Jim Carrey turns 50 today, here's 13 things you may not have known about him

 

Believe it or not, ol’ Rubberface, Jim Carrey celebrates his 50th birthday today! With movies such as The Mask, Ace Ventura, Dumb and Dumber and Liar Liar, the wonderfully expressive comedy master has left an indelible mark on pop culture. In celebration of his half century, here’s some interesting and not well known factoids about the man, that the guys over at Movie.com rounded up a short while ago:

1. At age 10, he sent his resume to Carol Burnett.

2. Wrote himself a check for $20 million and kept it in his wallet until he earned that amount for The Cable Guy (1996). First actor to reach 20 million-dollar mark salary (for The Cable Guy (1996)

3. Wrote letters to Tupac Shakur when Tupac was in prison to help him laugh and smile. Tupac said that Carrey was his favorite actor.

4. He was originally cast as “Dr. Evil” in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), but he had to drop out of the role due to a scheduling conflict with Liar Liar (1997).

5. Was considered for the roles of Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) and Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory(2005), both of which eventually went to Johnny Depp.

6. Auditioned for the role of Farmer Ted in the film Sixteen Candles (1984). Eventually, actor Anthony Michael Hall won the part.

7. As a child, he used to wear his tap shoes to bed just in case his parents needed cheering up in the middle of the night.

8. At one point he and his family all worked as janitors at a factory to make a living.

9. Bought a Harley Davidson motorcycle and got a vanity license plate for it which read “NO TAG” as a joke. This resulted in Jim receiving numerous traffic tickets in the mail that were meant for other people. As it turns out, when filling out a ticket, police officers write “no tag” in the license plate number slot on the ticket when the offending vehicle has no license plate. In some cases, this was interpreted as the actual license plate number, as it was in Jim’s case, which caused the tickets to be routed to him.

10. At one time, Carrey was slated to star as the lead in Meet the Parents (2000) and even contributed jokes to the screenplay, such as the main character being named “Focker”.

11. Shares the same birthday with Andy Kaufman, who he played in Man on the Moon (1999).

12. During the filming of Me, Myself & Irene (2000), he and the production crew attended a private music show of the band Phish on June 24th 1999 at the guitarist/vocalist house in Careystock, Vermont. There, he sang two songs with Phish, “Hey You” by Bachman Turner Overdrive and “Come Together” by The Beatles.

13. Performed his first stand-up routine (with disastrous results) in a yellow suit and tails (made by his mother) similar to what he would later wear in The Mask (1994).

And to boot, here’s a nice compilation of Mr Carrey’s best moments:

Last Updated: January 17, 2012