- published: 20 May 2010
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Michael John "Mike" Myers (born May 25, 1963) is a Canadian actor, comedian, screenwriter, and film producer of British parentage. He was a long-time cast member on the NBC sketch show Saturday Night Live in the late 1980s and the early 1990s and starred as the title characters in the films Wayne's World, Austin Powers, and the Shrek film series.
Myers was born and raised in Scarborough, Ontario, the son of British-born parents Eric Myers (1922–1991), an insurance man and World War II veteran of the Royal Engineers, and his wife Alice E. (née Hind; born 1926), an office supervisor and veteran of the Royal Air Force. Both of his parents are from Liverpool, England. He has two older brothers, Peter Myers and Paul Myers, an indie rock singer-songwriter, broadcaster and author. Myers is of English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry, and was raised Protestant. He holds three citizenships, American, British, and Canadian.
Myers began school at Bishopbriggs Academy then changed to the Stephen Leacock Collegiate Institute in Scarborough, Ontario. He began performing in commercials at age eight, and at ten he made a commercial for British Columbia Hydro Electric, with Gilda Radner playing his mother. When he graduated from high school, he joined the Second City Theatre. He left to tour Britain with comedian Neil Mullarkey.
Bart the Bear (January 19, 1977 - May 10, 2000) was an Alaskan Kodiak Bear that appeared in several Hollywood films. Previously, Bart's mother appeared in the films Grizzly and Day of the Animals.Animal trainers Doug Seus and Lynne Seus of Wasatch Rocky Mountain Wildlife, Inc., in Heber City, Utah, trained Bart. He grew to 9' 6" (2.90 m) tall and weighed 1,500 pounds (680 kg) throughout his life as an adult.
John Candy, Dan Aykroyd, Annette Bening, Ethan Hawke, Steven Seagal, Gregory Peck, Tchéky Karyo, Brad Pitt, Alec Baldwin, and Anthony Hopkins all appeared in films opposite the bear, the latter even twice. All of them were reportedly impressed with how well the bear was trained.[citation needed]
In 2000, Bart died of cancer at the age of 23 while filming the television documentary Growing Up Grizzly (2001). Brad Pitt, who appeared in Legends of the Fall with Bart, provided narration.
Bart was the "spokes-bear" for the Animal Cancer Center at Colorado State University but his greatest role was as ambassador for the Vital Ground Foundation. Vital Ground has procured threatened wildlife habitat along the Rocky Mountain front and on Kodiak Island.
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