ronaldmcdonald
08-17-2012, 12:13 PM
Earlier this week, evangelical preacher Kirk Cameron, 42, endorsed former Alabama Judge Roy Moore (who was thrown off the bench after refusing to tear down the Ten Commandments, as depicted in the Bible, from his courtroom), now running for Chief Justice in the Alabama Supreme Court.
As you are aware, Kirk has become somewhat of a laughing stock after his comments made to British CNN newsman Piers Morgan about Homosexuality, calling it unnatural and destructive to society (something I totally disagree with), so instead of ridiculing Kirk like many in the general media have, Im gonna present to you his entire life story, unless otherwise noted brought to you by his E! True Hollywood Story episode originally airing in the year 2000.
The year is 1968. Richard Milhous Nixon, age 55, is elected U.S. President; the Vietnam War is in full effect; and a 24-year-old rising middle-school Math teacher/gym coach named Rob Cameron meets and falls in love with 17-year-old recent high-school graduate Barbara Bausmith; before the year is over, Rob & Barbara discover she is pregnant with their first baby.
As was custom in the era, rather than have their 1st-born out of wedlock, Rob and Barbara married on June 22, 1969, 5 1/2 months into the pregnancy.
3 1/2 months later, a baby boy, Kirk, was born on October 12, 1969 in Los Angeles, California.
By 1974, Rob and Barbara are expecting again; this time, a baby girl, Candace, was born on April 6, 1975 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
The family of 4 settled in the San Fernando Valley subdivision of Los Angeles, where in early 1979, at the request of Cameron family neighbor Fran Rich, Barbara began taking 9-year-old Kirk & 4-year-old Candace out to acting auditions (per a 2008 issue of People Magazine on Child Stars).
By 1982, 12-year-old Kirk & 7-year-old Candace had graduated from commercials to bit parts on prime-time network TV; that same year, according to the December 3, 1986 issue of People Magazine, Kirk earned irreversible partial facial damage as a result of a 1982 skiing accident.
In 1984, just before his 15th birthday, Kirk auditioned for the part of eldest teenage son Mike Seaver on a situation comedy pilot called Growing Pains.
The pilot was conceived & created by 27-year-old struggling writer Neal Marlens, who based it on a true story (his own) of his life as a teenager growing up in Long Island, New York, where Neals mother was a real-life psychiatrist and Neals father was the real-life managing editor of the local newspaper, New York Newsday; Neal flopped gender roles for the pilot, when the Psychiatrist father, Dr. Jason Seaver, moved his office into the Seaver home while mom Maggie, a newspaper reporter, returns to work after 15 years away from the fictional Long Island Herald newspaper.
Joining Kirk in the cast by March 1985 were 38-year-old Alan Thicke (born Alan Jeffrey on March 1, 1947 in Kirkland Lake, Canada, who got the part soon after his birthday that year after auditioning against 100 men for the part of Dr. Seaver; his biological father, Bill, left the family when Alan was very young, and his mother, Mary, soon afterwards rekindled an old flame with flight physician Dr. Brian Thicke, who eventually gave Alan a younger brother, Todd, a writer for the hit TV game show Americas Funniest Home Videos); 32-year-old Joanna Kerns (born Joanna De Varona on February 12, 1953 in San Francisco, California, USA, the younger sister of former Olympic swimmer Donna De Varona); 15-year-old Elizabeth Ward (born c. 1969); and 9-year-old Jeremy Miller (born on October 21, 1975 in West Covina, California, USA).
The pilot episode of Growing Pains was taped in April 1985 at the Warner Bros. Studios lot in Burbank, California; however, despite the series being picked up for the Fall 1985 TV season, Elizabeth Ward was soon fired & replaced by an actress who had earlier auditioned (but was initially passed over): 16-year-old Tracey Gold (born Tracey Fisher on May 16, 1969 in New York City, New York, USA; her younger sister, Missy, who was born on July 14, 1970 in Great Falls, Montana, USA, was on TVs Benson at the time; their biological father abandoned them and their mother, Bonnie, when Tracey & Missy were very young, and Bonnie eventually married talent agent Harry Goldstein, professionally known as Harry Gold, who eventually adopted Tracey & Missy as his own daughters and gave them 2 younger half-sisters: Brandy & Jessie).
