Jim Carrey picture

Jim Carrey in his sophomore year in high school in Burlington, Ontario, Canada, 1970s. During this time, Jim and his family were so poor that they were all living out of a van. After school, Jim and his brother would work 8-hour shifts as janitors and security guards at a tire factory. At age 16, Jim quit school and continued working at the factory while honing his craft as a comedian.

In an interview with the Hamilton Spectator in 2007, Jim said, "If my career in show business hadn't panned out, I would probably be working today in Hamilton, Ontario, at the Dofasco steel mill." When he was young, he saw the steel mills on the other side of Burlington Bay and believed that's “where the great jobs were.” Regarding his father, Jim had this to say, “My father could have been a great comedian but he didn't believe that that was possible for him, and so he made a conservative choice. Instead, he got a safe job as an accountant, and when I was 12 years old, he was let go from that safe job, and our family had to do whatever we could to survive. I learned many great lessons from my father. Not the least of which was that: You can fail at what you don't want. So you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.”