Kirk Cameron: The Walt Disney of Preaching

[bobola]

The year is 1968. The Vietnam War is in full swing, 55-year-old Richard Milhous Nixon is elected U.S. President, and a 24-year-old middle-school gym coach/math teacher named Rob Cameron meets and falls in love with a 17-year-old high-school senior named Barbara Bausmith.

Before the year ends, Barbara realizes she is pregnant with her 1st child with Rob, and rather than have the baby out-of-wedlock (per both their parents' order), Rob and Barbara marry each other on June 22, 1969.

3 1/2 months later, on October 12, 1969, a baby boy, Kirk, is born in Los Angeles.

By 1974, Rob and Barbara are expecting again; this time, a baby girl, Candace, is born on April 6, 1975, also in Los Angeles.

The family of 4 settled in the San Fernando Valley, where in 1979, at the request of Barbara's friend, Fran Rich (whose 10-year-old son, Adam, was in his 2nd season on the hit 1970s family drama series "Eight Is Enough" and shared a birthday with Kirk), Barbara began taking 9-year-old Kirk and 4-year-old Candace out to acting auditions; soon afterwards, 9-year-old Kirk books a commercial for Count Chocula cereal.

The following year, at age 5, Candace made her acting debut in a never-aired Mutual of Omaha commercial, and by 1982, the 2 siblings graduated from commercials to small roles in major TV programs, with Kirk earning bit parts on "Lou Grant," "Bret Maverick," and a short-lived sitcom adaptation of Disney's 1969 movie "Herbie, the Love Bug" and Candace earning a small role on the hit 1980s hospital drama series "St. Elsewhere."

In 1983, aged 13, Kirk made his regular TV series debut opposite future teen idol C. Thomas "Tommy" Howell on a short-lived family drama series called "Two Marriages."

In 1984, just shy of his 15th birthday, after "Two Marriages" was canceled, Kirk auditioned for the part of the eldest teen son on a family sitcom pilot called "Growing Pains," which was created by Neal Marlens, who based the show on a true story--his own--as a kid growing up in Long Island, New York, where Neal's mom was a psychiatrist and his dad was managing editor of New York Newsday.

14-year-old Kirk aced his audition after asking his future employers, "Is this a comedy show or what?"

The pilot for "Growing Pains" was taped in March 1985, with the pilot picked up as a series the following April, after being tested by ABC Network Practices.

"Growing Pains" made its debut on September 24, 1985 on the ABC Television Network, and although ratings were low in its rookie season, in January 1986, after creator Neal Marlens quit, he was replaced as showrunner by the trio of Dan Guntzelman, Mike Sullivan, & Steve Marshall. By season's end, ratings climbed to #17.

The following September, 16-year-old Kirk was gracing the covers of MANY teen magazines nationwide, yet that wasn't enough to prevent him & Candace from experiencing real-life "Growing Pains" when, soon after his birthday that October, their parents told them they were getting divorced (per Kirk's 2008 memoir "Still Growing").

On the upside, in March 1987, 11-year-old Candace taped a family sitcom pilot, also for the ABC Television Network, called "Full House," which debuted on September 22, 1987.

That Summer, at age 17, Kirk appeared opposite British actor Dudley Moore in a movie for TriStar Pictures (now owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment) called "Like Father, Like Son," which would be released theatrically on October 2, 10 days before Kirk turned 18.

During a break from filming "Like Father, Like Son," 17-year-old Kirk was invited by his then-girlfriend, aspiring actress Leanna Creel, to attend the local Church where her father served as pastor; while there, the guest speaker, pastor Dr. Chuck Swindoll, began to answer Kirk's lifelong questions about God's existence.

A few nights later, 17-year-old Kirk asked himself the fateful question, "If there's a God, I NEED to know," and soon after that bumbling prayer, his parents reconciled and eventually remarried.

In 1988, months after his 17-year-old "Growing Pains" character Mike Seaver graduated from Thomas E. Dewey High School, 18-year-old Kirk graduated in real life from Chatsworth High School (where Candace would eventually graduate in 1993).

Meanwhile, ratings for "Full House" were low in its debut season, yet the show soon caught on with a little help from the then-infant Olsen Twins, who played Michelle Tanner.

