Kirk Cameron

Kirk Cameron
Cameron at Calvary Baptist Church in Manhattan, May 5, 2007.
Born	Kirk Thomas Cameron October 12, 1970 (1970-10-12) (age 40) Panorama City, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor/Evangelist
Years active	1979–present
Spouse	Chelsea Noble (1991–present)
Website
http://www.kirkcameron.com/

Kirk Thomas Cameron (born October 12, 1970) is an American actor best-known for his role as Mike Seaver on the television situation comedy Growing Pains (1985–1992), as well as several other television and film appearances as a child actor. In the 1980s and 1990s, Cameron appeared in dozens of television shows and in the films Like Father Like Son and Listen to Me.

Recently, he portrayed Cameron "Buck" Williams in the Left Behind film series and Caleb Holt in the 2008 drama film, Fireproof. Cameron is also an active Christian evangelist, currently partnering with Ray Comfort in the evangelical ministry The Way of the Master, and has co-founded The Firefly Foundation with his wife, actress Chelsea Noble.

Early life and family

Cameron was born on October 12, 1970,^[1] in Panorama City, California.^[2] His parents are Robert Cameron, a retired school teacher, and Barbara Bausmith, a stay-at-home mom.^[3] He is the brother to Bridgette, Melissa, and Candace. His little sister Candace Cameron Bure is most notable for her role as D.J. Tanner on the popular television sitcom, Full House.^[4] He went to school on the set of Growing Pains, as opposed to a normal school.^[5] He graduated at age 17 with high honors.^[6]

Cameron and his wife and fellow "Growing Pains" star Chelsea, were married on July 21, 1991. They now have six children, four of whom were adopted: Jack (born 1996), Isabella (born 1997), Anna (born 1998), and Luke (born 2000); and two biological: Olivia Rose (born July 18, 2001) and James Thomas (born April 13, 2003).^[7]

Acting career

Cameron at the Emmy Awards in 1989.

Cameron began acting at age nine, and his first job was in an advertisement for a breakfast cereal.^[8] His first starring role was at age 10, in the television series Two Marriages.^[9] At this age, he appeared in several television shows and films. He became famous in 1985 after being cast as Mike Seaver in the ABC television sitcom Growing Pains.^[10] In the series, Seaver's girlfriend was Kate MacDonald, who was played by Chelsea Noble, Cameron's future wife.^[11][12] Cameron subsequently became a teen heartthrob in the late 1980s,^[13] while appearing on the covers of several teen magazines, including Tiger Beat, Teen Beat, 16 and others. At the time, he was making $50,000 a week.^[14] He was also in a 60-second Pepsi commercial during Super Bowl XXIV.^[15]

Cameron also guest starred in "Just One of the Guys" a 1988 episode of Full House in which he played the cousin of D.J. Tanner, who was played by Cameron's sister, Candace.

Cameron went on to star in many films, including 1987's Like Father Like Son^[16] (a body-switch comedy with Dudley Moore), which was a box office success.^[17] His next theatrical film, 1989's Listen to Me, performed poorly at the box office.^[18] When Growing Pains ended in 1992, Cameron went on to star in The WB sitcom Kirk which premiered in 1995 and ended two years later. In Kirk, Cameron played Kirk Hartman,^[19] a 24-year-old who has to raise his siblings.^[20] Cameron and Noble also worked together on Kirk.^[12]

Cameron has since left mainstream film, though a decade after Growing Pains ended, he starred in a television reunion film, The Growing Pains Movie,^[21] in 2000, and another one, Growing Pains: Return of the Seavers, in 2004.^[22] Cameron reunited with the cast of Growing Pains for a CNN Larry King Live interview which aired on February 7, 2006, in conjunction with the Warner Bros. release of the complete first season of Growing Pains on DVD.^[23] Aside from this, Cameron has often worked in Christian-themed productions, among them the post-Rapture films Left Behind: The Movie, Left Behind II: Tribulation Force, and Left Behind: World at War, in which he plays Cameron "Buck" Williams. Cameron's wife Noble also starred in the film series,^[24] playing Hattie Durham. Cameron has worked with Cloud Ten Pictures, a company which produces Christian-themed films, and has starred in several of their films, including The Miracle of the Cards.^[25]

