Who Played The 8-Year-Old Grinch In Jim Carrey's Christmas Classic?

In Ron Howard's 2000 blockbuster "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas," the titular goblin (Jim Carrey) is depicted as a garbage-loving, glass-eating misanthrope who lives in a cold cave high above Whoville. The Whos are all Christmas-obsessed weirdos, and the Grinch wants nothing to do with them. The Grinch has green fur all over his body, eerie yellow eyes, and sharp, crooked teeth. The makeup to turn Carrey into the Grinch was so extensive that he required torture training to withstand the extreme and prolonged discomfort. Visually, the makeup is as close as one might get to seeing a Grinch as played by a live-action actor. 

Partway through the movie, the Grinch has an unusual flashback to his own childhood. It's revealed that the Grinch once lived among the Whos and attended a Whoville elementary school. He only became a misanthrope after a shaving mishap and the subsequent schoolyard mockery that resulted. It's never quite explained what species the Grinch is in relation to the Whos. 

The young Grinch was played by a hard-working child actor named John Ryan Evans. The young Grinch wore ordinary human clothes, so Evans didn't need to go through the full-body makeup ordeal that Carrey did, but he did have to be outfitted with the same green hair, contact lenses, and nasal prosthetic. One can already admire Evans' patience just for being willing to wear that mask. 

Evans, as it so happens, was already a prolific performer for 15 years before "Grinch," and would go on to play a regular role on one of TV's more high-profile soap operas. Sadly, Evans passed away at the age of 20 due to complications during heart surgery. 

Evans was born in 1982, so he was already 18 when he was asked to play the young Grinch. Standing only 3-foot-7, Evans was often asked to play much younger children or serve as a baby's stunt performer. His earliest credit was on a 1996 episode of "Family Matters," wherein he played Stevil, the puppet version of Steve Urkel (Jaleel White). In 1998, Evans took a job as a body double for all the baby performers in the notorious comedy "Baby Geniuses." He did all of the bodily dancing. It seems that his "Geniuses" co-star, Peter MacNicol, was so impressed with the young actor's skills and professionalism that he recommended Evans join the cast of the hit lawyer series "Ally McBeal." On that show, Evans played a child prodigy lawyer named Oren Koolie. He appeared in two episodes. 

Evans also did some voice work, playing a mysterious apparition in the horror show "Poltergeist: The Legacy," and a few different supporting roles on "Rugrats" in 1999. That same year, Evans also played a character named Adam in an episode of "7th Heaven." He was still in high school, but Evans' career was on the upswing. In 2000, he appeared as the Grinch and is now forever associated with one of the highest-grossing films of that year. In the middle of all this, Evans landed a very lucrative gig on the soap opera "Passions." He played Timmy Lenox, a living doll that aided the evil witch Tabitha Lenox (Juliet Mills) in her evil schemes. Timmy, like Pinocchio, longed to be real, but was killed by a zombie virus before he got his wish. Overall, Evans appeared in 312 episodes of the series. 

In a recent oral history with Vulture, several of the makers of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" recall working with Evans, and everyone was very positive. Jim Carrey said that "Josh did a wonderful job, and I wasn't even aware that he had passed on for years. I had no idea. So that was sad, but boy, he's absolutely fantastic." Ron Howard worked with Evans more closely, and had the following kid words: 

"Josh had great energy, was hardworking, loved it, understood it. Smart kid. I think he was 17 or so. The amount of time that he needed to be in makeup and so forth, we needed somebody who could work longer hours, so there was a practical side there. But also I wanted him to be hipper and more mature than the other kids. And maybe as a little person, he understood feeling like an outsider. He brought a lot of soul along with great comedy timing to those scenes. I was really sad that we lost him." 

Howard, having been a child actor himself, was likely sensitive to the needs of a 17-year-old on set, and it sounds like he and Evans got along well. He also noted that both Evans and Carry, because they were playing the same character, had to affect the same mannerisms. And he nailed it. Howard continued: 

"Josh totally understood it and had great timing. Jim worked with him a bit so he could emulate some of Jim's moves and the attitude. Those scenes were some of my favorites because we were liberating ourselves from the book and creating something I connected to." 

The scenes with Evans are short, but memorable. R.I.P. to an actor whose life was cut too short.