Timothy Alan Dick (born June 13, 1953), known professionally as Tim Allen, is an American actor and comedian. He is known for playing Tim "The Toolman" Taylor on the ABC sitcom Home Improvement (1991–1999) for which he won a Golden Globe Award and Mike Baxter on the ABC/Fox sitcom Last Man Standing (2011–2021). He voices Buzz Lightyear for the Toy Story franchise for which he won an Annie Award and played Scott Calvin and Santa Claus in The Santa Clause franchise (1994–present). Allen's other films include Tropical Snow (1988), Galaxy Quest (1999), Joe Somebody (2001), Zoom (2006), Wild Hogs (2007), The Six Wives of Henry Lefay (2009), Crazy on the Outside (2010), 3 Geezers! (2013), and El Camino Christmas (2017).
Early life
Allen was born in Denver, Colorado, on June 13, 1953. He is the third oldest of six children of Martha Katherine (née Fox), a community-service worker, and Gerald M. Dick, a real estate agent. Allen has two older brothers, two younger brothers, and a younger sister. His father died in a car accident in November 1964, colliding with a drunk driver when Allen was 11. Two years later, his mother married her high school sweetheart, a business executive, and moved with her six children to Birmingham, Michigan, to be with her new husband and his three children. Allen has said the move meant going from "being in a cool group at one school to being at the bottom [of the social hierarchy at another]."
Allen attended Seaholm High School in Birmingham, where he was in theater and music classes (resulting in his love of classical piano). He then attended Central Michigan University before transferring to Western Michigan University in 1974. At Western Michigan, Allen worked at the student radio station WIDR. In 1976 he received a Bachelor of Science degree in communications, specializing in radio and television production, with a split minor in philosophy and design.
Career
Allen started his career as a comedian in 1975. On a dare from one of his friends, he participated in a comedy night at Mark Ridley's Comedy Castle in Royal Oak, a suburb of Detroit. While in Detroit he began to get recognition appearing in local television commercials and appearing on cable comedy shows such as Gary Thison's Some Semblance of Sanity. Following his release from prison in 1981, he returned to comedy. He moved to Los Angeles and became a regular performer at The Comedy Store. He began performing stand-up appearances on late-night talk shows and specials on record and film. In 1998, Western Michigan awarded Allen an honorary fine arts degree and the Distinguished Alumni Award.
In a magazine interview, Allen once said, "I can only play a part if I can draw on personal experience, and that well can go dry pretty quickly". His initial film debut was as a baggage handler in Tropical Snow (1988). Despite his admitted limited acting range, Allen rose to fame in acting with the sitcom Home Improvement (1991–1999) produced for ABC by Wind Dancer Productions. Allen played the main character Tim "The Tool-Man" Taylor, the father of three boys. Much of the show was based on his stand-up comedy act. In November 1994, Allen simultaneously starred in the highest-grossing film (Walt Disney Pictures's The Santa Clause), topped The New York Times bestseller list with his book Don't Stand Too Close to a Naked Man, and appeared in the top-rated television series (Home Improvement) within one week. Home Improvement ran until 1999, for which he was paid US$1.25 million per episode during the eighth and final season.
In 1995, Allen provided the voice of Buzz Lightyear in the Disney/Pixar blockbuster Toy Story. In 1997, he starred in the family comedy Jungle 2 Jungle from Disney. The next year he returned to voice Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story 2, which was a financial and critical hit. In 1999, he starred in the sci-fi parody Galaxy Quest alongside Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, and Sam Rockwell. In 2002, he reprised his role as Scott Calvin in The Santa Clause 2. Two years later, he starred as Luther Krank in Christmas with the Kranks. In 2006, Zoom was released, starring Allen as Jack Shepard. The same year, he also starred in The Shaggy Dog and The Santa Clause 3. The year 2008 marked his first dramatic turn with a supporting role as an aging action film star in David Mamet's Redbelt.