Steve Carell found success relatively late in life. He was 43 before he made it big in The 40 Year-Old Virgin. Late life success may literally be the only thing he has in common with Samuel L. Jackson, but just because you’d never heard of him until you saw him in The 40 Year-Old Virgin or in Bruce Almighty, doesn’t mean he wasn’t busy.
Steve got his start in film working for a guy named John Hughes. It wasn’t just any John Hughes movie that got him started, it was Hughes’ last movie. Steve Carell knocked John Hughes right out of Hollywood when he showed up in the 1991 film Curly Sue, as a dastardly asshole named Tesio bent on destroying Curly Sue’s cuteness. That may be a slight exaggeration.
In fact, unless you look closely you probably won’t even find him in Curly Sue. Luckily, thanks to the modern wonders of You Tube, you don’t have to put forward any effort to spot him. Here he is:
Carvey’s comedy cavalcade began and ended in 1996, which meant more time on the couch for our man Steve. He filled his time doing guest stints on ill-fated television shows like Tomorrow Night, where he played “Mail Room Guy Without Glasses” or on Just Shoot Me as a character named “Mr. Weiland”. It wasn’t until 1999 when the world would have the good sense to sit up and take notice of Carell. It was then that Steve returned to vomit and Colbert by joining the cast of The Daily Show:
The rest is history. From there it was on to a bigger role in Anchorman and then off to starring in The 40 Year-Old Virgin, where Steve would again revel in vomit (Leslie Mann’s, delivered to his face) and become a mega-star. John Hughes had to die, that Steve Carell might live. Get Smart is pretty funny. Maybe it was worth it. Who needs another Breakfast Club?
