Tim Allen was one of the biggest celebrities of the 1990s and early 2000s, thanks to a starring role in the sitcom Home Improvement.
Movie stardom followed with the titular role in The Santa Clause, before he voiced the character Buzz Lightyear in the animated Toy Story film series.
He has continued to work steadily, most recently in the Disney+ series The Santa Clauses. But recent years have seen Allen accused of flashing a famous co-star and being rude on set.
Let’s take a look at Tim Allen’s life and career, and how he became so famous.
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Tim Allen was born Timothy Alan Dick on June 13, 1953, in Denver, Colorado. He was the third of six children born to Martha, a community services worker, and Gerald, a real estate agent.
When he was 11, Allen’s father died in a car accident involving a drunk driver. His mother remarried two years later and moved her children to Michigan to be with her new husband and his three children.
Allen took up theatre and music classes while in high school. At university, he worked at the student radio station before graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in communications.
He later received an honorary fine arts degree from his university, Western Michigan.
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He started doing stand-up comedy in 1975, reportedly after a dare from a friend. He appeared on television commercials and cable TV comedy shows in Detroit before his career was derailed in 1978 when he was arrested for cocaine possession.
He pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and was jailed, serving two years and four months in a federal prison.
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After his release, he moved to LA and became a regular performer at The Comedy Store.
He made his film debut in 1988 before his big break came when he won the starring role as Tim ‘the tool man’ Taylor in Home Improvement.
The show, which was largely based on his stand-up act, ran from 1991 to 1999 and made Allen a star.
By the eighth and final season, Allen was earning $1.9 million per episode.
He was reportedly offered $50 million for a ninth season but the deal fell through when Patricia Richardson, who played wife Jill, decided to leave the show.
She later revealed she knocked back $25 million to do another season, and said Allen refused to have her killed off so the show could continue without her.
Richardson also confirmed a lot of the dialogue in Home Improvement was improvised.
After the show ended, Allen continued to work in movies, having already starred in the 1994 film The Santa Clause. The year it came out, Allen was starring in the highest-grossing film, top-rated television show and was the author of the The New York Times bestselling book, Don’t Stand Too Close to a Naked Man, all at the same time.
In 1995, he voiced Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story, and reprised the role in its sequels, including the recent Toy Story 4.
He played Santa Claus/Scott Calvin again in The Santa Clause 2 and The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause. He also had a starring role in Christmas with the Kranks.
But behind the scenes, Allen was charged with drink-driving in 1998. He was sentenced to one-year probation and entered court-appointed rehab. He has reportedly been sober ever since.
Allen married first wife Laura Deibel in April 1984 and their daughter, Katherine, was born in December 1989. They separated in 1999 and finalised their divorce in 2003.
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Allen went on to marry actress Jane Hajduk in October 2006. Their daughter, Elizabeth, now an actress herself, was born in March 2009.
Even with a reported net worth of $150 million, Allen, now 70, is not ready to retire.
He starred in the sitcom Last Man Standing from 2011 to 2021, and for the past two years has appeared on the Disney+ series The Santa Clauses.
His youngest daughter, now 15, who goes by the name Elizabeth Allen-Dick, plays his daughter on the show.
In 2023, Allen’s Home Improvement co-star Pamela Anderson alleged Allen flashed her on set in 1991 on her first day playing Lisa, the ‘tool time girl’.
“On the first day of filming, I walked out of my dressing room and Tim was in the hallway in his robe,” she wrote.
“He opened his robe and flashed me quickly —completely naked underneath.”
She claimed he said, “it was only fair because he had seen me naked” — a reference to her earlier Playboy shoots, before adding, “now we’re even.”
Anderson left the show after two seasons and went on to star in Baywatch.
In a statement to TMZ, the actor denied the claims, saying, “No, it never happened. I would never do such a thing.”
Anderson later told Variety she did not think Allen had “bad intentions” when he allegedly opened his robe.
Then just last year, actress Casey Wilson, who worked with Allen on the first season of The Santa Clauses, took aim at his on-set behaviour.
The Saturday Night Live star said during an episode of her Bitch Sesh podcast that working with Allen was the “truly single worst experience I’ve ever had with a co-star, ever.”
“He was so f–king rude. Never made eye contact, never said anything. It was so uncomfortable,” she said.
She detailed one incident that followed a scene together. “[He] goes over to the producer, who is standing four feet from me and goes, ‘You gotta tell her to stop stepping on my lines’.
“The producer turns to me with horror on his face and has to walk one foot to me and he goes, ‘Um, Tim would ask that you stop stepping on his lines’.”
She also claimed he left the set once he finished his lines, despite them being in the middle of a scene.
“Tim Allen goes, ‘Leaving!’ takes his Santa cape, picks it up and drops it on the floor and walks out,” she said.
“And they hustle in his stand-in; lovely man, who was much nicer to act against. People are scurrying to pick up his velvet Santa coat.”
Allen hinted he could be difficult to work with in a 2021 episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show, during which he said he was “not really a big fan of children” and “I don’t like other people’s children”.
He said he reached breaking point when two children were bickering while filming a scene in one of the Santa Clause films.
“Fifteen takes later, the kids said one more word and I let out the loudest F-bomb,” he said.
“And I turned around, and there are 12 children who look like you had ripped their legs off. Their Santa has just screamed the F-bomb.”
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