What Did This 1980s Teen Idol Do After Leaving Hollywood to Become a Christian?
He was a teen star and had it all: fame, money, and a number one TV show. But when his career was really taking off, he did something that shocked a lot of people. He left Hollywood and went in a direction that not many people could have seen coming.
As a child actor on “Growing Pains,” he became one of the most famous young actors of the 1980s. Teen magazines put him on the covers, and many fans thought he was the cutest guy ever. Behind the scenes, though, he was having more and more trouble figuring out that Hollywood wasn’t its real home.
Many people in the business were shocked when the star made a choice in the early 1990s, when he was at the height of his fame. Instead of acting, he chose to follow his faith. This choice changed more than just his career; it changed the way he saw the world. What happened in his life after he quit Hollywood?
From hopes and dreams as a child to accidental fame
He had no plans to become an actor. Though, when he was young, he had a very different goal in mind: he wanted to be a doctor. His dream job was to be a surgeon, but his career took a sudden turn when his mother, with the help of a friend, introduced him to acting.
That friend was Adam Rich’s mother. Adam is a famous child actor who played a part in “Eight is Enough.” She told the boy’s mother to get him an agent and try his luck in commercials.
His mother reluctantly did what the advice said, and soon the nine-year-old was getting small parts. Some of his first acting jobs were in commercials, like the one for McDonald’s. The young boy worked steadily as an actor, but he didn’t enjoy it.
He once said of those early years, “It was always annoying having to brush my hair and tuck my shirt in to go drive an hour in traffic to audition.” Even though he wasn’t excited about acting, his career took off, and his big break came when he played Mike Seaver in “Growing Pains.”
He was having a hard time inside as his fame grew. He thought that what Hollywood had to offer might not be enough. His faith, which he didn’t expect, would eventually pull him in a whole new direction.
His family wasn’t religious when he was growing up, and they never talked about God at home. He once said, “When I was a kid, we didn’t go to church.”
“If you had asked me, I would have said I would be in the category of an atheist at 16 years old, 17 years old,” he said.
It was the people around him, especially his teachers, who made him an atheist. The way his science and history teachers taught him to not believe in God (they called it “just a fairy tale”) made him become an atheist.
He was very focused on his Hollywood career at that point and didn’t want to learn more about faith or spirituality. But, even though he wasn’t interested, a chance meeting would soon change his mind.
He didn’t learn a lot about religion during his first visit to church. Interested in a girl, he agreed to go to church with her family when she asked him to. “Let’s be honest. It wasn’t because I was interested in God. He said, “I was interested in the girl.”
He had no idea that this simple choice would lead to a huge change in his life. As his faith grew stronger, it started to have an effect on his life and career, which made his Hollywood coworkers nervous.
He started to care about his new beliefs when he was 17. This started to change how he did his job on “Growing Pains.” The producers and cast of the show noticed this sudden change and became more and more worried about how it might affect the show.
His actions had a lot of weight because he was one of the show’s main characters. His work was important to the show’s success and to everyone’s jobs. The show’s producers were afraid that his growing religious beliefs might lead him in a way that would hurt the show’s future.
“Is he getting involved in something that will really send him to Looney Town?” They were worried, “And if it is, we need to stop that.” He, on the other hand, was trying to live out his faith, even though he knows he wasn’t always as good at it as he could have been.
To be moral, I tried to do the right thing. “I really wanted to please God, and I think that got misunderstood sometimes,” he said. But it was clear that his priorities were changing, and Hollywood didn’t know what to do about it.
As his faith grew, he also became more aware of the bad things going on in Hollywood around him. Over time, he reportedly saw some upsetting things that made him stay away from the industry even more.
“The darkness, evil, and twisted sickness of Hollywood has been going on for a long time,” he said, remembering when he was a child actor. The actor, who started acting when he was nine years old, remembered being suspicious of the strange things going on behind the scenes on “Growing Pains.”
Brian Peck, his personal dialogue coach on the show, was later found guilty of sexual abuse crimes, which was one of the most shocking things that came out. A new documentary that showed the bad side of the entertainment business brought Peck’s name to light.
