Growing Pains
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$20 Million
"I was really glad when my former crush, Tracey, joined the show. She looked a lot like my sisters and it wasn't long before I started treating her like one." If you were a child in the late '80s, you grew up watching Kirk Cameron on the ABC sitcom, Growing Pains (1985). As one of the most popular sitcoms of the time, Kirk Cameron was quick to ascend to star status on the ensemble show. Cameron would get nominated for a pair of Golden Globe Awards for his efforts.
Kirk Cameron's success as a child actor would lend him the ability to continue pursuing the work as he grew older. Eventually, Cameron would make the transition from actor to Evangelist after becoming a born-again Christian. In the intervening years since Cameron changed his mind, he has become a partner to Ray Comfort and The Way of the Master. Cameron has also established his own Evangelical group, The Firefly Foundation with his wife, Chelsea Noble.
Embracing Early Stardom
Kirk Cameron was born on October 12, 1970, in Panorama City, California. Cameron was born to Barbara and Robert Cameron. Robert Cameron was a schoolteacher at the time while Barbara was a homemaker. Cameron had three sisters while growing up in Melissa, Bridgette, and Candace Cameron Bure. Candace Cameron Bure would go on to star as DJ Tanner in the sitcom, Full House.
As a child actor, Cameron was notably limited when it came to the conventions of youth. Instead of attending public school, Cameron would attend a special school on the set of Growing Pains. Cameron would end up graduating from his private school with distinct honors at the age of 17. Later in life, Cameron would land an honorary degree from Indiana Wesleyan University.
Cameron leaped into the acting career with both feet, landing his first job at nine-years-old in a breakfast cereal commercial. By the time that Cameron was a teenager, he had already landed several notable roles. In 1985, Cameron would go from being a child actor to becoming a child star.
Dealing With Growing Pains
While Cameron enjoyed minor success as a child, he wouldn't become a star until he landed the role of Mike Seaver on Growing Pains (1985). Cameron would become an overnight sensation thanks to the series. He would portray Mike Seaver for all seven seasons of the show before it was pulled off of the air in 1992. Cameron would also appear in the spin-off movie, Growing Pains: Return of the Seavers in 2004.
Though Cameron certainly has enjoyed the finances and fame afforded to him from the series, he is probably most thankful for meeting Chelsea Noble on set. Noble had been cast to play a character named Kate MacDonald on Growing Pains. The character would begin to date Cameron's character, Mike Seaver. Outside of the show, Noble and Cameron would begin to date before eventually getting married. The two have been together since they were essentially children, with their marriage happening in 1991. Together, Noble and Cameron have six children.
After Growing Pains went off of the air, Cameron continued to work as a teen star into the 90s. Cameron would appear on Full House as the cousin of his real-life sister, Candace Cameron. Cameron would land another show, titled Kirk (1995), though it would only last a single year. It was around this time that Cameron began to embrace religion. He would begin touting himself as a born-again Christian and his focus would turn away from entertainment and toward Evangelicism.
When Cameron decided to turn toward religion, he started to turn down more and more work in Hollywood. Eventually, Cameron had restricted his performances to faith-based films like the Left Behind franchise: Left Behind: The Movie (2000), Left Behind II: Tribulation Force (2002) and Left Behind III: World at War (2005). Cameron also appeared in Saving Christmas (2014) which went viral for being one of the worst films of the year. Cameron would win a 204 Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor as well as Worst Screen Combo.
Outside of his work on film and television, Cameron has earned a negative reputation from the public at large for some of his more controversial beliefs. He famously noted that he had grown apart from his Growing Pains stars after adopting a strict adherence to his new worldview. Cameron says of that experience, "I definitely kind of made an about-face, going toward another aspect of my life." Cameron says that he wishes he could go back in order to make the same decisions again, albeit in a less harsh way. Cameron had quit talking to his castmates after the show had gone off of the air, and he did not speak to Tracey Gold for a full eight years due to their religious incompatibility.
Cameron also made headline news in 2013 when his film, Unstoppable, was mistakenly banned from YouTube and Facebook. According to Facebook and YouTube, the film had triggered their malware system which had inadvertently marked the upload as 'spam'. Cameron calls Unstoppable his 'most personal film about faith, hope, and love'.
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