He was the youngest of four children. His mother, Kathleen, worked as a stay-at-home mom, and his father, Percy, was a saxophone player and an accountant. Life wasn't easy for young Carrey. His mother suffered from chronic health issues, and his father struggled to support his family.
After leaving school in 1978 to help support his family, Carrey worked for two years as a janitor in a factory. He 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 struggled to support his mother in her battle with severe depression. And he also had to move to Toronto, Canada in his teen years – living with his family in their Volkswagen camper for the first eight months of their residency. Barriers presented themselves, but Carrey prevailed.
So, he made a conservative choice and instead he got a job as an accountant." Then Carrey reveals the moral of the story. "When I was 12 years old, he was let go from that safe job," he added.
The Yes Man actor has been married twice: to Melissa Womer from 1987 to 1995 and to Lauren Holly from 1996 to 1997. Carrey shares daughter Jane, who competed on American Idol in 2012, with his first wife.
James Eugene Carrey was born on January 17, 1962 in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada, and is the youngest of four children of Kathleen (Oram), a homemaker, and Percy Carrey, an accountant and jazz musician.
Diagnosed with both dyslexia and ADHD as a child, Carrey recalls experiencing myriad behavioral issues while growing up in school. Treatment such as medication has helped Carrey immensely, as has focusing his energy into his very physical comedy and being a spokesman for those with ADHD.
He was 16 years old. Unfortunately, the Carrey family lost their home. They were forced to live in a tent around Canada for a period of time. This difficult period in his life reportedly made him very angry.
On Wednesday's episode of the Daily Show, the actor, writer and comedian told host Trevor Noah why he decided to devote his book of real and fictional Hollywood encounters to his older sibling, who died of aplastic anemia. "I wanted to let the world know I had a very special brother," Carrey told Noah.
His first marriage was to former actress and Comedy Store waitress Melissa Womer, whom he married on 28 March 1987. Their daughter, Jane Erin Carrey, was born 6 September 1987. Jane was a 2012 contestant on American Idol.
In a 2004 interview on 60 MINUTES, Carrey led correspondent Steve Kroft to a secluded place on his property where he goes to “hang out with Buddha and Krishna and you know, all those guys.” When Kroft asked Carrey if he was Buddhist, Carrey replied: “I'm a Buddhist, I'm a Muslim, I'm a Christian.
A woman said that people are "disappointed" when they meet her as they always assume she is Hollywood legend Jim Carrey - because she is the spitting image of him. Heather Shaw, 34, is a comedian and became a viral success after pretending she was Ace Ventura's long-lost daughter.
Carrey actually has a chipped front tooth from an accident in his childhood, and he decided to have the cap removed on the original film to make his character look a little more deranged.
Speaking to “Access Hollywood” this week, Carrey said he is planning to retire from acting following his reprisal of the villainous Robotnik in the upcoming “Sonic” sequel. How serious is Carrey about leaving acting behind? “Fairly serious,” he said.
In December 2005, McCarthy began dating actor Jim Carrey. They did not make their relationship public until June 2006. She announced on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on April 2, 2008, that she and Carrey were living together but had no plans to marry, as they did not need a "piece of paper".
However, he told the Hollywood Reporter, what was first just Carrey enjoying the attention then became a remedy to make his parents feel better. “My mom was addicted to pain medication. She was very sick in a lot of ways. She was lovely, too, but she was a child of alcoholics and she had issues.
So he made a conservative choice and got a safe job as an accountant. And as time moved on it wore him down and he got a little bit bitter. When Jim was twelve years old his father was let go from that job at the age of 51. According to Jim, that really broke him.