The actor talked about how these new facts proved what he had already thought: that Hollywood wasn’t as good-hearted as it often seemed. This setting, which was based on power, pride, and ego made him want to leave the spotlight even more.
He became even more devoted to his religion and the values it taught him because he thought that people who were after fame and money often went down dangerous paths. “When that becomes your God, rather than the God who laid down His life on a cross 2,000 years ago, you’re in for a world of hurt,” he said.
His growing disillusionment with Hollywood made him even more determined to stop acting. But his life was about to take another important turn that would make him care more about his family and his faith.
When Kirk Cameron left Hollywood, it was the start of a new part of his life. He married actress and “Growing Pains” co-star Chelsea Noble when he was only 20 years old. The two of them started a life together away from the entertainment business. Six kids were added to their family by them, and four of them were adopted.
A cause that was important to both Cameron and Noble was adoption. Noble herself had been adopted. They always made sure their kids knew where they came from and helped them get in touch with their real families when the time came.
Cameron’s strong morals and his dedication to spending time with his family became the most important things in his life. One of the clearest signs of how much he cares about family values was when he was making his 2008 movie “Fireproof.”
Cameron plays a firefighter out to save his marriage in the movie. But when it was time to film a kissing scene with the actress who played his wife, Cameron wouldn’t kiss anyone but his real wife.
In order to honor Noble’s wedding vows, the filmmakers dressed him up as the movie’s female lead and filmed the scene in silhouette. “I have a commitment not to kiss any other woman,” Cameron said later, showing how seriously he took his beliefs.
With Hollywood behind him, Cameron’s life became less about fame and more about staying true to the things that were important to him. But his journey wasn’t over yet. He was about to make another big choice that would change his life even more.
Cameron made another big choice in his life not long ago: he left the place where he had spent most of his life and built his career. Cameron told people on social media in early 2021 that he was going to leave California.
“I asked on social media what states people recommend for a Californian looking to relocate, and the top responses were Tennessee, Florida, and Texas,” he wrote on Facebook. Tennessee was the one who won his heart in the end.
In later interviews, he talked about why he made the move. Cameron thought California had lost its safety and longed for a place with more of the “wholesome values” he had deep down.
He moved there because he liked the way of life there, but three of his children already lived there, which was also a big reason. It gave them the chance to be closer to family while also enjoying the slower pace and sense of community in Tennessee.
Cameron also talked about the “healthy freedom mindset” he saw in Tennessee, which was very different from what he called California’s growing restrictions. Also, he said that Tennessee was a “center for Christian projects.”
There, in Tennessee, he found a group of people with similar ideas, including creative people who had left Hollywood. With its growing entertainment industry, the state has even attracted some California “refugees,” who are looking for a fresh start and a more stable way of life.
When Cameron moved to Tennessee, he found a new home and a place that shared more of the values he had come to believe in. Even though he left Hollywood and California, his love for family, faith, and telling stories has not changed.
Cameron has reached many important points in his life, but the most important was when he and Noble became grandparents in July 2024. Cameron was thrilled to share the news on social media, writing a touching message about the birth of their granddaughter, Maya Jeanne Noble Bower.
“Our hearts are filled to overflowing,” he told us. “Our beautiful baby girl just had a beautiful baby girl, and we can hardly wait to spend every minute with her and shower her with love.” For Cameron, becoming a grandparent has added even more happiness and meaning to his life, which is centered around his family.
Cameron continued to work hard on projects that are important to him and his family, and he also celebrated the growth of his family. He made the movie “Lifemark,” which came out in 2022 and is about the beauty of adoption and the worth of life.
The movie had a lot of meaning for him because he had four adopted children and his wife had also been adopted. Cameron talked about how excited he was for the movie and how much the story meant to him.
Cameron has been away from Hollywood for a long time, but he is still making faith-based movies and media that reflect his beliefs. His focus on happy, inspiring stories about family and faith has become the most important thing about his work since leaving Hollywood.
Cameron’s life has changed a lot since he was a teenage heartthrob on “Growing Pains.” He now has a growing family and a steady stream of projects that are in line with his values. But for Kirk Cameron, the path he has chosen has given him a deep sense of purpose and fulfillment.