All of Wards scenes (except one) were re-shot with Tracey taking her place, and Growing Pains debuted at 8 P.M. ET on September 24, 1985 on the ABC Television Network, right after the 2nd season debut of the Tony Danza sitcom Whos the Boss?
Though ratings struggled in its rookie season, soon after Neal Marlens quit the show in January 1986, the trio of Dan Guntzelman, Mike Sullivan, and Steve Marshall became showrunners and eventually climbed the ratings to #17 in the Nielsens by Seasons end.
By September 1986, 16-year-old Kirk Cameron earned a permanent place in teen idolatry; however, that wasnt enough to prevent him from going through real-life Growing Pains of his own after learning of his parents impending divorce soon after his 17th birthday in October 1986, combined with the fact that Kirk was simultaneously becoming a Stalking victim.
According to his 2008 memoir Still Growing, Mike Seaver may have had lighthearted growing pains onscreen, but when cameras werent rolling on the show, Kirks real life played like a long gritty episode of Hill Street Blues; after learning of Kirk being Stalked, Alan Thicke turned to Gavin de Becker, a Stalking expert who, per the memoir, looked like a Physically small accountant.
After learning of the type of Stalker Kirk was dealing with, the regular GP security team was replaced by local undercover policemen after the guy decided to show up on the shows set, where he was immediately hauled off to life imprisonment (where he still is today as of this writing).
In March 1987, 11-year-old Candace was cast as eldest daughter D.J. Tanner on a sitcom pilot called Full House, which taped later that month and debuted on September 22, 1987 on the ABC Television Network, enjoying an 8-year, 192-episode run until its final original episode on May 23, 1995.
During the Summer of 1987, 17-year-old Kirk was cast opposite British actor Dudley Moore (born on April 19, 1935 in Dagenham, England, UK; died March 27, 2002 in Plainfield, New Jersey, USA of pneumonia after a 2 1/2-year public battle with Progressive Supranuclea Palsy) in a movie for TriStar Pictures (now owned by Columbia/Sony) called Like Father, Like Son; during a break from filming the movie, Kirk was invited by his then-girlfriend, aspiring actress Leanna Creel (born on August 27, 1970 in Los Angeles, California, USA) to the local Church where her father served as pastor.
Soon after that 1st Church meeting, pertaining to his parents impending divorce, 17-year-old Kirk sat by his parked car in Van Nuys, California and soon afterwards fully accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior, which didnt sit well with his secular colleagues after he stopped being a practical joker off camera and turned to Mr. Serious per Kirks E! True Hollywood Story episode.
On the May 4, 1988 telecast of Growing Pains, 17-year-old Mike Seaver earned his high-school Diploma from the fictional Thomas E. Dewey High School in Long Island, New York; in Summer 1988, 18-year-old Kirk Cameron graduated in real life from Chatsworth High School in Los Angeles, California.
In 1989, Kirk Cameron, just shy of turning 20, met and fell in love with aspiring model/actress Nancy Mueller (born on December 4, 1963 in Buffalo, New York, USA), known professionally as Chelsea Noble, after Nancy was cast as Kate MacDonald, a potential love interest of Mike Seaver.
On July 20, 1991, 21-year-old Kirk Cameron & 27-year-old Nancy Mueller were married in Nancys hometown of Buffalo, New York in a private ceremony attended by immediate family of both parties only, a fact that didnt sit well with Kirks GP colleagues considering they werent even invited to the wedding.
