Kirk Cameron
Kirk Thomas Cameron (born October 12, 1970)[1] is an American actor, evangelist, and television host.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] He first gained fame as a teen actor playing Mike Seaver on the ABC sitcom Growing Pains (1985–1992), a role for which he was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards.
Kirk Cameron
Actor, evangelist, TV show and documentary host, producer
1979–present
The character Mike Seaver on Growing Pains
6
Candace Cameron Bure (sister)
Cameron made several other television and film appearances through the 1980s and 1990s, including the films Like Father Like Son (1987) and Listen to Me (1989). In the 2000s, he portrayed Cameron "Buck" Williams in the Left Behind film series and Caleb Holt in the drama film Fireproof (2008). His 2014 film, Saving Christmas, was panned by critics and made the IMDb Bottom 100 List within one month of its theatrical release.[9] He has produced films since then, including Lifemark (2022),[3][10][11] which was commercially successful.[12] In 2022, he wrote a faith-based children's book, As You Grow, published by Brave Books, which he read at libraries the following year, during a successful nationwide book tour.[13]
Cameron is an Evangelical Christian who partners with Ray Comfort in the evangelistic ministry The Way of the Master and co-founded The Firefly Foundation with his wife, actress Chelsea Noble.
Early life
Cameron was born in Panorama City, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles.[14] His parents are Barbara (née Bausmith) and Robert Cameron, a retired schoolteacher.[15] He has three sisters: Bridgette, Melissa, and actress Candace, who portrayed D.J. Tanner on the television sitcom Full House.[16] Cameron attended school on the set of Growing Pains, instead of a public or private school having many other students.[17] However, he went to some classes at Chatsworth High School during production breaks and graduated with honors in their class of 1988.[18][19]
Conversion to Christianity
Cameron was an atheist in his early teens.[56] When he was 17, during the height of his career on Growing Pains, he became a born-again Christian.[26][57][58]
After converting to Protestant Christianity, Cameron stated in his autobiography, he came to feel that some of his scenes were antithetical to his newfound faith, and inappropriate for the family viewers that were the show's intended audience. Among these was a scene that called for the unmarried Mike Seaver to share a bed with a girl and, in the morning, say to her, "What's your name again?" For these reasons, he began insisting that these types of storylines be edited to remove the parts that he found objectionable.[6][59]
After the series ended, Cameron did not maintain contact with his former co-stars. Cameron has stated that this was not due to any animosity on his part toward any of his former cast members, but an outgrowth of his and his wife's desire to start a new life away from the entertainment industry and, as he put it, "... the circus he had been in for the past seven years".[60]
Prior to the premiere of The Growing Pains Movie in 2000, for which the entire main cast reunited, Cameron described his regrets over how his relationship with his castmates changed after his religious conversion during production of the series, saying, "I definitely kind of made an about-face, going toward another aspect of my life. I shifted my focus from 100% on the show, to 100% on [my new life], and left 0% on the show—and even the friendships that were a part of that show. If I could go back, I think I could make decisions that were less inadvertently hurtful to the cast—like talking and explaining to them why I just wanted to have my family at my wedding."[60]
In a 2011 Growing Pains cast reunion on Good Morning America, Alan Thicke, who played Cameron's father, said, "Kirk's choices for a lot of people seemed extreme, but when you think about all of the choices that kids could make under the pressure that he had, what better choice could you make than to choose a religious spiritual life?"[61]
Cameron's conversion to Christianity also prompted a commitment to kissing no one other than his wife onscreen. For this reason, his real-life wife served as a stand-in for a scene in the film Fireproof in which his character, Caleb Holt, kisses his wife Catherine, who is played in the film by Erin Bethea. The scene was shot in silhouette to obscure this fact.[62][63]
Cameron relates in his autobiography that he once turned down a TV series because, as he put it, he was unwilling to spend more time being a make-believe husband and father to an on-set wife and children than he would spend with his actual wife and children, choosing instead to appear in or produce films and TV shows whose content is in keeping with his faith-based values.[6] He also tours the nation to give marriage and family seminars and talks.[64][65][66][67]
