TORONTO -- Jim Carrey was honoured like it was 1998 last night.
Six years after the superstar was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame, Carrey unveiled his star with a flourish outside Roy Thomson Hall last night.
He's best known for his rubber-faced antics, but a smiling Carrey was mostly sentimental as he apologized for the delay in collecting his honour, saying, "I was in the middle of something."
"When I come back here that same feeling," Carrey told more than 300 fans who lined the red carpet along Simcoe St. "That feeling of lightness, that feeling of home ... I couldn't have done it without you."
After flicking an imaginary speck of dirt from his star, Carrey posed for a pack of photographers with his family.
"This is the whole DNA strain," quipped Carrey, who also paid tribute to his late father, Percy, as the funniest man on Earth.
"He had to be. His name was Percy. It helped," he said.
Carrey -- one of 11 inductees last night -- then plunged toward the crowd shaking hands, signing autographs, even jumping over horse manure left by RCMP mounts.
He signed a pillow for Paula Caliendo to be auctioned off in October for her sister-in-law Louise Russo -- left paralyzed in a drive-by shooting.
"He may not know what he's just signed," Caliendo said. "It will touch many hearts."
Carrey, who earned a standing ovation from the black-tie audience, later told reporters backstage that he's drawn to fans standing behind the velvet rope because "I was there.
"I've been that guy looking at them going, 'Wow man, that would be so cool,' and it is so cool," Carrey said.
A group of four young tourists from Winnipeg sold their tickets to last night's Blue Jays game after stumbling upon the red carpet and cameras at Roy Thomson Hall. They wanted to see the actor who brought The Mask, The Grinch and Ace Ventura to life.
"He's hilarious, he's such a funny guy," Ryan Clement, 17, said.
"I would have thought Jim Carrey would have had (a star) already," Shawn Lang, 18, said.
The crowd filling bleachers along Simcoe St. erupted in cheers of "Mario, Mario" after two-time Stanley Cup winner Mario Lemieux unveiled his star.
Dressed in a Pittsburgh Penguins jersey, Debbie McGill, 28, hoisted a sign reading, "Mario is my Canadian idol."
McGill worked all night as a baker at Tim Hortons and skipped sleep to secure her spot near the red carpet.
"I just had to be here," said McGill, who brought her roommate Jay Couvillon, 30, and his camera to record the moment. "It's the closest thing we're going to get to Hollywood."
Richard Carino, 27, a Lemieux fan, said Canadians should honour their stars more than one night a year.
"We don't acknowledge the fact we have stars," he said. "It's sad, in Canada, in order to be a star you have to go to America."
Actress Shirley Douglas, also honoured last night, said Canada must do more to create and celebrate its own star system.
"I want to see our stories made," Douglas said backstage.
Steppenwolf's John Kay, who arrived with actor Peter Fonda, held his hand to his ear as fans serenaded him with Born to be Wild.
He later talked politics with reporters, saying Canadians shouldn't vote against the Liberals simply to punish them. Better to re-elect them and "hold their feet to the fire," Kay said.
Actress Helen Shaver, Oscar-winning director Denys Arcand and jazz singer Diana Krall were also honoured.
Those who received posthumous awards were: Hollywood legends Louis B. Mayer, Mack Sennett, Jack Warner and Toronto-born silent-film actress Mary Pickford, who was known as "America's Sweetheart."
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