Earlier that Spring, on April 24, 1991, Dan Guntzelman, Mike Sullivan, & Steve Marshall left GP after Kirk called the Network President, stating his employers were pornographers (in Marshalls case, sadly true, as Steve pled guilty in early 2010 to possession of child porn and now is imprisoned).
Soon afterwards, veteran producer Dan Wilcox was hired to replace the departing trio as showrunner, as well as a 16-year-old kid named Leonardo DiCaprio (born on November 11, 1974 in Los Angeles, California, USA), who was cast as Luke Brower, a homeless teen taken in by the Seaver family.
After 7 successful years, despite the fact that the series was #27 out of 102 prime-time network shows that season, ABC canceled Growing Pains due to its tiredness of Kirks religious beliefs; the hour-long series finale, in which the Seavers move to Washington, aired on ABC on April 25, 1992.
After her series Full House was canceled, 20-year-old Candace Cameron met and fell in love with Russian pro Hockey player Val Bure (born on June 13, 1974 in Moscow, Russia, USSR), who she would marry after a year-long courtship on June 22, 1996; per her 2011 memoir Reshaping It All, Candace soon developed a 2-year battle with the eating disorder Bulimia, which she blames entirely on overwhelming emotions caused by her being a newlywed.
In 1995, 25-year-old Kirk made a brief return to series TV with a self-titled sitcom created for him by Scott Baio, lasting 15 months on the WB Network.
In the year 2000, soon after completing filming on the 1st Left Behind movie, 30-year-old Kirk, by this time the father of 4 adopted children, officially retired from acting and found a new calling, as a TV preacher.
He has since become the father of 2 biological children: 11-year-old Olivia Rose & 9-year-old James Thomas.
Except for the 2 Growing Pains reunion movies, the 2 Left Behind sequels, and the 2008 independent hit Fireproof, Kirk has remained retired from acting.
Candace, now 37, returned to acting in 2009 on the short-lived ABC Family series Make It or Break It; she and Val are the proud parents of 3 children, including a teenage daughter and 2 school-aged boys, and live in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida (per Kirks official website at http://kirkcameron.com)
Kirk, now 42, resides with wife Nancy & their 6 kids in Agoura, California.
As you are aware, Kirk has become somewhat of a laughing stock after his comments made to British CNN newsman Piers Morgan about Homosexuality, calling it unnatural and destructive to society (something I totally disagree with), so instead of ridiculing Kirk like many in the general media have, Im gonna present to you his entire life story, unless otherwise noted brought to you by his E! True Hollywood Story episode originally airing in the year 2000.
The year is 1968. Richard Milhous Nixon, age 55, is elected U.S. President; the Vietnam War is in full effect; and a 24-year-old rising middle-school Math teacher/gym coach named Rob Cameron meets and falls in love with 17-year-old recent high-school graduate Barbara Bausmith; before the year is over, Rob & Barbara discover she is pregnant with their first baby.
As was custom in the era, rather than have their 1st-born out of wedlock, Rob and Barbara married on June 22, 1969, 5 1/2 months into the pregnancy.
3 1/2 months later, a baby boy, Kirk, was born on October 12, 1969 in Los Angeles, California.
By 1974, Rob and Barbara are expecting again; this time, a baby girl, Candace, was born on April 6, 1975 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
The family of 4 settled in the San Fernando Valley subdivision of Los Angeles, where in early 1979, at the request of Cameron family neighbor Fran Rich, Barbara began taking 9-year-old Kirk & 4-year-old Candace out to acting auditions (per a 2008 issue of People Magazine on Child Stars).
By 1982, 12-year-old Kirk & 7-year-old Candace had graduated from commercials to bit parts on prime-time network TV; that same year, according to the December 3, 1986 issue of People Magazine, Kirk earned irreversible partial facial damage as a result of a 1982 skiing accident.
In 1984, just before his 15th birthday, Kirk auditioned for the part of eldest teenage son Mike Seaver on a situation comedy pilot called Growing Pains.
