Chris Tucker

At one point in time, 'Chris Tucker' (qv) was the highest paid actor in Hollywood.Tucker was born in Atlanta, Georgia, to Mary Louise (Bryant) and Norris Tucker, who owned a janitorial service. After graduating from high school, Tucker made a change to move to Hollywood from Georgia to pursue a career in show business. He found himself a frequent guest on the _Def Comedy Jam (1992)_ (qv). Tucker was noted for doing exceptionally "clean", non-vulgar stand-up comedy routines. Tucker states his inspirations for comedy are 'Eddie Murphy' (qv) and 'Richard Pryor' (qv).Tucker made his film debut in _House Party 3 (1994)_ (qv), along side stars such as 'Bernie Mac' (qv), 'Marques Houston' (qv), and 'Khandi Alexander' (qv). In 1995 Tucker appeared in one of his most notable and hilarious films, _Friday (1995)_ (qv), alongside 'Ice Cube' (qv). Tucker's character, Smokey, was a drug addict who was an energetic and outlandish person. Films such as _Friday (1995)_ (qv) showed Tucker's television-comedy styling was very different from his stand-up. In 1995, Tucker also appeared in in another film, _Dead Presidents (1995)_ (qv).In 1997 was the busiest year of Tucker's career. He starred in three hit movies all in the same year: _The Fifth Element (1997)_ (qv), _Money Talks (1997)_ (qv), and _Jackie Brown (1997)_ (qv).In 1998, Tucker got a role to star along-side 'Jackie Chan' (qv). The movie was _Rush Hour (1998)_ (qv) and it grossed more than 200 million dollars worldwide. This resulted in two additional sequels, _Rush Hour 2 (2001)_ (qv) and _Rush Hour 3 (2007)_ (qv). In 2006, Tucker got a deal on his _Rush Hour 3 (2007)_ (qv) contract that paid 25 million dollars, making him the highest paid actor in Hollywood at that time.In 2001, Tucker also was in a music-video with friend, pop-legend 'Michael Jackson' (qv), in the music video, "You Rock My World."::Peter Sean