Arguably the top screen comedian of the 1990s, Canadian-born entertainer Jim Carrey has taken equal parts of his idol Jerry Lewis, his spiritual ancestor Harry Ritz, and loose-limbed eccentric dancer Ray Bolger, combining them with a gloriously uninhibited screen image uniquely his own. Carrey's life has not always been a barrel of laughs; he was born 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 even 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, Carrey was making a good living as a stand-up 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 stardom came Carrey's way in 1990 as the resident "white guy" on Keenan Ivory Wayans' Fox TV Network comedy weekly In Living Color. The most popular of Carrey's many characterizations on this program was the grotesquely disfigured Fire Marshal Bob, 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. The "Year" of Carrey, was 1994, with 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, Jim Carrey took over for Robin Williams as The Riddler in the blockbuster film Batman Forever. In 1996, Carrey tried his hand at a darker, less silly role as a maniacal cable repairman in The Cable Guy. The film, and his at times frightening performance, received decidedly mixed reviews from critics and audiences. Despite the generally negative response to the film, Carrey is still interested in branching out into more dramatic roles. He returned to crazy comedy in Liar, Liar(1997) as a deceptive attorney whose life is nearly destroyed when his neglected son's birthday wish comes true and he finds himself unable to lie. In 1998, Carrey moved to a more dramatic role in the highly acclaimed The Truman Show, a comedy drama that comments on all-pervasive media manipulation.