One teacher wrote on Jim Carrey’s report card while he was in school, “Jim finishes his work first and then disrupts the class.” No one knew what the future held for one of Hollywood’s funniest actors at the time. On January 17, 1962, Carrey was born into a regular, middle-class household in Newmarket, Canada. Whether you believe it or not, the Bruce Almighty star struggled to make friends in school due to his dyslexia. Despite this, he was able to make friends because of his ability to make his peers laugh.

When his father lost his job as an accountant, things took a turn for the worse. Carrey, who was 12 years old at the time, and his siblings had to fend for themselves and work a variety of jobs to help support the family. He had to drop out of school when he was fifteen years old and work as a janitor.

“My father lost his job when he was 51 and that was the real “wow,” the kick in the guts,” Carrey recalled in an interview with the Actor’s Studio. The humiliation of losing their home and having to live in their vehicle was added to the mix. “We lived in a van for a while, and we worked all together as security guards and janitors,” Carrey explained. Life had simply been too difficult. Despite being a “straight-A student.” He eventually decided he couldn’t study any longer and dropped out at the age of 16. Of the decision, Carrey continued, “an eight-hour day in a factory” after school left him wanting to “bash somebody’s head in.” It also drained all of his self-confidence, and he ended up “not wanting to know anybody’s name” and “not wanting to make a friend.”

Carrey developed his talent for stand-up comedy during the difficult situations he suffered as a child.

Carrey chose to leave his job as a janitor in 1979. He later worked as an opening act for comedians Buddy Hackett and Rodney Dangerfield.

Carrey got his first acting role at the age of 18 in the TV series “The All-Night Show.” He made his debut appearance on The Tonight Show when he was 21 years old. Carrey said of his early success, “I don’t think human beings learn anything without desperation. Desperation is a necessary ingredient to learning anything or creating anything. Period. If you ain’t desperate at some point, you ain’t interesting.”

He promised himself as a struggling actor and comedian that he would sign a movie that would pay him $10 million. He told Oprah that he signed a fake check for the amount as a reminder of his aim and kept it in his wallet. After his success in Ace Venture, he went on to star in Dumb And Dumber, a film that earned him more than $10 million. Eleanor Goldhar, the publicist for Toronto’s Yuk-Yuk Comedy Club, where Jim made his debut, said she had always noticed Jim’s energy. “You could see him watching and listening – observing closely, paying attention to everything that was going on,” she added.

Carrey catapulted to stardom when was cast in the successful 1990 sketch comedy television series “In Living Color.” His outstanding performance in the 1994 comedy “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,” almost made him the world’s most famous actor.

Carrey went on to feature in a number of hit films, including “The Mask”, “Batman Forever” and “Liar Liar” (1997).

Carrey received a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture for his role as Truman Burbank in The Truman Show (1998).

Carrey also portrayed Andy Kaufman in the movie Man on the Moon (1999), for which he earned his second Golden Globe. He was once one of Hollywood’s highest-paid actors, asking $20 million for a single film. Since his days as a janitor living in a van, Carrey has come a long way.

He found love as a result of his success, but nothing seemed to endure. The comedian was even labeled “a hard guy to date” by one source, saying that “Jim can run hot and he can run cold. He is someone who desperately needs to be with someone, then just as desperately needs to be alone. But at the same time, he can be a very loving, very compassionate guy.”