Friday, August 17, 2007

"It" guy on prime time TV had tried to end it all when young -- good thing he failed

Drew Carey is hot right now, very hot.

He is the new host of "The Price is Right," and CBS's "Power of 10."

It's all a comeback, and a huge one, from his early days.

The comedic star of the eponymously-named TV 1990s TV show suffered from extreme depression when young and tried to kill himself with sleeping pills, not once, but twice.

He joined the U.S. Marine reserves (1980), to get the discipline he needed to straighten his life out. Earlier he found the demands of fraternity life and academic life to be mutually incompatible and left Kent State University after three years, but without a degree.

He turned to stand-up comedy, worked his way up through the comedy club ranks, first in native Cleveland, then Los Angeles. An appearance on the Tonight Show hosted by Johnny Carson (1991) ignited his career.

Four years later, he had his own TV show. It ran from 1995 to 2004, making him rich and famous. He also served as host of the improv show "Whose Line Is It Anyways" (1998 to 2006, 215 episodes).

And his undistinguished academic past? Cleveland State University awarded him an honorary Ph.D. (2000).