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In 1991, Tim Allen paid his first visit to Sound Stage 4 at The Walt Disney Studios, where the set for a new series called “Home Improvement” was under construction. The award-winning actor took one look at the set and asked, “If this show doesn’t work – can I have all that wood?”

Needless to say, Tim’s lumber room saw no increase in its supply, while his popularity skyrocketed among television audiences, who rendered “Home Improvement” ABC’s no. 1 show by 1995. He also earned numerous awards for his bumbling Mr. Fix-It role, as Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor, including a Golden Globe in 1994 and The People’s Choice Award for four consecutive years (1993-96).

Born in Denver, Colorado, and raised in the Detroit suburb of Birmingham, Tim graduated from Western Michigan University, in 1975, with a degree in television production. In 1979, on a friend’s dare, he made his stand-up debut at a local comedy club. His innate knack for making people laugh turned to gold when Tim began to talk about his passion for macho-tool-guy stuff in his comedy acts. Men in the audience shared his tool and car obsession, while women laughed at his all-too-familiar male stereotype, and Tim’s famous trademark character was born.

Former “Home Improvement” producer Matt Williams once commented on Tim’s immense popularity. “I think what people see in Tim Allen is a man-child,” Williams said. “He’s attractive, sensitive and strong, and he’s a little impish 12-year-old boy. You feel like he could be you.”

Yet “Home Improvement” marked only the beginning of Tim’s successful association with The Walt Disney Company. In 1994, his debut book, Don’t Stand Too Close to a Naked Man, published by Disney’s Hyperion Publishing, topped the New York Times Bestsellers list and led to a second book, also published by Hyperion, I’m Not Really Here.

That same year, Tim made a successful transition from television to the big screen in Walt Disney Pictures’ “The Santa Clause,” which won him yet another People’s Choice Award for his hefty and hilarious role as Santa Claus’s proxy, complete with expanding waistline, rosy cheeks and snow-white whiskers.

Tim later reunited with “The Santa Clause” creative team, making Disney’s “Jungle 2 Jungle,” a comedy about a father and son learning unexpected lessons from each other about the important things in life.

In 1995, the multi-talented actor lent his voice to Disney’s first all-computer animated film, “Toy Story,” playing Buzz Lightyear, an arrogant yet lovable space action figure. Like his character, a role that he will encore in the 1999 sequel “Toy Story II,” Tim’s creative ventures with Disney continue to travel “To infinity and beyond!” —Disney Legends