Timothy Alan Dick (born June 13, 1953), known professionally as Tim Allen, is an American comedian, actor, voice-over artist and entertainer born in Denver, Colorado. He's known for his role in the sitcoms Home Improvement and Last Man Standing. He is known for his starring roles in several popular films, including the Toy Story franchise (as the voice of Buzz Lightyear), The Santa Clause film series, and Galaxy Quest. Allen also wrote the autobiographies Don't Stand Too Close to a Naked Man and I'm Not Really Here, and has been the voice of "Pure Michigan" tourism ads since 2006.
More on his career can be found, as ever, on The Other Wiki.
Notable for:
- Home Improvement as Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor, a show based largely on Allen's stand-up routines of The '80s and '90s where Allen's character is the host of a popular do-it-yourself show called Tool Time. The show focuses on Taylor's family life, and the challenges he faces raising three children and keeping his wife happy.
- The Toy Story franchise, where Allen provides the voice of Buzz Lightyear, one of the main buddy protagonists of the series.
- The Santa Clause (and its sequels and sequel miniseries) as Scott Calvin, a man who comes to replace Santa Claus through a series of misadventures.
- Galaxy Quest as Jason Nesmith, an Expy of William Shatner in an Affectionate Parody of Star Trek.
- Redbelt, a noirish martial arts drama written and directed by David Mamet that allowed Allen to play against type in a similar way to how Steve Martin did in Mamet's The Spanish Prisoner.
- Last Man Standing as Mike Baxter. Often called a Distaff Counterpart to Home Improvement where Allen plays a very similar character in a very similar setting with three daughters instead of three sons.
Tropes associated with Tim Allen
- Bumbling Dad: An overwhelming number of his characters in television and movie roles.
- Inverted with Last Man Standing. Try as they might, the girls can't seem to get much by Mike Baxter, even if they don't know it (although the audience does).
- Cool Car:
- Owns several vintage cars and frequently appears on friend Jay Leno's podcast from the garage where Leno keeps his famed car collection.
- Tim Taylor on Home Improvement would frequently buy and restore vintage cars for himself, friends or family.
- Mike Baxter of Last Man Standing drives a '53 Chevy pickup that he claims to have rebuilt himself as well. Bonus points: said truck actually belongs to Allen.
- Dark and Troubled Past: His childhood and early career were no picnic. At age 11, his father died in a collision with a drunk driver, and after graduating college he ended up falling into drug abuse. At one point, he was almost jailed for life after being caught up in a cocaine trafficking ring. He got better after that, though.
- Handy Man: A staple of his stand up routines, later the basis for his character on Home Improvement.
- Hulk Speak: Used in his stand up routines to illustrate his premise that "men are simple". It became a part of the Tim Taylor character as well.
- I Am Not Spock: Has claimed that people will come to him out of the blue for various Handy Man advice, despite him not actually being an expert. Particularly amusing since he became famous for playing a character who definitely wasn't an expert in the subject.
- Mars and Venus Gender Contrast:
- Another staple of his stand up routines.
- Many of Tim Taylor's problems in Home Improvement came from his inability to understand problems his wife Jill was having.
- And in Last Man Standing as a man's man who has been married for three decades and is raising three daughters.
- Self-Deprecation: Not only his stand-up, but a big part of Home Improvement and Last Man Standing.
- Small Name, Big Ego:
- A staple of his early stand-up routines were situations in which his wife made him feel like one.
- Tim Taylor suffered from this frequently.
- Buzz Lightyear for most of the first Toy Story, not realizing he was a toy and thinking he was really the leader of Star Command, having crashed on an alien planet, was pretty self-important.
- Jason Nesmith in Galaxy Quest was this for most of the movie.
- His character on Last Man Standing has elements of this, especially on the webisodes he produces for the regional sporting goods store of which he is vice president.
- Star-Derailing Role: His career outside of Home Improvement, Last Man Standing, the Toy Story franchise, the first The Santa Clause, and Galaxy Quest has been made up of many critically bashed films, along with his highly publicized DUI incident in Michigan that turned him into a walking joke. However, he still kept getting lead roles until Wild Hogs, which, despite being a financial success, was savaged by critics and seems to have been the straw that broke the camel's back as the only mainstream film role he's gotten since then is reprising his voice role as Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story 3 and 4. Other than that, he's been doing independent films and also went back to TV in Last Man Standing, as well as providing voice-overs for Michigan tourism commercials.
- Star-Making Role: Allen rose to fame with the sitcom Home Improvement.
- Straw Character: Allen considers himself a "moderate conservative" and notes how this is very rare in Hollywood, his stand up routine is heavily skewed toward this viewpoint. But he frequently interjects more political views into his sitcom characters, playing the extreme conservative for laughs. On Home Improvement whether it was serious or not was in the eye of the beholder. On Last Man Standing it's more of a satire and usually pits him against his equally liberal oldest daughter and her son's father almost entirely for satirical humor.
- Tim Taylor Technology: Many of the devices invented by the Trope Namer (whom he played) were first hypothetically suggested in his stand up routines.
- Verbal Tic: The characteristic caveman-like grunting noise from Home Improvement.
- What Could Have Been: He was attached to star in the later-cancelled Disney live-action adaptation of Stretch Armstrong. There were also claims that he was originally approached to reprise the role of Buzz for Lightyear, but he turned down the role for several reasons.
