Mike Myers

Mike Myers was born in Scarborough, Ontario in 1963 and came up through sketch, which explains almost everything about the films. His Primetime Emmy Award is for writing a variety series, not for acting, and his best movies are structured the way a good sketch show is: a set of characters, a set of catchphrases, and a plot draped loosely over the top so the bits have somewhere to happen.

His real skill is the character build, accent first, prosthetics second. Wayne Campbell took a sketch to a hit feature in 1992. Austin Powers in 1997 had him playing hero and villain in the same film, and by Goldmember he was carrying four roles in one picture, which is closer to a music-hall tradition than to film acting. Shrek then gave him a third career entirely: a Scottish-accented ogre in an animated franchise that ran for four features plus holiday specials, and the voice work is genuinely good, warmer and less needy than his live-action leads.

The falling-off was steep. The Love Guru in 2008 was the point where the formula stopped being funny to anyone, and he largely withdrew from leading roles. What has followed is more interesting: he has become a cameo character actor, usually under heavy prosthetics, and he is very effective at it. The British general in Inglourious Basterds is played entirely straight; the record executive in Bohemian Rhapsody is a small, mean, well-judged piece of comedy. He was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2002, and in 2017 was made an Officer of the Order of Canada for his comedy writing and producing.