The pilot was conceived & created by 27-year-old struggling writer Neal Marlens, who based it on a true story (his own) of his life as a teenager growing up in Long Island, New York, where Neals mother was a real-life psychiatrist and Neals father was the real-life managing editor of the local newspaper, New York Newsday; Neal flopped gender roles for the pilot, when the Psychiatrist father, Dr. Jason Seaver, moved his office into the Seaver home while mom Maggie, a newspaper reporter, returns to work after 15 years away from the fictional Long Island Herald newspaper.
Joining Kirk in the cast by March 1985 were 38-year-old Alan Thicke (born Alan Jeffrey on March 1, 1947 in Kirkland Lake, Canada, who got the part soon after his birthday that year after auditioning against 100 men for the part of Dr. Seaver; his biological father, Bill, left the family when Alan was very young, and his mother, Mary, soon afterwards rekindled an old flame with flight physician Dr. Brian Thicke, who eventually gave Alan a younger brother, Todd, a writer for the hit TV game show Americas Funniest Home Videos); 32-year-old Joanna Kerns (born Joanna De Varona on February 12, 1953 in San Francisco, California, USA, the younger sister of former Olympic swimmer Donna De Varona); 15-year-old Elizabeth Ward (born c. 1969); and 9-year-old Jeremy Miller (born on October 21, 1975 in West Covina, California, USA).
The pilot episode of Growing Pains was taped in April 1985 at the Warner Bros. Studios lot in Burbank, California; however, despite the series being picked up for the Fall 1985 TV season, Elizabeth Ward was soon fired & replaced by an actress who had earlier auditioned (but was initially passed over): 16-year-old Tracey Gold (born Tracey Fisher on May 16, 1969 in New York City, New York, USA; her younger sister, Missy, who was born on July 14, 1970 in Great Falls, Montana, USA, was on TVs Benson at the time; their biological father abandoned them and their mother, Bonnie, when Tracey & Missy were very young, and Bonnie eventually married talent agent Harry Goldstein, professionally known as Harry Gold, who eventually adopted Tracey & Missy as his own daughters and gave them 2 younger half-sisters: Brandy & Jessie).
All of Wards scenes (except one) were re-shot with Tracey taking her place, and Growing Pains debuted at 8 P.M. ET on September 24, 1985 on the ABC Television Network, right after the 2nd season debut of the Tony Danza sitcom Whos the Boss?
Though ratings struggled in its rookie season, soon after Neal Marlens quit the show in January 1986, the trio of Dan Guntzelman, Mike Sullivan, and Steve Marshall became showrunners and eventually climbed the ratings to #17 in the Nielsens by Seasons end.
By September 1986, 16-year-old Kirk Cameron earned a permanent place in teen idolatry; however, that wasnt enough to prevent him from going through real-life Growing Pains of his own after learning of his parents impending divorce soon after his 17th birthday in October 1986, combined with the fact that Kirk was simultaneously becoming a Stalking victim.
According to his 2008 memoir Still Growing, Mike Seaver may have had lighthearted growing pains onscreen, but when cameras werent rolling on the show, Kirks real life played like a long gritty episode of Hill Street Blues; after learning of Kirk being Stalked, Alan Thicke turned to Gavin de Becker, a Stalking expert who, per the memoir, looked like a Physically small accountant.
After learning of the type of Stalker Kirk was dealing with, the regular GP security team was replaced by local undercover policemen after the guy decided to show up on the shows set, where he was immediately hauled off to life imprisonment (where he still is today as of this writing).
In March 1987, 11-year-old Candace was cast as eldest daughter D.J. Tanner on a sitcom pilot called Full House, which taped later that month and debuted on September 22, 1987 on the ABC Television Network, enjoying an 8-year, 192-episode run until its final original episode on May 23, 1995.
