, frantic mugging and screen-hogging antics, many believe him to be an intolerably childish clown, even more irritating than his brother in buffoonery Pee Wee Herman. Others though (and they can be counted in the multi-millions) see Carrey as continuing a long line of classic comedians stretching back through Jerry Lewis and Laurel and Hardy. They laud him as a comic machine-gun, only ever stalling his barrage for long enough to reload, then unleashing another hail of laughs. What's for sure is that no other comic actor, not even Robin Williams, can equal his manic intensity, and very few actors of any kind can match his extraordinary run of hits.

He was born James Eugene Carrey on the 17th of January, 1962, in Newmarket, Ontario (it's worth noting that both of America's biggest comic film stars - Carrey and

As a kid, no doubt trying to seize attention from the family, Jim became a serious extrovert. He loved Christmas when visiting relatives increased his audience. For years he obsessively studied TV shows, perfecting impressions of the stars (and also of his alcoholic grandfather) and putting on one-man shows in the basement. At Junior High School he insisted on performing for his classmates and the teachers soon realised that the only way to calm the boy was to allow him a 10-minute slot at the end of each school day. By the age of 10 he'd already tried to get a book of his poems published and mailed his resume to the producers of the Carol Burnett Show. He'd wear his tap shoes to bed in case his parents needed cheering up in the night - evidently he already had the capacity to be incredibly annoying.

But this happy(ish) life didn't last. While Carrey was in 9th Grade Percy lost his job and was forced to sell the house, relocating the family to Scarborough, a bleak industrial landscape on the edge of Toronto.

 Mike Myers -are Canadian). Newmarket was a neat and easy-going town just to the north of Toronto, and it was here that Carrey spent his early years with his three older siblings - Pat, John and Rita - and parents Percy and Kathleen. Kathleen suffered depression and was often chronically sick with illnesses both real and imagined. Percy, sharp-witted and highly amusing, was formerly a sax player in a big band, but had sold his sax and his dreams to take a job as an accountant. His wife's father habitually referred to him as "Loser", easily done as Percy was extremely mild-mannered. Indeed, Jim would later model The Mask's Stanley Ipkiss on him.