All All. Sign In. Galaxy Quest premiere. List activity. Tim Allen. His father, a real estate salesman, was killed in a collision with a drunk driver while driving his family home from a University of Colorado football game, when Tim was eleven years old. His mother, a community service worker, remarried her high school sweetheart, an Episcopalian deacon, two years after Tim's father's death. He was raised with his many siblings and step-siblings. When Tim was young, his family moved to Birmingham, Michigan.
In high school, his favorite subject was shop, of course, and after high school, he attended Western Michigan University and graduated with a degree in Television Production in In , he was arrested on drug charges and spent two years in jail. Upon his release, he had a new outlook on life and on a dare from a friend, started his comedy career at the Comedy Castle in Detroit. While continuing to film his television series throughout most of the s, he starred in a string of blockbuster movies, including The Santa Clause , Toy Story , Toy Story 2 and Galaxy Quest In August , he developed and unveiled his own signature line of power tools, manufactured by Ryobi.
In May , he ended his series Home Improvement after eight seasons and in , he filmed such movies as Big Trouble and Joe Somebody Alan Rickman. Actor Writer Director Die Hard Alan Rickman had an older brother David , a younger brother Michael , and a younger sister Sheila. When Alan was 8 years old, his father died.
He attended Latymer Upper School on a scholarship. He opened a successful graphic design business, Graphiti, with friends and managed it for several years before his love of theatre led him to seek an audition with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art RADA. At the relatively late age of 26, Rickman received a scholarship to RADA, which started a professional acting career that has lasted nearly 40 years, a career which has spanned stage, screen and television, and overlapped into directing, as well.
In , he first came to the attention of American audiences as the Vicomte de Valmont in "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" on Broadway he was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance in the role. Denied the role in the film version of the show, Rickman instead made his first film appearance opposite Bruce Willis in Die Hard as the villainous Hans Gruber. His take on the urbane villain set the standard for screen villains for decades to come. Although often cited as being a master of playing villains, Rickman actually played a wide variety of characters, such as the romantic cello-playing ghost Jamie in Anthony Minghella 's Truly Madly Deeply and the noble Colonel Brandon of Sense and Sensibility He treated audiences to his comedic abilities in such films as Dogma , Galaxy Quest and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , and roles like Dr.
