Rise to Fame
Facing a mandatory life sentence for trafficking 650 grams of cocaine in 1978 isn't the typical path to network sitcom stardom. He cooperated with prosecutors, named names, and walked out of federal prison in 1981 with a gig at a Detroit ad agency and a night job doing stand-up. His 1990 Showtime special Men Are Pigs is what got him out of the clubs. Disney executives saw it and handed him a development deal. The result was Home Improvement, which hit #1 in the Nielsen ratings by its third season.
In the Spotlight
In November 1994, he had the #1 movie (The Santa Clause), the #1 TV show (Home Improvement), and a #1 New York Times bestseller simultaneously. Last Man Standing ran nine seasons. His new sitcom Shifting Gears drew nearly 17 million viewers in its first week, reportedly an ABC audience record. He's been playing essentially the same character since 1991: gruff, masculine, politically out of step with Hollywood. The audience for that character hasn't gone anywhere.
Side Notes
His real name is Timothy Alan Dick. When he booked his first TV spot, the producers refused to put 'Tim Dick' on screen, so he took his middle name and dropped the surname entirely. He studied television production at Western Michigan University, which is either foresight or coincidence. His stand-up career started on a dare from a friend at Detroit's Comedy Castle, which is where he built the power-tools-and-grunt persona that eventually became Home Improvement.