For a generation of former children, Jim Carrey is the quintessential Grinch thanks to his starring role in the live-action 2000 film, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Carrey’s career started over a decade before the film went into production but by the time he starred in How The Grinch Stole Christmas, he was in the prime of his career.

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After learning he had a knack for doing impressions at a young age, Carrey grew interested in pursuing a career in comedy. He started out doing impressionist work across Canada before moving to Los Angeles, where he eventually dropped impressions in favor of a more improvised act, fearing impressions were a dead-end road.

During his early days in LA, he auditioned for shows like Saturday Night Live before landing roles in small films and becoming a cast member on In Living Color. This helped him land his breakout role in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective which led to star turns in The Mask and Dumb and Dumber.

By the time How the Grinch Stole Christmas rolled around, Carrey was coming off a run of critically successful films like The Truman Show and Man on the Moon, which showcased his range beyond comedy. For many of the young viewers tuning in to catch his performance as the furry green holiday-hater, this Christmas film was their introduction to Carrey although he had already built up a storied career by its release.

How old was Jim Carrey in How the Grinch Stole Christmas?

Carrey was 37 when he starred in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and 38 when the film was released in Nov. 2000. He began his career in the 1980s with his impressionist comedy act before becoming a success in the mid-90s in his early 30s.

It’s hard to determine Carrey’s age in his thick Grinch makeup, which took hours of preparation (a process Carrey likened to being “buried alive”). The film’s producer, Brian Grazer, enlisted the help of a CIA specialist who helped Carrey learn techniques to “survive torture” in order to finish the film.

His experience on set likely informed Carrey’s decision not to return for a sequel. Just last year, Carrey shared he was considering retiring from acting saying it would take a “script that’s written in gold ink that says to [him] it’s going to be really important for people to see” to get him back on set.

““And I feel like — and this is something you might never hear another celebrity say, for as long as time exists — I have enough. I’ve done enough, I am enough.”

Fair enough. We have to respect Carrey’s decision to step back from the spotlight but we can at least watch his contribution to the Grinch movie canon in the meantime!