Jim Carrey's Letters to Tupac Shakur (lost series of letters from actor-comedian to rapper; 1995)

Tupac Shakur (left) pictured next to Jim Carrey (right) sometime after his release from prison.

Status: Lost

Tupac Shakur was an American rapper and actor who rose to prominence throughout the 1990s through commercially and critically successful albums such as 2Pacalypse Now (1991), Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z... (1993), and Me Against the World (1995). Another rising star from around the same time was actor and comedian Jim Carrey, who after getting in the sketch comedy TV series In Living Color (1990–1994), would star in 3 hit comedies in the same year, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber, which were all released in 1994.

In 1995, Shakur was sentenced to 1½ to 4½ in prison after he was convicted of charges relegated to him allegedly sexually assaulting's a fan in 1993. For the first eight months of his sentence, Shakur was forced to live in solitary confinement at New York’s Clinton Correctional Facility. One of the few emotional reliefs that Shakur would receive during this time was letters from Carrey, who after learning that he was Shakur's favorite actor, decided to send him humorous letters. Shakur had long professed his innocence in the case and Carrey believed him which also influenced Carrey's decision to try and add a bit of levity to his life. Their correspondence during this time lead the two to become close friends, with their friendship continuing beyond Shakur's time in prison. Even decades later, Carrey has refused to release their letters or even hint at their contents. This likely out of respect for Shakur as he died in 1996 after being shot while on a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada for a boxing match.