He also appeared in the 2008 drama film, Fireproof,^[26] which was produced by Sherwood Pictures. The film was created on a budget of $500,000, with Cameron as the lead actor, portraying Captain Caleb Holt.^[27] Though it was a low-budget film, the film grossed $33,415,129 and was a box office success. It was the highest grossing independent film of 2008.^[28]

Christianity and evangelism ministry

Cameron, speaking at a debate on the existence of God at Calvary Baptist Church in Manhattan, May 5, 2007. In this picture, Cameron cites the lack of a "crocoduck" as evidence against evolution.

Cameron was once an atheist,^[29] but when Kirk was 18, during the height of his career on Growing Pains, he developed a belief in God, and became a born-again Christian.^[14][30][31] After converting to Christianity, he began to insist that story lines be stripped of anything he thought too adult or racy in Growing Pains.^[32][33] A decade later, Cameron agreed to appear in The Growing Pains Movie, where the entire main cast reunited with one another. Cameron said, "It’s a lot less crazy of a time than when we were teenagers. It’s an opportunity to begin new friendships as adults, and I’m really looking forward to that."^[34]

Cameron currently partners with fellow evangelist Ray Comfort, training Christians in evangelism. Together, they founded the ministry of The Way of the Master,^[35] which is best known for the television show of the same name that Cameron co-hosts, and which won the National Religious Broadcasters’ Best Program Award for two consecutive years.^[36] It also formerly featured a radio show known as The Way of the Master Radio with talk show host Todd Friel.^[37] 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.^[38][39]

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 he could prove scientifically, without relying on faith or the Bible.^[40] The audience was composed of both theists and atheists. Points of discussion included atheism and evolutionary theory.^[41]

In November 2009 Cameron and others distributed free copies of an altered version of Darwin's On the Origin of Species on college campus in the United States.^[42][43] 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 has been criticized by scientists and Darwin biographers for omitting key chapters of the book, and for its introduction containing misinformation about Darwin, employing logical fallacies and "a hopeless mess of long-ago-refuted creationist arguments, teeming with misinformation about the science of evolution".^[44][45] 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.^[46] The National Center for Science Education arranged a campaign at colleges across the U.S. to distribute an analysis of the Comfort introduction and a banana bookmark,^[47] in reference to Comfort's argument that the structure of the banana is evidence for Intelligent Design, or God.^[48]

Filmography

Film

Television and videogames

Awards

Kirk Cameron with Ray Comfort in 2008.

Young Artist Awards

• 1985 Best Young Supporting Actor in a Daytime or Nighttime Drama, Two Marriages (Nominated)
• 1986 Best Young Actor Starring in a New Television Series, Growing Pains (Won)
• 1987 Exceptional Performance by a Young Actor Starring in a Television Comedy or Drama Series, Growing Pains (Won)
• 1987 Best Young Male Superstar in Television, Growing Pains (Won)
• 1989 Best Young Actor Starring in a Motion Picture, Listen to Me (Nominated)

Saturn Award

• 1987 Best Performance by a Younger Actor, Like Father, Like Son (Won)

Golden Globe Awards

• 1987 Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film, Growing Pains (Nominated)
• 1989 Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film, Growing Pains (Nominated)

People's Choice Award

• 1988 Favorite Young TV Performer (Won)
• 1989 Favorite Young TV Performer (Won)

Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards

• 1990 Favorite TV Actor, Growing Pains (Won)

Other Awards and Honors

• On September 13, 2009 Cameron was awarded the key to the city of Cullman, Alabama by their Mayor Max Townsend at First Baptist Church of Cullman Alabama.

Notes

Further reading

• Still Growing: An Autobiography (with Lissa Halls Johnson): ISBN 0-8307-4451-7

External links

Simple English Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Kirk Cameron

Websites

• Official website
• The Way of the Master
• Kirk Cameron at the Internet Movie Database

Interviews

• Christianity Today interview (October 2000)
• CNN People In The News (August 20, 2005)
• The Dallas Morning News interview (September 24, 2008)