TIM ALLEN
Tim Allen born on June 13, 1953 at Denver, Colorado, USA. A successful stand-up comedian, the headliner of one of television's most popular sitcoms, a movie star, and a best-selling author, Tim Allen spent much of the '90s being a "Male Pig," a source of pride for countless men, and a franchise unto himself. He was born Timothy Allen Dick, in Denver, CO, one of ten brothers and sisters. Mercilessly teased by his peers because of his last name, Allen developed a keen sense of humor to protect himself. His father died in an auto accident in 1964 when Allen was 11, and his mother later married an old high school flame who had also lost his wife in a car crash. Eventually the family moved to a suburb of Detroit. In 1976, Allen graduated from Western Michigan University with a degree in television production and went on to work in a sporting goods store and then in an advertising agency. He made his debut as a stand-up comedian at Detroit's Comedy Castle in 1979 after accepting a dare from a good friend, but his career was cut short when he was arrested for dealing cocaine and sentenced to 15 months in federal prison. Following his release, Allen decided to turn over a new leaf and concentrate on his stand-up career. His early comedy routines were characterized by their vulgarity, and Allen did not find success until he perfected his "Men Are Pigs" routine. A glorious celebration of the masculine mystique centering on the joys of big block engines and tools (especially power tools), punctuated by his trademark manly grunting, the routine made him a hot property on the nightclub circuit and led to a series of televised specials on the Showtime cable network in the early '90s. While constructing his career, Allen moonlighted in television commercials, including spots as Mr. Goodwrench. It was while performing for a Showtime special that he got his break in series television. Jeffrey Katzenberg, the chairman of Disney Studios, saw his act, liked it, and with Walt Disney Company chairman Michael Eisner, offered him the lead in a couple of planned series based on popular films; but Allen didn't feel they were right and suggested instead that they do a series based on his comedy character. They agreed, and Home Improvement, the continuing saga of bumbling TV handyman (whose show somewhat resembled This Old House) Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor and his brood, debuted on the ABC television network in September 1991. It quickly went on to become one of the most consistently highly rated shows on television. Allen made his starring feature film debut in 1994 with the box-office busting The Santa Clause. That same year, he also published a best-selling book, Don't Stand Too Close to a Naked Man. In 1995, he provided the voice for the heroic toy astronaut Buzz Light-year in Disney's computer-generated extravaganza Toy Story, and the following year published his second book I'm Not Really Here, a more philosophical look at his life, his fame, and his family. In 1997, he starred in the largely panned Jungle to Jungle, and could not be seen on the big screen again until 1999. That year — the same year Home Improvement ended its highly successful run — he reprised his Buzz Lightyear role for Toy Story 2 and starred in the sci-fi spoof Galaxy Quest. Though his next film, Big Trouble, was pulled from its original release date and delayed by Touchstone (the studio thought audiences may find the plot involving a missing nuclear bomb distasteful after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks), fans could still get their fill of the popular funnyman with the release of Joe Somebody in late 2001.When Big Trouble and Joe Somebody proved to be box-office duds, Allen returned to familiar territory in 2002, starring in the sequel The Santa Clause 2. With the success of that film under his belt, Allen stuck with the holiday genre for his next starring role. Playing opposite Jamie Lee Curtis, Allen filled the lead for 2004's adaptation of John Grisham's Skipping Christmas, Christmas with the Kranks. Issued on November 24 of that year, the picture is a crass suburban comedy that recounts the tale of Luther and Nora Krank, two Chicago-area domestics who, when they decide to take a Caribbean cruise, are persecuted into celebrating the 25th by their holiday-happy neighbors.Allen's decision to star in the project proved almost fatal; the typical response for a Grisham adaptation might be enthuiastic (The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client) but not so with this turkey. Everyone and his uncle detested the picture - to such a degree that their lambasting mirrored the responses for Ishtar and Gigli years prior. Roger Ebert wrote of Kranks: "[It's] a holiday movie of stunning awfulness that gets even worse when it turns gooey at the end... The movie is not funny, ever, in any way, beginning to end. It's a colossal miscalculation," while Salon's Stephanie Zacharek remarked glumly, "Christmas With the Kranks" professes to be all heart, but it has none at all." Only conservative Christian reviewers responded favorably to it - a tremendous irony, for the movie (like the holiday-themed episodes of Allen's Home Improvement) steers broadly around Biblical references to Christmas and even omits Christian symbolism. The film reportedly made around million dollars, but given its whopping budget of million, this scarcely represents a substantial Hollywood profit. Allen fared slightly better (though not much) with his first 2006 effort, a remake of Disney's The Shaggy Dog - starring the comedian as a district attorney who becomes the sheepdog of the title after suffering from the bite of a Tibetan canine. Some critics responded favorably to this spring release, some with loathing equal to that of their Kranks response; most were simply nonplussed and indifferent. Typical of the responses is Jami Bernard, of The New York Daily News, who asserted, "You get the nagging feeling that Allen put in a week on the set, then recited the rest of his lines into a microphone and went home, tail between his legs." Two additional Allen releases are slated for 2006 - August 2006's Zoom has Allen as Jack, a former Superman-like figure, whose alter ego is Captain Zoom, summoned to a private academy where he must turn the sorry students into miniature superheroes like himself. A second Santa Clause sequel, entitled The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, is due out November 3, 2006; it has Allen reprising his role as Scott Calvin-cumSt. Nick, in an episode where he must stop Jack Frost (Martin Short) from taking over Christmas. Allen's 2007 releases tentatively include Wild Hogs, a comedy about a bunch of Hell's Angels in which he co-stars with Martin Lawrence and John Travolta, and Amigos, a comedy co-produced by Allen and Todd Garner and starring Allen and George Lopez as a pair of ill-matched in-laws who have to jointly raise a grandson. In addition to his acting and writing careers, Allen is involved with Boxing Cat Productions, an advertising agency he founded in 1984 that specializes in television commercials.
