| Mike Myers | |
|---|---|
Myers at the Shrek the Third London premiere in June 2007 |
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| Birth name | Michael John Myers |
| Born | May 25, 1963 Scarborough, Ontario, Canada |
| Medium | Film, Television, Stand up |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Years active | 1975 – present |
| Influences | Peter Sellers, Dan Aykroyd, John Cleese, Chevy Chase |
| Spouse | Robin Ruzan (1993–2007) Kelly Tisdale (2010–present) |
| Notable works and roles | Saturday Night Live Wayne's World Wayne's World 2 So I Married an Axe Murderer Austin Powers Shrek |
| Emmy Awards | |
| Writing In A Variety, Music Or Comedy Program 1989 Saturday Night Live |
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| American Comedy Awards | |
| Funniest Actor in a Motion Picture (Leading Role) 2000 Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me |
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| Razzie Award | |
| Worst Actor 2008 The Love Guru |
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Michael John "Mike" Myers (born May 25, 1963) is a Canadian actor, comedian, screenwriter, and film producer of British parentage. He was a long-time cast member on the NBC sketch show Saturday Night Live in the late 1980s and the early 1990s and starred as the title characters in the films Wayne's World, Austin Powers, and the Shrek film series.
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Myers was born and raised in Scarborough, Ontario, the son of British-born parents Eric Myers (1922–1991), an insurance man and World War II veteran of the Royal Engineers, and his wife Alice E. Hind (born 1926), an office supervisor and veteran of the Royal Air Force.[1] Both of his parents are from Liverpool, England. He has two older brothers, Peter Myers and Paul Myers, an indie rock singer-songwriter, broadcaster and author. Myers is of English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry,[2] and was raised Protestant.[3]
Myers began school at Bishopbriggs Academy but changed to the Stephen Leacock Collegiate Institute in Scarborough, Ontario. He began performing in commercials at age eight, and at ten he made a commercial for British Columbia Hydro Electric, with Gilda Radner playing his mother. In high school he would become the Wayne’s World character later known as Wayne Campbell. When he graduated from high school, he joined the Second City Theatre. However, he left to tour Britain with comedian Neil Mullarkey.
One of Myers's first acting jobs was in a TV commercial when he was ten years old.[1] Gilda Radner played his mother. A few months later, according to Myers, his brother was teasing him about his "girlfriend (Radner) being on some stupid show on Saturday". Myers swore that, one day, he too would be on that show, the then-fledgling Saturday Night Live.
Myers graduated from high school in 1982 and was immediately accepted into the Second City Canadian Touring Company, after which he moved to the UK where in 1985 he was one of the founding members of The Comedy Store Players, an improvisational group based at The Comedy Store in London. The next year, he starred in the British children's TV program Wide Awake Club, parodying the show's normal exuberance with his own "Sound Asleep Club", in partnership with Neil Mullarkey. He returned to Toronto and Second City in 1986 as a cast member in the Second City's Toronto main stage show. In 1988 he moved from Second City in Toronto to Chicago. In Chicago, he trained and performed at the Improv Olympic. He made numerous appearances, including as Wayne Campbell, on Toronto's Citytv in the early 1980s, on the alternative video show City Limits hosted by Christopher Ward. Myers also appeared as his Wayne Campbell character in the music video for Ward's Canadian hit "Boys and Girls". Later, Ward would appear as one of Austin Powers' band members in Ming Tea in Myers's popular movie series. The Wayne Campbell character was featured extensively in the 1986 summer series It's Only Rock & Roll, produced by Toronto's Insight Production Company for CBC Television. Wayne appeared both in studio and in a series of location sketches directed and edited by Allan Novak. Myers wrote another sketch, Kurt and Dieter co-starring with Second City's Dana Andersen and also directed by Novak, which would later turn into the popular "Sprockets" sketch on Saturday Night Live.
On Sunday 3 July 2011 Myers returned to The Comedy Store in London to reprise his role 'for one night only' with the improvisational troupe (The Comedy Store Players). The definitive UK comedy website Chortle were full of glowing praise for Myers, claiming "Myers himself excelled, (and was) strikingly adept and quick-witted, when his laughs came they were the biggest squeals of the night...this was no chore for Myers- being funny comes naturally to him- he could’ve spent the whole two hours farting the Canadian national anthem and the audience would’ve still lapped it up."[4]
In 1992, Myers and Dana Carvey adapted Wayne's World into a full-length motion picture based on the SNL sketch. It was among the most successful movies of the year and the following year a sequel was released - Wayne's World 2. That year Myers also starred in So I Married an Axe Murderer which garnered a cult following. The characters in the movie were based on people Myers knew growing up in the Bridlewood section of Scarborough. After Wayne's World 2, Myers took a hiatus from television.
