Timothy Allen Dick, known professionally as Tim Allen, (born June 13, 1953) is an American actor and comedian who is best known for his role as Tim "The Toolman" Taylor in the ABC television series Home Improvement from 1991 to 1999 and as Mike Baxter in the comedy television series Last Man Standing on ABC from 2011 to 2017 and moved to Fox in 2018.
For Disney, he played Tim "The Toolman" Taylor in Home Improvement, Buzz Lightyear in the Toy Story franchise, Scott Calvin/Santa Claus in The Santa Clause films, Michael Cromwell in Jungle 2 Jungle, Dave Douglas in The Shaggy Dog, Elliot Arnold in Big Trouble, Doug Madsen in Wild Hogs and as the narrator in the 2012 Disneynature documentrary film Chimpanzee.
In 1999, he was named a Disney Legend, claiming the record for shortest time between his first contribution for the Walt Disney Company (in 1991, when he first started to work on Home Improvement) and being named a Disney Legend, until Phil Collins beat it in 2002.
Trivia[]
- What attracted Allen to the role of Buzz Lightyear was that before him, they offered the role to his biggest influence in his career, Chevy Chase, who turned it down.
- At one point in The Shaggy Dog, Allen's character, Dave Douglas (as a dog), also says Buzz Lightyear's catchphrase, "To Infinity and Beyond!"
- At one point in The Santa Clause 2, one of Allen's characters, Toy Santa, called the real Santa, Scott Calvin (also played by Allen), "a sad, strange little man," which is a reference to what Buzz called Woody in Toy Story.
- Buzz Lightyear had made a few inderect cameos on Tim Allen's show, Home Improvement. In a blooper of an episode, Tim Taylor (played by Allen) is seen sorting through his niece's toys and picks up a Buzz Lightyear action figure. He then proceeds to argue with the toy as to who is "Buzz Lightyear." Similarly, in another episode, actor Jonathan Taylor Thomas (who played Tim's son on the show and had voiced the young version of Simba in [The Lion King) was giving candy to trick-or-treaters for Halloween. Ironically, he gave more candy to the kid dressed as Simba than the one dressed as Buzz Lightyear.
- He also remained to lend his voice over to Buzz Lightyear for Disneyland commercials even though Pat Fraley replaced him for the voice over role for Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters located at Disneyland in TomorrowLand.