Biography - Jim Carrey

Who is Jim Carrey?

Jim Carrey is one of the most recognizable Comedians of all time, but being a comedian is not his only profession. Read on to discover more about the Canadian-American actor and comedian who is also known to be a great impressionist, screenwriter, musician, producer as well as a painter.

Jim Carrey – Age, Parents, Siblings

Jim Carrey was born James Eugene Carrey on January 17, 1962, in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. His father Percy Carrey worked as a musician and accountant and his mother Kathleen Carrey was a homemaker. 

Carrey is their fourth child. His three older siblings are sisters Patricia and Rita Carrey and his older brother John Carrey. At the age of 10, Jim Carrey wrote a letter to Carol Burnett, the host of Carol Burnett Show saying that he had already mastered impressions and should be considered for a role. Carrey was overjoyed when he received a reply to his letter.

Education, Ethnicity

For his education, he attended Agincourt Collegiate Institute until grade 10. He also studied at Blessed Trinity Catholic Elementary School and Aldershot High School. However, he did not complete his education but rather dropped out at the age of 16.

His ethnicity includes French, Irish, Scottish, and Canadian.

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Jim Carrey – Girlfriend, Wife, Divorce, Children

Carrey is a divorced man. He was married to Melissa Womer, a former actress, and Comedy Store waitress. He tied the knot with his girlfriend on March 28, 1987. Their child, a daughter named Jane Erin Carrey was born on September 6, 1987. After about 8 years of marriage, Carrey and Womer (now ex-wife) divorced on 11 December 1995.

Jane Erin Carrey is a singer now and has appeared as a contestant in the 2012 American Idol. Jane and her partner became parents when she gave birth to a son Jackson Riley Santana on February 26, 2010, making Jim Carrey a grandfather.

Next year on September 23, 1996, Carrey dated and married his Dumb and Dumber co-star Lauren Holly. The marriage could not even last a year and the divorce was finalized on 29 July 1997.

He then dated his Me, Myself and Irene co-star Renée Zellweger from 1999 to 2000. The Two were even engaged but called off their marriage. Carrey also dated model and actress Jenny McCarthy from 2005 to 2010.

Carrey dated Cathriona White, a native of County Tipperary, Ireland for about a year in 2012.

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Jim Carrey – Career

Early Days

At the initial stages of his career, Carrey’s father helped him to put together a stage act and even drove him to Toronto to his debut at the comedy club Yuk Yuk's. The family had financial problems and could not entirely support Jim Carrey's career.

But after the family moved to a new home, their financial status was manageable and Carrey could concentrate more on his acts. In no time, he was a regularly paid comedian. Comedian Rodney Dangerfield noticed him and signed him to his tour performances. Carrey then moved to Los Angeles and performed at The Comedy Store. 

In 1982, Carrey appeared stand-up show An Evening at the Improv, paving his path into the world of comedy and entertainment. But over the years he has focused more on movies than on Comedy Shows.

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Films, TV Series

He has played roles in movies such as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, The Mask, Dumb and Dumber, Batman Forever (1995), The Cable Guy (1996), Liar Liar, The Truman Show (1998), Me, Myself & Irene, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Bruce Almighty (2003), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004), among others.

Since 2007 he has had continuous success in his movies. He starred in The Number 23 (2007), Horton Hears a Who! (2008), Yes Man (2008), I Love You Phillip Morris (2009), A Christmas Carol (2009), The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013), Kick-Ass 2 (2013), Dumb and Dumber To (November 2014), Kidding (2017).

Carrey has also produced movies/films including Rubble Kings (2015). His documentaries are entitled I Needed Color, Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond — Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton, and the last two were taken up by Netflix. He has a new movie coming up titled Dark Crimes.

Co-stars

On the set of Dumb and Dumber, Jim Carrey has worked alongside Jeff Daniels, Brady Bluhm, Mike Starr, Karen Duffy, and Harland Williams.

Mental health

Carrey has been open about mental health. He has shared that he has battled depression and has taken Prozac to deal with it. Later on to the delight of the fans, he stated that he no longer takes medication and stimulants including coffee.

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Jim Carrey – Controversy, Legal issues

Jim Carrey believes that the MMR Vaccine causes autism. In 2009, he wrote an article for The Huffington Post questioning the merits of vaccination and vaccine research. Carrey led a march called Green Our Vaccines with his former girlfriend Jenny McCarthy in Washington, D.C.

The advocate was to remove toxic substances from children's vaccines. The rally was greatly criticized by David Gorski, an American surgical oncologist, and Steven Parker on the WebMD website.

His actions were criticized by Arthur Caplan, head of the Division of Medical Ethics, at New York University, and by Jeffrey Kluger, a senior writer at Time. They called Carrey’s anti-vaccination statements "ignorant when it comes to vaccines" and "angry, dense, and immune to reason”.

On July 1, 2015, Carrey called California Governor Jerry Brown a "corporate fascist who was poisoning children by enacting the vaccination requirements”.

His ex-girlfriend Cathriona White died from a drug overdose in 2015 and was a suicide victim. The death was ruled out as a suicide. But both Cathriona’s husband and mother sued Carrey for wrongful death. The charges were eventually dismissed.

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Jim Carrey – Net Worth, Salary

The net worth of Carrey is estimated to be around $180 million while the figure on his annual salary is under review.

Jim Carrey – Instagram, Twitter, Facebook

On Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, Jim Carrey is followed by millions of followers.

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