In 1989, just shy of turning 20, Kirk met and fell in love with aspiring actress/model Nancy Mueller, who was cast on the show as Kate MacDonald, a potential love interest for Mike Seaver--a role that, within 6 months, transferred over to real life for Kirk & Nancy, who would marry on July 20, 1991 in Nancy's hometown of Buffalo, New York in a private ceremony attended by immediate family only. Kirk was 21, Nancy was 27 when they married.

In April 1991, 21-year-old Kirk made a fateful call to the President of the ABC Television Network, calling his employers "pornographers" (partially true, as Steve Marshall pled guilty in 2010 to possession of child pornography, thus earning a 7-year prison term). By this time, ABC had had enough of Kirk's religious beliefs asserting itself with the show, and soon announced that Season 7, scheduled to air in September 1991, would be its last.

Knowing this, Dan Wilcox was hired to replace the departing Guntzelman Sullivan & Marshall trio, and at the same time, a 16-year-old kid named Leonardo DiCaprio was cast as Luke Brower, a 15-year-old homeless teenager taken in by the Seaver family.

Despite its final season, "Growing Pains" finished its original network run at #27 out of 102 prime-time network shows that season. The series finale aired on April 25, 1992.

After "GP's" cancellation, Kirk & Nancy became stay-at-home young newlyweds. In 1995, Kirk was cast in a self-titled sitcom created for him by Scott Baio for the WB Television Network, which lasted 15 months on the air until November 1996.

By this time, 27-year-old Kirk & 32-year-old Nancy had adopted their 1st of 4 adopted children, while Candace, age 21, a year after "Full House" was cancelled by ABC in 1995 due to being too pricey to produce, married 22-year-old now-retired pro Hockey player Val Bure.

In the year 2000, after completing the 1st "Left Behind" movie and the 1st "Growing Pains" reunion telefilm, 30-year-old Kirk officially retired from acting and began a new career as an evangelical minister, teaming up in 2002, months after the 9/11/2001 attacks, with author/minister Ray Comfort to combine their two ministries, Ray having been a minister since the 1970s.

Kirk only came out of retirement 4 times since officially retiring from acting, starting off with the 2nd "Growing Pains" reunion telefilm, followed by the 2 "Left Behind" sequels and the 2008 Christian movie "Fireproof."

Besides their 4 adopted children, Kirk & Nancy also have 2 biological children, 10-year-old Olivia and 8-year-old James, and reside in Agoura Hills, California.

Meanwhile, Candace, now age 36, and Val, now age 37, are the parents of 3 children, a teenage daughter and 2 boys ages 9 and 11, and reside in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

For those in doubt of ANY of this being true, HERE are the reputable resources I got ALL the info from, in NO particular order:

1. E! Entertainment: Celebrity Profile (info about Kirk being born in 1969 & Candace being born in 1975, as well as the majority of the info, including the info about Kirk calling the President pornographers and Kirk & Candaces early acting careers, including Kirk on Herbie, the Love Bug & Kirks graduation from high school in 1988, at age 18)
2. The Internet Movie Database (info about Candace in the Mutual of Omaha acting commercial that NEVER aired)
3. The E! True Hollywood Story (Kirks Growing Pains audition)
4. Still Growing: An Autobiography (2008 Kirk Cameron memoir; info about his parents 1st meeting, divorce, & eventual reconcilliation & remarriage)
5. The Official Website of Kirk Cameron (info about Candace living in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, as she has done since 2001 when she isnt working in California on ABC Familys Make It or Break It)

[robyrob]

not this nonsense again

[ThomasE]

Originally Posted by robyrob

not this nonsense again

What do you mean? This poster's comments about Cameron? I think that I've seen something like this before on the GP boards? Am I in dejavu land again?

[Zoneboy]

Originally Posted by ThomasE

What do you mean? This poster's comments about Cameron? I think that I've seen something like this before on the GP boards? Am I in dejavu land again?

He's posted this junk about the Camerons under at least 4 different user names.

[AKA]

Originally Posted by Zoneboy

He's posted this junk about the Camerons under at least 4 different user names.

And he's posted things about Candace Cameron that I can't repeat here under all of those screen names. And he's advised me to commit suicide under two. He has a winning record.