Making his mark upon the movie industry as the frenetic rubber-faced comedian that’s always clowning around, Jim Carrey has now become one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood, but with his turn in this year’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” showing a humble side to Carrey that’s worlds away from the “Al-righty then!” physical gurning of his early work, is the 42-year old comedian finally growing up?

Born in 1962, the youngest of four children, James Eugene Carrey was always aiming to get into the spotlight, performing routines for anyone who gave him their attention. At the age of 10, he had sent in his details to a TV show in the hope that they would let him make an appearance, and, at school, his teacher would allow him a few minutes at the end of the day to do stand-up comedy for his classmates on the basis that he had to behave himself during the rest of his lessons. When he was just 17 years old, Jim Carrey moved to Los Angeles and managed to get a regular slot at The Comedy Store.

During this time, he won minor roles in a fairly unsuccessful sitcom and films, but in 1994, Jim Carrey finally earned the attention of the world. His breakthrough role as ‘Ace Ventura: Pet Detective’ was a showcase for his unique brand of physical comedy. Playing an eccentric animal-loving detective who goes on the hunt for the Miami Dolphins missing mascot, Carrey became an instant hit with cinemagoers. Later in the year came ‘The Mask’, a fun cartoon-inspired film that was originally envisioned as a dark horror film, until Carrey got involved and used it to further flaunt his wacky behaviour. Towards the end of the year came ‘Dumb and Dumber’, an outrageous comedy which sees Carrey alongside Jeff Daniels starring as two incredibly-stupid friends who try to return a suitcase full of money to its rightful owner. By 1995, Jim Carrey was a household name.

With his continued run of success, Jim Carrey went onto replace Robin Williams as The Riddler in ‘Batman Forever’ (1995), and also starred in the sequel to his first hit in ‘Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls’ (1995). His career reached a new peak when, in 1996, Carrey was paid $20 million for his performance in ‘The Cable Guy’ – at that time, the highest sum ever paid to a comic actor – but the film was critically panned and became Carrey’s first big flop. He bounced back the next year with ‘Liar, Liar’ (1997), in which he played Fletcher Reid, a flash attorney who finds that he is only capable of telling the truth after his son’s birthday wish is granted. Although this reassured cinema audiences that Jim Carrey was back on track again, he had his own doubts about how long his manic comedy could continue being entertaining and so decided to try a different direction.

In (1998), Carrey starred in ‘The Truman Show’, in which Truman Burbank (Carrey) starts to realise that his whole life is a just an elaborate set for a TV show. Putting away his silly faces and big grins, Carrey surprised moviegoers with a sensitive and modest performance that showed off Carrey’s true acting talents. This was followed by ‘Man on the Moon’ (1999) a biopic of eccentric comedian Andy Kaufman. Carrey felt an affinity with Kaufman (they even shared the same birthday) and became lost in the role, living and acting as Kaufman throughout the duration of filming.

After these insightful performances, both of which earned him golden globes, Carrey returned to comedic form in ‘Me, Myself & Irene’ (2000), playing a schizophrenic state trooper and adopted make-up and prosthetics to play ‘The Grinch’ (2000). After Carrey’s next big flop, ‘The Majestic’ (2001), a drama about a film writer in 1951 who is victimised because he unwittingly attends a Communist meeting, Carrey took some time off before returning in ‘Bruce Almighty’ in 2003. Playing a TV reporter who is given God’s powers, this marked a return to Carrey’s more trademark comedy.

This year’s release of ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’, however, showed a more shy and reflective side to Carrey. Playing Joel, a jilted boyfriend who discovers that his girlfriend has had her memories erased of him and he decides to get the same treatment done to himself. As memories of their painful break-up are wiped, however, he begins to rediscover his passion for her. Carrey said himself that Joel is closer to what he is like in real life when he is not performing.

So is this the mark of a new, serious era for Jim Carrey? Well not as far as his next projects are concerned. Coming to our screens later this year in ‘Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events’, Carrey again puts on the prosthetics to play the evil Count Olaf who tries to steal the rich inheritance of two orphans in this fantasy-comedy for children. Also he is currently filming ‘Fun with Dick and Jane’ (2005), a comedy about a married couple who turn to a life of crime in order to pay their bills. With movies like these in the pipeline for Jim Carrey, it seems that cinema audiences can relax for the time being as he doesn’t look like he is going to give up his hilarious antics anytime soon. As he said in ‘The Mask’: “P-A-R-T…Y? Because I gotta!”