Comedy / Film & TV
Tim Allen
born 1953 · comedian, actor
Home Improvement star and voice of Buzz Lightyear who grew up in Birmingham, Michigan, learned stand-up in Detroit's clubs and set his hit sitcom in suburban Detroit.
- Born
Denver, Colorado
age 73- Birth name
- Timothy Alan Dick
- Detroit years
- 1966–1970s, 1980s
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Tim Allen was born Timothy Alan Dick in Denver, and at thirteen he moved to Birmingham, Michigan, after his mother remarried there. He graduated from Seaholm High School, then studied at Central Michigan and Western Michigan University, where he earned a degree in communications in 1976. In 1978 he was arrested at the Kalamazoo airport for cocaine possession; he pleaded guilty and spent more than two years in federal prison before his parole in 1981. Back in metro Detroit he built his stand-up act in local clubs, above all Mark Ridley's Comedy Castle, which he has long credited with starting his career. His everyman routines about tools and manhood became Home Improvement (1991–1999), set in suburban Detroit, where his character wore sweatshirts from Michigan colleges. He also voiced Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story, and since 2009 his has been the voice of the state's Pure Michigan tourism ads.
Highlights
- Tim 'The Tool Man' Taylor in Home Improvement (1991–1999), set in suburban Detroit
- Voice of Buzz Lightyear in the Toy Story films
- The Santa Clause (1994) and Galaxy Quest (1999)
- Narrator of the Pure Michigan tourism campaign from 2009
- Golden Globe for Home Improvement (1995)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · 1966–1971
Seaholm High School
Birmingham public high school Allen attended after moving to Michigan, where theater and music classes gave him a love of classical piano.
Performed here · 1979–1990s
Mark Ridley's Comedy Castle
Metro Detroit's best-known comedy club, opened in 1979 in a Bloomfield Hills restaurant basement and now in Royal Oak; Allen's home stage early on, and he kept dropping in for surprise sets.