Biography
Date of Birth
12 December 1970, Los Angeles, California, USA
Birth Name
Kirk Thomas Cameron
Height
5' 10" (1.78 m)
Mini Biography
Kirk Thomas Cameron was born in Panorama City, California, to Barbara Cameron (née Barbara Jeanne Bausmith), a homemaker, and Robert Cameron, a teacher. Though his parents initially did not project show business aspirations onto their children, a family friend in the business noted to Barbara that both Kirk and his sister, Candace Cameron Bure, were cute enough that they could easily pick up lucrative work in commercials. After Cameron began appearing in TV ads for "Polaroid", "McDonald's" and "Count Chocula" cereal, he found himself wound up in Hollywood's notorious child-star mill, netting minor cute-kid parts in a handful of TV movies, including a couple of Disney projects and two ABC Afterschool Specials (1972) (1972-95). In 1983, he landed a regular gig, as a precocious kid, in ABC's Two Marriages (1983), a show that remained on the air less than a month. He found a more winning formula in 1985 with Growing Pains (1985), playing the oldest son of a family headed by a psychiatrist (Alan Thicke) and a journalist (Joanna Kerns), one in a sequence of family network sitcoms characterized by with-it parents and mischievous-but-squeaky-clean kids. On the show, Cameron played the incorrigible but dumb "Mike Seaver" and his winning portrayal won over a large number of teen fans. In spite of scathing critical notices, "Growing Pains" ranked among Nielsen's top 20 network shows for its first four seasons, rising to No. 5 in its 1987-88 year. On the heels of his sitcom success, Cameron appeared in his first feature film in 1986, the Robin Williams/Kurt Russell glory-days comedy, The Best of Times (1986).
ABC would pump up Cameron as its "It" boy, and his trademark smirk in coming years would grace covers of a raft of teen magazines. Meanwhile, job offers cropped up to exploit his proverbial 15 minutes; he played the son/father of Dudley Moore in Like Father Like Son (1987), one of Hollywood's periodic flavor-du-jour retreads of the mystical parent/sibling body-switch comedies; netted the starring role in a high-profile Pepsi Super Bowl XXIV commercial; rated top-billing in Listen to Me (1989), an overwrought, widely-panned college drama about debate team wonks arguing against Roe v. Wade; and did a guest-shot, alongside sister Candace, on her ABC sister sitcom, Full House (1987) (1987-1995). Firmly established as the resident star of "Growing Pains", Cameron saw his pay jump to $50,000 a week and his fans sending him some 10,000 letters a week. But his coming-of-age took an unexpected turn, at least for everyone who worked with him. As he would later recall it in his autobiography, "Still Growing", the family of his first girlfriend initially exposed the 17-year-old to evangelical Christianity. Cameron experienced what he would later describe as a "life-changing encounter with Jesus" and declared himself "born again".
Trivia
He and wife [Chelsea Noble are among the founders of Camp Firefly and The Firefly Foundation, which sponsors camping trips for terminally-ill children and their families.
His father is Robert Cameron and his mother is Barbara Cameron.
Brother of Candace Cameron Bure, Bridgette Cameron and Melissa Cameron.
Ranked #15 in VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Kid Stars".
Parents named him after Captain Kirk, the William Shatner character from the original Star Trek: The Original Series (1966) series.
Met his wife, Chelsea Noble, on the set of Growing Pains (1985).
Ranked #19 in "TV Guide"'s list of "TV's 25 Greatest Teen Idols" (1/23/05).
Once appeared on sister Candace Cameron Bure's show, Full House (1987), in the episode, Full House: Just One of the Guys (1988), in 1988.
Has six children, four of whom were adopted: Jack (b. 1996), Isabella (b. 1998), Anha (b. 1999), and Luke (b. 2000); and two biological: Olivia Rose (b. 7/18/01) and James Thomas Cameron (b. 4/13/03).
Began acting at the age of nine, appearing in television commercials and guest roles. His first starring role was at the age of 13 in the series Two Marriages (1983).
Now a Christian evangelist, with Ray Comfort, in "The Way of the Master" organization.
Became a "born again" Christian while working on the show Growing Pains (1985). He admits that his religious beliefs put him at odds with the show's writers and that he flatly refused to do parts of the scripts as presented, but was willing to work around or to edit the offensive content.
Brother-in-law of Valeri Bure and John Ridenour.
Received no financial compensation whatsoever for acting in Fireproof (2008), and does not accept any royalties from the film.
He has Scottish, German, English, Irish, and smaller amounts of Jersey (Channel Islander) and Dutch, ancestry.
Co-created the Crocoduck.
His acting mentor, and one of his best friends, was Growing Pains (1985) co-star Alan Thicke. He served as a pallbearer at Thicke's funeral.
Mentioned in Family Guy: Are You There God? It's Me, Peter (2018),.
Quotes
"I sometimes found myself more comfortable around my TV family than I did with my own parents and sister." - About working on Growing Pains (1985).
The Hollywood lifestyle was just overwhelming. A party here, an interview there, magazine and modeling shoots daily, your face everywhere and girls throwing themselves at you. As great as it felt at the time, I still felt something missing, and that I needed to change.
(On Creationism): To say that the banana happened by accident is even more unintelligent than to say that no one designed the Coca Cola can.
[on homosexuality] I think that it's ... unnatural. It's detrimental and ultimately destructive to so many of the foundations of civilization.
I believe marriage was defined by God. Marriage is almost as old as dirt, and it was defined in the Garden between Adam and Eve. One man, one woman for life till death do you part. So I would never attempt to try to redefine marriage. And I don't think anyone else should either. So do I support the idea of gay marriage? No, I don't.
[2016, on Alan Thicke's passing]: I spent Monday through Friday for seven important years as Alan Thicke as my TV dad. I'm shocked and heartbroken today at the news of his death. Alan was a generous kind and loving man. I am so blessed to have grown up with him. Chelsea and I send our love and prayers to his family tonight. We will cherish the memories...sharing the laughter and love.
