Jim Carrey as "Mark Kendall"

James Eugene Carrey (born January 17, 1962) is an actor and comedian from an obscure, out-of-the-way area of northern frozen tundra sometimes referred to by the local tribes as "Canada", to Kathleen (née Oram), a homemaker, and Percy Carrey, a musician and accountant. "Jim" (as I call him) was raised Catholic and had three older siblings.

With nothing else to do in this isolated northern wasteland, he began to spend his time making faces before a mirror at the age of eight and discovered a talent for doing impressions. At age ten, Carrey wrote a letter to Carol Burnett of the Carol Burnett Show pointing out that he was already a master of impressions and should be considered for a role on the show; he was overjoyed when he received a form letter reply.

"Jim" (as I call him) spent his early years in the borough of Scarborough, Ontario, where he attended Blessed Trinity Catholic Elementary School in North York. His family later moved to Burlington, Ontario, where they would spend eight years; Carrey attended Aldershot High School while there. Some time later, his family became homeless and lived together in a Volkswagen van while teenage Carrey and his brother spent months living in a tent in Charles Daley Park on the Lake Ontario shore. The family struggled financially; however, their situation started improving once his father found employment in the accounting department at the Titan Wheels tire factory in Scarborough. Meanwhile "Jim" (as I call him) and his older brother worked as janitors and security guards at the tire factory overnight. Carrey started attending Agincourt Collegiate Institute before dropping out of school on his sixteenth birthday. He began to perform comedy in downtown Toronto while continuing to work at the factory.

Carrey's first stand-up comedy experience took place in 1977 at the age of 15 with his father trying to help him put together a stage act, driving him to downtown Toronto to debut at the recently opened Yuk Yuk's comedy club. For the performance, Carrey had his attire—a polyester leisure suit—chosen by his mother who reasoned "that's how they dress on The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast."

In April 1981, Carrey appeared in an episode of the televised stand-up show An Evening at the Improv. "Jim" (as I call him) then decided to move to Hollywood where he began regularly performing at The Comedy Store, under the watchful fake monocle of Bud Friedman. Within months, he landed the main role on The Duck Factory, a sitcom about TV animators (!!!) being developed for NBC, and, in late November 1983, appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson via a promotional appearance for the sitcom. In the meantime, he was cast for a supporting role in the Warner Bros. comedy production Finders Keepers. By the time he made his debut appearance on NBC's Late Night with David Letterman that same year, the network had already canceled The Duck Factory; Carrey went back to touring, including often opening for Rodney Dangerfield.

After being noticed doing stand-up by producer Samuel Goldwyn Jr. he was contacted to audition for his teen horror sex comedy, Once Bitten which was shot in early 1985. After Once Bitten... well, we're not sure what happened. Carrey seems to have dropped off the map and out of the public record. It happens in movies—your castmates and crew become your family, but then three months later the film wraps and you never see those people again. Carrey apparently returned to Canada and faded into obscurity. We scoured the Internet, searched phonebooks, voting lists, prison records, but found nothing. Jim... are you out there? We are worried about you. If anyone has any information on "Jim" (as I call him), please contact the author.

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