Dutch postcard by Boomerang freecards, Amsterdam. Photo: Paramount / UIP. Mike Myers and Dana Carvey in Wayne's World 2 (Stephen Surjik, 1993).
French postcard by Citron Bleu, no. 5. Mike Myers in Austin Powers - International Man of Mystery (Jay Roach, 1997).
Spanish postcard by Memory Card, no. 564. Mike Myers and Heather Graham in Austin Powers - The Spy Who Shagged Me (Jay Roach, 1999).
A TV show called Wayne's World
Michael John 'Mike' Myers was born in 1963 in Scarborough, Canada. He grew up in Toronto. He is the son of Alice Hind and Eric Myers. His eldest brother, Paul, is an indie rock singer, radio DJ and writer. At the age of eight, he began appearing in adverts, and at nine he featured in a commercial for British Columbia Hydro Electric, alongside Gilda Radner, who played his mother.
After graduating from high school, Myers was accepted into The Second City Canadian touring company. He moved to the United Kingdom, and in 1985, he was one of the founding members of The Comedy Store Players, an improvisational group based at The Comedy Store in London. From 1989, he was one of the writers and part of the cast of Saturday Night Live.
On Saturday Night Live, he parodied Mick Jagger, among others. A popular sketch of Saturday Night Live was the basis for the film Wayne's World (Penelope Spheeris, 1992). In this popular comedy, Myers starred as Wayne Campbell alongside Dana Carvey as Garth Algar. They play the hosts of a TV show called Wayne's World.
The following year, Mike Myers starred with Nancy Travis in the Horror comedy So I Married an Axe Murderer (Thomas Schlamme, 1993) and with Dana Carvey in Wayne's World 2 (Stephen Surjik, 1993).
A huge success was Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (Jay Roach, 1997). Myers both wrote the script and starred in the lead role. He also played Austin's nemesis, the supervillain Dr Evil. The film is a parody of the older James Bond films, other spy films from the 1960s, and the Swinging Sixties. The film grossed $68 million, after which two sequels followed: Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (Jay Roach, 1999) and Austin Powers 3: Goldmember (Jay Roach, 2002). Myers also played nightclub owner Steve Rubell in 54 (Mark Christopher, 1998) about the rise and fall of the New York nightclub Studio 54.
Vintage postcard, no. PC0486. Photo: Paramount / UIP. Mike Myers and Dana Carvey in Wayne's World 2 (Stephen Surjik, 1993).
British poster postcard by Cinema. French poster of Mike Myers and Elizabeth Hurley in Austin Powers - International Man of Mystery (Jay Roach, 1997).
American promotion card for Virgin by Max Racks. Photo: New Line Productions, 1999. Mike Myers as Austin Powers.
Seven Golden Raspberry Awards
Mike Myers had his biggest success as the voice actor of the main character, a green ogre, in the animated comedy Shrek (Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson, 2001). The film is based on the book of the same name by William Steig. Shrek was a huge box-office hit. He reprised this role in Shrek 4-D (a theme park ride) in 2003, Shrek 2 (Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury, Conrad Vernon, 2004), Shrek the Third (Raman Hui, Chris Miller, 2007), the Christmas and Halloween television specials Shrek the Halls (Gary Trousdale, 2007) and Scared Shrekless (Raman Hui, Gary Trousdale, 2010), and Shrek Forever After (Mike Mitchell, 2010).
The comedy The Cat in the Hat (Bo Welch, 2003), loosely based on Dr Seuss’s 1957 children’s book of the same name, received negative reviews and was unsuccessful at the box office. Myers played the role of 'The Cat in the Hat', and Dakota Fanning played 8-year-old Sally. Myers was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award. The plan was to make a second film based on the sequel, 'The Cat in the Hat Comes Back', but Seuss’s widow blocked this due to the poor reception of the first film and because she felt that many of the jokes in it were unsuitable for children.
Another flop was the comedy The Love Guru (Marco Schnabel, 2008), which he also co-wrote and co-produced. It was nominated for seven Golden Raspberry Awards, of which it actually ‘won’ those for worst film, worst screenplay and worst actor (Myers).
More successful was the War film Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, 2009) in which he played the minor role of British General Ed Fenech. Myers made his directorial debut with the documentary Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon (2013), which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. He also had supporting parts in the films Bohemian Rhapsody (Bryan Singer, Dexter Fletcher, 2018) about the Rock group Queen and the drama Amsterdam (David O'Russell, 2022) starring Christian Bale and Margot Robbie.
Mike Myers also developed the satiric miniseries The Pentaverate (2022), in which he also took on several roles. Myers was married to actress and comedy writer Robin Ruzan from 1993 to 2005. He has been in a relationship with Kelly Tisdale since 2006. They married in secret in New York in the autumn of 2010. They have a son and two daughters.
British postcard by Boomerang Cinema Cards, 1999. Image: New Line / Berkeley Systems / Havas / Sierra. Mike Myers in Austin Powers - International Man of Mystery (Jay Roach, 1997). Caption: Groovy Baby! Operation: Trivia.
British postcard by London Postcard Company, no. NL 1308 (Series 1, set of 11). Photo: New Line Productions, 1997. Mike Myers in Austin Powers - International Man of Mystery (Jay Roach, 1997). Captions: Oh, Mr. Powers. Do I make you horny?
British postcard by London Postcard Company, no. NL 1321 (Series 1, set of 12). Photo: New Line Productions, 1997. Mike Myers in Austin Powers - The Spy Who Shagged Me (Jay Roach, 1999). Caption: The Swinger Has Landed.
Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English) and IMDb.
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