Tim Allen

Tim Allen will be the first to tell you he�s a Dick. He hasn�t, however, made a career of it.

In fact, he hasn�t been Timothy Alan Dick since 1979, the year he accepted a friend�s dare and took the stage at Detroit�s Comedy Castle. Thinking audiences might find his name funnier than his schtick, he dropped the Dick and plowed ahead.

Allen was born in 1953 in Denver. His father was killed in a car accident when he was 11; his mother remarried, and the family relocated to the suburbs of Detroit. He worked at an advertising agency after graduating from Western Michigan University.

From this decidedly Midwestern existence, Allen developed his early routines, which at least one reviewer characterized as �vulgar.� The vulgarity, however, struck a chord with audiences, enough so that he decided to pursue comedy full time. Alas, his ambitions were literally arrested when he was busted for dealing cocaine and sentenced to two years in federal prison. Good for material, bad for the career ...

After being rehabilitated and restored to civilian life, Allen began his showbiz odyssey in earnest, honing his standup spiel while earning extra cash by appearing in ads, including a gig as the venerable Mr. Goodwrench that gained him ironically anonymous nationwide exposure as a character not too far removed from the one that would make him famous.

It was not until he perfected his so-called �Men Are Pigs� act that Allen became engrained into the consciousness of the American middle class � lower middle crass, er, class, according to some detractors -- and found himself on the fast track to fame and fortune. Extolling the virile virtues of power tools and cars, and punctuated by trademark grunting, the routine became a cultural phenomenon and led directly to a two-program deal with Showtime. Shortly thereafter, Disney�s Glimmer Twins, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Michael Eisner, approached Allen to star in a series of television shows based on popular films such as �Turner and Hootch.� The audacious comedian forsook this manna from heaven and entreated for the freedom to develop his own program about his stand-up character. Thus was born �Home Improvement,� in which Allen played Tim �The Tool Man� Taylor, a bumbling crossbreeding of Bob Vila and Dennis The Menace.

And there was no looking back. During �Home Improvement�s� 1991-1999 run, Allen won eight consecutive People�s Choice Awards, plus a Golden Globe. He also made a successful leap to the big screen, starring in �The Santa Clause� (1994), which grossed nearly $190 million (and whose sequel opens here this month) and voicing the lovably befuddled Buzz Lightyear in Disney�s �Toy Story� franchise. His books, �Don�t Stand Too Close to a Naked Man� (1994) and �I�m Not Really Here� (1996), sold like the proverbial hotcakes. At one point in 1994, Allen had the number one TV show, the top-grossing film and the best-selling book in America. In 1997, he was ranked #13 on Forbes� list of the highest-paid entertainers ($66 million, between The Rolling Stones and John Grisham); he leapt to #6 the next year, his $77 million trailing James Cameron but besting Michael Crichton.

To look at it from another angle, Allen has achieved the kind of success Alan Thicke dreams about. He�s clearly a niche actor, a persona compatible with only certain kinds of projects that appeal to a specific, albeit lucrative, market. His career now is all about entertaining the kind of typical middle-class family in which he grew up by playing average, likable guys who, though flawed, learn from their mistakes -- guys not unlike himself. He probably knows he�s not making art; but he also knows he isn�t hurting anyone.

You don�t read about Tim Allen shoplifting, bludgeoning paparazzi or speeding down Sunset with a fifth of vodka in his gut (though he did get a DUI in 1997 in Michigan). Instead, you�re likely to hear about how he donates every cent from sales of his signature line of tools to charity, or his numerous benefit appearances. Unlike some of his peers, he�s scaled the heights of celebrity yet for the most part kept his feet on terra firma, all the while faithfully doing what he knows he does best.

Which just goes to show you don�t have to be a Dick to make it big in Tinsel Town.