In August 2017, Cameron and Noble created the online marriage course The Heart of Family: Six Weeks to a Happier Home and a Healthier Family.[68][69]
Evangelistic ministry
Cameron partnered with fellow evangelist Ray Comfort to teach evangelism methods through the ministry they founded, The Way of the Master,[70] and the television show of the same name that Cameron co-hosts. It won the National Religious Broadcasters' Best Program Award for two consecutive years.[71] It also formerly featured a radio show known as The Way of the Master Radio with talk show host Todd Friel.[72] The radio show was later canceled, and replaced with Wretched Radio, hosted by Friel. Cameron, along with his wife, founded The Firefly Foundation, which runs Camp Firefly, a summer camp that gives terminally ill children and their families a free week's vacation.[73][74]
Cameron and Comfort participated in a televised debate with atheists Brian Sapient and Kelly O'Conner of the Rational Response Squad, at Calvary Baptist Church, in Manhattan, on May 5, 2007. It was moderated by ABC's Martin Bashir and parts of it were aired on Nightline. At issue was the existence of God, which Comfort stated at various times during his ministry that he could prove scientifically without relying on faith or the Bible. However, he never committed to this restriction for the debate, itself, as later clarified by The Christian Post in a correction they made at the very end of their article about the debate.[75] The audience was composed of both theists and atheists. Points of discussion included atheism and evolution.[76] While Sapient contended during his arguments that Comfort violated the rules by talking about the Ten Commandments, Cameron later stated on The Way of the Master radio show that the rules of the debate did not say that the Bible could never be referenced, but rather that Comfort simply had to come up with one argument that did not reference the Bible or faith.[77] During the debate, Cameron referred to the absence of a crocoduck to dispute the theory of evolution, which then became a meme to highlight misconceptions about the theory.[78]
In November 2009, Cameron and others distributed free copies of an altered version of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species on college campuses in the United States.[79][80] The book consisted of Darwin's text with chapters of the book removed, and with an added introduction by Ray Comfort reiterating common creationist assertions about Darwin and evolution. The book was criticized by scientists and Darwin biographers who criticized the omission of key chapters of the book, and who stated that its introduction contains misinformation about Darwin, and long-refuted creationist arguments about the science of evolution,[81][82] such as the linking of Nazi racial theories to Darwinist ideas.[80] Comfort later said that the four chapters were chosen at random to be omitted in order to make the book small enough to be affordable as a giveaway, with the absent chapters available for download, but that the missing chapters were included in the second edition, which had a smaller text size that made printing the entire book as a giveaway affordable. The second edition still lacks Darwin's preface and glossary of terms.[83] The National Center for Science Education arranged a campaign to distribute an analysis of the Comfort introduction and a banana bookmark at colleges across the U.S., a reference to Comfort's presentation of the banana as evidence for the existence of God.[84]
On March 2, 2012, Cameron stated on CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight, when asked about homosexuality, that it is "unnatural, it's detrimental and ultimately destructive to so many of the foundations of civilization".[85] Cameron's comments received criticism from GLAAD,[86] and provoked a backlash from gay rights activists and Hollywood celebrities, including Roseanne Barr, Craig Ferguson, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, as well as Growing Pains co-stars Tracey Gold and Alan Thicke. Piers Morgan stated that Cameron was brave for expressing his opinion, "however antiquated his beliefs may be". He, however, received "thousands of emails and comments" from supporters.[87][88] Rosie O'Donnell invited him to discuss his views on her talk show, but he declined and suggested a private dinner to discuss this topic personally.[89]
On April 11, 2012, Cameron was honored by Indiana Wesleyan University, and inducted into their Society of World Changers during a ceremony in which he spoke on IWU's campus.[90]
Personal life
Cameron and his wife, fellow Growing Pains star Chelsea Noble, were married on July 21, 1991. They have six children: four adopted and two biological.[102]