During the Summer of 1987, 17-year-old Kirk was cast opposite British actor Dudley Moore (born on April 19, 1935 in Dagenham, England, UK; died March 27, 2002 in Plainfield, New Jersey, USA of pneumonia after a 2 1/2-year public battle with Progressive Supranuclea Palsy) in a movie for TriStar Pictures (now owned by Columbia/Sony) called Like Father, Like Son; during a break from filming the movie, Kirk was invited by his then-girlfriend, aspiring actress Leanna Creel (born on August 27, 1970 in Los Angeles, California, USA) to the local Church where her father served as pastor.
Soon after that 1st Church meeting, pertaining to his parents impending divorce, 17-year-old Kirk sat by his parked car in Van Nuys, California and soon afterwards fully accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior, which didnt sit well with his secular colleagues after he stopped being a practical joker off camera and turned to Mr. Serious per Kirks E! True Hollywood Story episode.
On the May 4, 1988 telecast of Growing Pains, 17-year-old Mike Seaver earned his high-school Diploma from the fictional Thomas E. Dewey High School in Long Island, New York; in Summer 1988, 18-year-old Kirk Cameron graduated in real life from Chatsworth High School in Los Angeles, California.
In 1989, Kirk Cameron, just shy of turning 20, met and fell in love with aspiring model/actress Nancy Mueller (born on December 4, 1963 in Buffalo, New York, USA), known professionally as Chelsea Noble, after Nancy was cast as Kate MacDonald, a potential love interest of Mike Seaver.
On July 20, 1991, 21-year-old Kirk Cameron & 27-year-old Nancy Mueller were married in Nancys hometown of Buffalo, New York in a private ceremony attended by immediate family of both parties only, a fact that didnt sit well with Kirks GP colleagues considering they werent even invited to the wedding.
Earlier that Spring, on April 24, 1991, Dan Guntzelman, Mike Sullivan, & Steve Marshall left GP after Kirk called the Network President, stating his employers were pornographers (in Marshalls case, sadly true, as Steve pled guilty in early 2010 to possession of child porn and now is imprisoned).
Soon afterwards, veteran producer Dan Wilcox was hired to replace the departing trio as showrunner, as well as a 16-year-old kid named Leonardo DiCaprio (born on November 11, 1974 in Los Angeles, California, USA), who was cast as Luke Brower, a homeless teen taken in by the Seaver family.
After 7 successful years, despite the fact that the series was #27 out of 102 prime-time network shows that season, ABC canceled Growing Pains due to its tiredness of Kirks religious beliefs; the hour-long series finale, in which the Seavers move to Washington, aired on ABC on April 25, 1992.
After her series Full House was canceled, 20-year-old Candace Cameron met and fell in love with Russian pro Hockey player Val Bure (born on June 13, 1974 in Moscow, Russia, USSR), who she would marry after a year-long courtship on June 22, 1996; per her 2011 memoir Reshaping It All, Candace soon developed a 2-year battle with the eating disorder Bulimia, which she blames entirely on overwhelming emotions caused by her being a newlywed.
In 1995, 25-year-old Kirk made a brief return to series TV with a self-titled sitcom created for him by Scott Baio, lasting 15 months on the WB Network.
In the year 2000, soon after completing filming on the 1st Left Behind movie, 30-year-old Kirk, by this time the father of 4 adopted children, officially retired from acting and found a new calling, as a TV preacher.
He has since become the father of 2 biological children: 11-year-old Olivia Rose & 9-year-old James Thomas.
Except for the 2 Growing Pains reunion movies, the 2 Left Behind sequels, and the 2008 independent hit Fireproof, Kirk has remained retired from acting.
Candace, now 37, returned to acting in 2009 on the short-lived ABC Family series Make It or Break It; she and Val are the proud parents of 3 children, including a teenage daughter and 2 school-aged boys, and live in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida (per Kirks official website at http://kirkcameron.com)
Kirk, now 42, resides with wife Nancy & their 6 kids in Agoura, California.