You might recognize him for his famous role as Tim Taylor, the family man on ABC's Home
Improvement. What you may not know is that before he shot to fame in the early '90s,
Tim Allen was a drug dealer. After being caught with more than half a kilo of cocaine in 1978,
Tim faced a life sentence in prison. So he decided to make a deal — which eventually led to fame,
fortune and changed his life forever.
The actor made headlines at the beginning of 2021 after
finally opening up about his infamous cocaine arrest and federal prison time.
"I was an Fucked up," Allen, now 68-years old, admitted. He explained that his troublesome
behavior began after his father passed away when he was just 11 years old. Allen and his father
had been very close before he was killed in a fatal car crash. The pain was unbearable for Tim;
he couldn't process the loss of his father, a man that he had loved so dearly and respected.
So, with no one to turn to, he turned to alcohol to help cope with the loss.
"After my old man died, I really just played games with people and told adults what they wanted to
hear and then stole their booze," Allen confessed. He added that he always did what he was told,
he made his bed, he was polite, he knew "exactly what adults wanted."
But after he'd put on a good face, he'd "go steal everything in the house."
Tim met his first wife, Laura Deibel , during his time at university. However, this was
also around the same time he decided to start dealing drugs. Two years after his graduation,
he was caught redhanded, and for the first time in his life, he faced time in prison.
According to reports, Allen was arrested in the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International
Airport on October 2, 1978. He was caught with more than 650 grams — 1.4 pounds — of
cocaine. Unfortunately for Tim, this meant that he could face a life sentence in
prison because of the amount of illegal substances that were in his possession.
As it turned out, Allen's arrest had been set up from the beginning. He had been followed by
an undercover officer for months. Just moments before he was arrested, Tim had no idea that he
was handing over a brown Adidas bag full of illegal drugs to an undercover agent.
Ironically, it was Allen's idea for the exchange to happen at an airport. He explained that
he had seen this sort of scene on television before and figured it would work in real life.
Unfortunately for Tim, he could not have been more wrong.
He put the bag in a locker and then walked up to the undercover agent and handed him the key.
Once the agent opened the locker and its contents, Allen was swarmed by police. Instead of receiving
his expected $42,000, Allen found himself handcuffed and dragged off to a prison cell.
"The next thing I observed," Allen later told the press, "was a gun in my face."
At just 23 years old, Tim was facing life imprisonment. With a solid case against him,
he knew he had no choice but to plead guilty to drug trafficking. However,
he also took his chance to make a deal with the court and decided that he would provide
the names of other dealers to authorities in exchange for a lighter sentence.
As it turned out, Allen's information "helped authorities indict 20 people in
the drug trade and resulted in the conviction and sentencing of four major drug dealers."
The future actor was also able to charm a judge throughout the court process.
The judge even told Allen that he expected him to "be a very successful comedian."
Despite the fact that the judge had ruled for him to serve a 3 to 7-year jail sentence,
Allen only served two years and four months. He was finally released from
the Federal Correctional Institution in Sandstone, Minnesota, in 1981.
"I just shut up and did what I was told," The actor explained of his time in prison. "It was
the first time ever I did what I was told and played the game. I learned literally how to
live day by day. And I learned how to shut up. You definitely want to learn how to shut up."
The actor explained that during his time in prison, "reality hit so hard that it took my
breath away, took my stance away, took my strength away," He shared that he was put
in a cell with another twenty men, they had to share the same toilet in the middle of the cell,
there was no privacy, no sense of dignity. He felt worthless,
ashamed of what he had done, and he knew this wasn't the life he wanted for himself.
"I just told myself, I can't do this for seven and a half years." He confessed.
Somehow, in all the darkness that he faced, Tim was still able to use his sense of humor to bring
light to overs in prison. It wasn't long before he was making his fellow cellmates laugh, even
some of the guards too. He had always known he was funny, but it was his time locked up in a prison
that allowed him to mature his comedic skills. Not only did his sense of humor blossom, but he felt
himself grow up and let go of his immature teenage self that had taken over his life.
"Prison grew me up. I was an adolescent that woke up too early when my father was killed,
and I stayed at that angry adolescent level."
Following his release from prison, Allen wasted no time exploring his comedic talent.
He got himself signed to an ad agency in Detroit and attended auditions during the day.
At night, he worked as a standup comic at the Comedy Castle.
He found his true persona on stage, the man that brought everyone joy and made them laugh. He had
finally found what he was meant to do, and soon he was booking commercials and making money - the
legal way. A year after his daughter Katherine was born in 1989, he booked a Showtime special.
This caught the attention of Disney's producers, who offered him several movie roles,
but Allen turned them down. He didn't want to fit into the mold that Disney was asking of him;
he wanted to represent himself and his own comedy on TV. So, he finally persuaded the studio to let
him perform his comedic persona as part of a sitcom. Home Improvement premiered in 1991.
Tim could not have been happier. He swore to a life of sobriety and did his best to leave
his dealing with drugs and time in prison behind him. Despite the fact that his mugshot followed
him around throughout his career, he managed to prove everyone wrong. He was the perfect
example that people could truly change if they wanted to make a different life for themselves.
The rest is history — from his successful run in the sitcom until 1999 to roles in
classic movies like Toy Story, Santa Claus, and Wild Dogs. He
had turned his life around and became a man his father would have been proud of.
"I look back on those things, this is sober guy stuff,
I had so much shame at the things that I did … especially driving people around.
Coming from a dad that was killed that way, it's difficult to get past it."
But he managed to move on and build a successful career as a comedian in Hollywood,
which is one of the most difficult things to achieve as an actor.
Sadly, his marriage to his college sweetheart, Laura, didn't work out, and they split in 1999.
However, during their time together, the former couple had a daughter,
Katherine, together, and they kept their divorce very civil for the sake of their child.
The actor went on to remarry in 2006 to actress Jane Hajduk
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS7wK_3_b2Q - 0.03). The couple spent the first few
years of their marriage focusing on their time together before deciding to grow their family.
Then, three years into their marriage, they had a daughter of their own, Elizabeth.
Despite the massive difference in his children's ages - and two different mothers,
of course - Tim worked extremely hard to bridge the divide and keep his family close,
making time for both of his kids despite the split from his first wife.
He was the real-life version of his role in 'Home Improvement.' He dedicated himself to
being a good father and a caring husband to Jane, despite his busy acting career. Even though he is
largely regarded as a great dad, some of his best efforts can still fall to the wayside.
Tim explained in an interview that neither of his daughters actually finds him funny.
"The older one will roll her eyes, and the younger one just stares at
me—I think she's done with me," he said of his daughter's reactions to his humor.
Even though he is largely regarded as a great dad, some of his best efforts can still fall
to the wayside. Tim told Closer Weekly in 2017 that neither of his daughters actually
find him funny. "The older one will roll her eyes, and the younger one just stares at me—I
think she's done with me," he said of his daughter's reactions to his humor.
You might be wondering why you haven't seen him grace the big screen in the last couple of years,
but the actor was mainly focused on his TV career,
as well as voice acting work, and he even dabbled in some producing and directing.
He added, "I love my life. I'm not any more mentally stable,
I have the same issues I had. Now, I can't hide from them."
The actor undoubtedly took an unusual path to find his way to doing what he loved most,
but his story is an inspiration to all. He has now been 23 years sober and dedicated himself
to being a good person, a great father, and the best husband he can be. We hope his story brings
hope to those who feel like they can't change their life - No matter how dark things may seem,
there's nothing you can't do to turn things around, and Tim Allen is the perfect example!