Kirk Cameron: The E! True Hollywood Story

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Imagine yourselves as a 17-year-old kid, c. the '80s; you're the star of a major hit network television show, earning 10,000 letters every week from girls your age. What teenage boy wouldn't want that? Yet for Kirk Cameron, in 1987, that was his exact reality.

18 1/2 years earlier, c. 1968, a rising high-school gym teacher named Rob Cameron met a 17-year-old high-school senior named Barbara Bausmith.

Before the year ended, Rob got Barbara pregnant.

Back then, it was less common than it is now for babies to be born out of wedlock, so Rob proposed to Barbara and they married on June 22, 1969.

That fall, on October 12, 1969, a baby boy, Kirk Thomas Cameron, arrived.

5 years later, c. summer 1974, Barbara was pregnant again, and a little sister, Candace, arrived on April 6, 1975.

In 1979, at age 9, Kirk made his acting debut via a Count Chocula commercial. More commercials followed, and by age 12, Kirk graduated to bit parts in such shows as "Lou Grant" & a short-lived sitcom version of "Herbie, the Love Bug."

In Fall 1984, not long before his 15th birthday, Kirk auditioned for the role of the eldest teenage son on a situation comedy pilot titled "Growing Pains," conceived the previous Winter by Neal Marlens, who based the show on a true story--his own--growing up in Long Island, New York in the 1970s.

By March 1985, the original cast was complete when 38-year-old Alan Thicke, a Canadian talk show host, beat out 150 men to portray Dr. Jason Seaver in the pilot, scheduled for taping later that month.

The ABC Television Network bought the pilot, but did not like the 15-year-old actress playing teenage daughter Carol, Elizabeth Ward.

Ward was let go and replaced by 16-year-old Tracey Gold (born May 16, 1969 in New York City and slightly older than Kirk), with the pilot scenes originally shot by Ward replaced by Gold.

"Growing Pains" debuted September 24, 1985 on ABC, right after the Tony Danza vehicle "Who's the Boss?" (then in its 2nd season).

Though the ratings struggled in its rookie season, according to E! Entertainment's now-defunct Celebrity Profile episode on Kirk Cameron, by October 1986, when he turned 17, Kirk Cameron was taking in $10,000 a week from his initial teen-idol fame--alongside 10,000 letters every week from teenage girls, earning him a permanent place in teen idoldom.

Soon after, according to his memoir Still Growing, Kirk's parents, Rob and Barbara, sat him and Candace down after a publicity-filled Sweet 16 party (OK, so he shaved off a year in his actual age to make himself a year younger for "Growing Pains"; whether he was forced to or not is unclear), and informed them they were getting a divorce.

The following summer, soon after then 12-year-old Candace was cast as eldest teen daughter D.J. Tanner on "Full House," and during a break from filming "Like Father, Like Son" with the late British actor Dudley Moore, by his own admission, Kirk sat in his parked car in Van Nuys, California, and asked himself, "If there's a God, I want to know, please tell me."

Soon after saying that bumbling prayer, Kirk turned his life to Jesus, his parents reconciled and eventually remarried, and since that fateful day, he's been a living Thank You to Jesus.

Not all was well, however, as publicity misunderstood Kirk, claiming that it was just another way of being a spoiled rat.

According to Still Growing, after his high school graduation in 1988, Kirk, age 18, bought his first house in Simi Valley, California--a house which eventually burned down not long after he left and moved out.

A year later, in 1989, 19-year-old Kirk met a 24-year-old actress/model named Nancy Mueller (known by the stage name Chelsea Noble), who was cast as a potential love interest for Mike Seaver--that of Kate--a role that eventually turned into an off-screen romance as well.

On July 20, 1991, in a private ceremony with immediate family in attendance, Kirk and Nancy were married in Nancy's hometown of Buffalo, New York.

That fall, after earlier in the year calling the president of ABC, saying his 3 employers were pornographers (sadly, in Steve Marshall's case, true, as he earned a 7-year prison sentence for possession of child porn), new producers and directors were hired for "Growing Pains" Season 7 (alongside a 16-year-old kid named Leonardo DiCaprio), all of whom deemed Kirk too old for teen idoldom (he was, after all, months shy of age 22).

However, although the series was #27 out of 102 prime-time network shows (in spite of its move to Saturday night), ABC canceled "Growing Pains" because of Kirk's religious beliefs.

After 10 more years of acting, including a short-lived 1995 sitcom created for him by Scott Baio (who just turned 50 on September 22), along with the "Left Behind" movies, Kirk, age 33, retired from acting and became a preacher.

In addition to delivering sermons through TBN, Kirk, who still acts occasionally through "Fireproof" and other Christian films, also delivers sermons at real churches across the country.

Today, at age 41, Kirk and Nancy are still married and the proud parents of 6 kids--4 adopted, 2 biological.

Unless otherwise noted, all information included in this message is brought to you by "Growing Pains: The E! True Hollywood Story."