After a four year hiatus from television, Myers returned to acting in 1997 with the film Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, then a sequel in 1999, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, finally topping it off with Austin Powers in Goldmember in 2002. Myers played both the title role (Austin Powers) and the villain (Dr. Evil), as well as other characters, in all three Austin Powers films. In 1998, he played one of his rare non-comedic roles in the film 54: Steve Rubell, proprietor of New York City's famous Studio 54, a 1970s discotheque. The film was moderately successful, and Myers's performance was widely praised. Myers later parodied the club as "Studio 69" in Goldmember.
In June 2000, Myers was sued by Universal Pictures for $3.8 million for backing out of a contract to play Dieter, the SNL character, in a feature film. Myers said he refused to honor the $20 million contract because he did not want to cheat moviegoers with an unacceptable script - one that he himself had written. Myers countersued, and a settlement was reached after several months where Myers agreed to make another film with Universal. That film would be The Cat in the Hat, released in November 2003 and starring Myers as the title character. In 2001, Myers played the title character in the DreamWorks animated film Shrek (2001). He reprised this role in Shrek 4-D in 2003, Shrek 2 (2004), Shrek the Third, and the Christmas special Shrek The Halls, both in 2007. In 2009 he did another non-comedic role, as British General Ed Fenech, in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. In 2010 Myers returned for what is apparently the last in the Shrek series, Shrek Forever After. Myers made a cameo appearance in Britney Spears' music video 'Boys' as his film character Austin Powers. Myers is a member of the band Ming Tea along with The Bangles' guitarist and vocalist Susanna Hoffs and musician Matthew Sweet. They performed the songs "BBC" and "Daddy Wasn't There" for the Austin Powers movies.
In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was voted among the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.
During a CBS interview in 2007, Myers noted that he normally takes three years between films. He spends one year "living his life" and then writes various screenplays, develops characters, practices them in front of live audiences, and then selects one of the screenplays to film. Myers noted that this was the Marx Brothers' procedure for developing their film material.
Myers received the MTV Generation award in June 2007, making him the 2nd Canadian to win the award (Jim Carrey was the first in 2006), for bringing his unique style of comedy to small and big screens alike.
Myers began dating actress and comedy writer Robin Ruzan in the late 1980s after meeting at a hockey game in Chicago, during which Myers caught a puck and used the incident as an icebreaker to strike up a conversation with Ruzan. The couple married in 1993, and Myers later referred to Ruzan as "his muse".[5] The couple filed for divorce in December 2005.[6]
In 2006, cafe owner Kelly Tisdale confirmed reports that she and Myers were dating, telling the National Enquirer, "we're actually surprised you didn't find out about us sooner." Myers and Tisdale wed in New York in the fall of 2010.[7] The couple have a son, Spike, born in September 2011.[8]
Myers is a Dungeons & Dragons player[9] and was one of several celebrities to have participated in the Worldwide Dungeons & Dragons Game Day in 2006.[10]
Myers has played for Hollywood United F.C., a celebrity studded U.S. football team.[11] He played in the 2010 Soccer Aid for UNICEF UK football match, England vs. R.O.W (Rest of the World) and successfully scored his penalty during a sudden death shootout after the game ended 2-2 (June 6, 2010). The Rest of the World team beat England for the first time since the tournament started.
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Wayne’s World | Wayne Campbell | Also Writer |
| 1993 | So I Married an Axe Murderer | Charlie McKenzie/ Stuart McKenzie | |
| Wayne’s World 2 | Wayne Campbell | Also Writer | |
| 1997 | Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery | Austin Powers / Dr. Evil | Also Writer/ Producer |
| 1998 | 54 | Steve Rubell | |
| The Thin Pink Line | Tim Broderick | ||
| Pete’s Meteor | Pete | ||
| 1999 | Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me | Austin Powers / Dr. Evil / Fat Bastard / Austin Ten-Minutes-From-Now | Also Writer/ Producer |
| Mystery, Alaska | Donnie Shulzhoffer | ||
| 2001 | Shrek | Shrek / The Narrator | Voice |
| 2002 | Austin Powers in Goldmember | Austin Powers / Dr. Evil / Fat Bastard / Goldmember | Also Writer/ Producer |
| 2003 | Nobody Knows Anything! | 'Eye' Witness | |
| The Cat in the Hat | The Cat | Nominated - Razzie Award for Worst Actor | |
| Shrek 4-D | Shrek | Voice | |
| View from the Top | John Witney | ||
| 2004 | Shrek 2 | Shrek | Voice |
| 2006 | Home | Himself | |
| 2007 | Shrek the Third | Shrek | Voice |
| 2008 | The Love Guru | Guru Maurice Pitka | Also Writer/Producer Razzie Award for Worst Actor Razzie Award for Worst Screenplay Razzie Award for Worst Picture |
| 2009 | Inglourious Basterds | Gen. Ed Fenech | |
| 2010 | Shrek Forever After | Shrek | Voice |
Myers has won the following awards:
The following characters were created and played by Myers on SNL:
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