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Carrey's
life wasn't always a barrel of laughs; he was born on January 17,
1962, into a peripatetic household that regularly ran the gamut
from middle-class comfort to abject poverty. Not surprisingly, Carrey
became a classic overachiever, excelling in academics while keeping
his classmates in stitches with his wild improvisations and elastic
facial expressions. His comedy club debut at age 16 was a dismal
failure, but Carrey had already resolved not to be beaten down by
life's disappointments (as his father, a frustrated musician, had
been). By age 22, he was making a good living as a standup comic,
and was starring on the short-lived sitcom The Duck Factory -- a
series which curiously did little to take advantage of its star's
uncanny physical dexterity.
Throughout the 1980s, Carrey appeared in supporting roles in such
films as Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) and Earth Girls are Easy (1990).
Full television stardom came Carrey's way in 1990 as the resident
"white guy" on Keenan Ivory Wayans' Fox TV comedy In Living
Color. The most popular of the comedian's many characterizations
on the program was the grotesquely disfigured Fire Marshal Bill,
whose dubious safety tips brought down the wrath of real-life fire
prevention groups -- and also earned Carrey the ultimate accolade
of being imitated by other comics. 1994 proved to be "The Year
of Carrey," with the release of three top-grossing comedy films
to his credit: Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, and Dumb and
Dumber. By the end of the year, Carrey was commanding seven to ten
million dollars per picture. In 1995, the actor/comedian took over
for Robin Williams as The Riddler in the blockbuster film Batman
Forever, and, in 1996, he tried his hand at a darker and more menacing
role as a maniacal cable repairman in The Cable Guy. The film, and
Carrey's at-times frightening performance, received decidedly mixed
reviews from critics and audiences. Despite the generally negative
response to the film, Carrey still retained an interest in branching
out into more dramatic roles.
Following a return to all-out comedy in Liar, Liar (1997) as a chronically
dishonest attorney, Carrey explored new territory with his lead
role in the highly acclaimed The Truman Show (1998), Peter Weir's
eerie comedy drama about the perils of all-consuming media manipulation.
Critical respect in hand, Carrey returned to comedy of a different
sort with the lead role in Milos Forman's Man on the Moon (1999),
a much-anticipated biopic of the legendary comic Andy Kaufman. Although
the film boasted a powerhouse performance from Carrey, it earned
less than stellar reviews and did poor business at the box office.
Such was the strength of the actor's portrayal, however, that his
exclusion from the Best Actor nominations at that year's Academy
Awards was a source of protest for a number of industry members.
Carrey returned to straight comedy the following year with the Farrelly
Brothers' Me, Myself & Irene, in which he starred as a cop with
a split personality, both of whom are in love with the same woman
(Renee Zellweger). Though that film fared the least successful of
the Farrellys' efforts to that point, Carrey's anarchic persona
was given seemingly free range and the result was his most unhinged
role since The Mask. Ever seeking acceptance as a skilled dramatist,
Carrey next appeared in the 1991 box-office bomb The Majestic.
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