Whatever Happened To Kirk Cameron?

At the height of his fame, Cameron converted to Christianity and allegedly became an absolute nightmare to deal with on the set of Growing Pains. According to E! True Hollywood Story (via the Orlando Sentinel), Cameron wielded his star power to make sure the show portrayed themes and storylines that were in line with his new religious beliefs, and he wasn't afraid to go straight to network brass to get what he wanted. Several producers reportedly quit the show, and the ratings for Growing Pains plummeted in Season 7, prompting ABC to pull the plug.

By the time the smoke cleared, Cameron had alienated himself from the cast. "I definitely kind of made an about-face, going toward another aspect of my life," he told the Los Angeles Times in 2000. "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."

With McCullough gone, Cameron used his influence to have his real-life girlfriend, Chelsea Noble, cast as Seaver's new TV girlfriend, Kate McDonald. The two married in real life during a summer hiatus from Growing Pains, which reportedly drove a wedge between Cameron and his TV family, who was not invited to the wedding. 

To his credit, Cameron regretted the decision in later years, telling the Los Angeles Times, "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." 

Cameron's relationship with Noble catalyzed another strict stipulation for the rest of Cameron's acting career. He would not kiss anyone but her. Even while filming Christian movies with other Christian actors, Cameron would reportedly make the cast and crew swap in his wife as a kissing double."

With the exception of The Growing Pains Movie (2000), Cameron faded away from traditional Hollywood fare and turned his focus to making faith-based films. One of his most popular projects was the film adaptation of the hugely popular Christian book series Left Behind. Cameron signed on for three films that depicted the biblical end of days. 

They were not exactly the best movies. In fact, Left Behind author Tim LaHaye hated the first one so much that he sued to get the rights back, according to The Christian Post. However, the films did do well with Christian audiences, who have proved to be a profitable demographic. 

In 2008, Cameron promoted the film Fireproof by incorporating it into teaching kits on marriage and marketing it to churches. It earned $33 million at the box office, which was huge considering the film's next-to-nothing budget. Fireproof became the highest grossing independent film of 2008 and made Cameron a prominent figure in Christian circles.

Despite facing ridicule for his attempts to discredit evolution, Cameron decided it would be a good idea to throw shade at world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, who had referred to heaven as a "fairy tale story for people afraid of the dark."

"Professor Hawking is heralded as 'the genius of Britain,' yet he believes in the scientific impossibility that nothing created everything and that life sprang from non-life." Cameron told TMZ. "Why should anyone believe Mr. Hawking's writings if he cannot provide evidence for his unscientific belief that out of nothing, everything came?"

For the record, Hawking is considered to be one of the most brilliant scientific minds in the world, while Cameron rose to fame because he was cast in a hit sitcom, despite the show's creators supposedly concluding that "he may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer" after his audition. We'll leave it up to you to decide who you'd rather believe.

While promoting his 2013 movie Unstoppable, Cameron discovered that links to the film's website were allegedly being blocked by Facebook, which he attributed to an attack on Christianity. 

However, there was apparently a simple explanation: the address Cameron purchased for the movie used to be a spam site, which set off Facebook's filters. It was an honest mistake, and in a show of good faith, Facebook worked quickly with Cameron's team to reverse the block and issued a statement to The Christian Post to explain the kerfuffle.

Cameron continued to paint the situation as an act of a persecution. In a since-deleted follow-up post on Facebook he wrote (via The Hollywood Reporter,) "Victory!! Friends, you did it! People tried to stop 'Unstoppable' on Facebook, and because millions of us joined together as one voice, Facebook has apologized and welcomed us back! You all just demonstrated to the press (they are all calling me to talk about your amazing response!) that the communities of faith, hope, and love are, well...unstoppable."

After the crash and burn of Saving Christmas, Cameron turned his attention to speaking tours with his "Love Worth Fighting For" marriage ministry, but he found himself in hot water in 2016 when the press pounced on some questionable and arguably outdated advice.

"Wives are to honor and respect and follow their husband's lead, not to tell their husband how he ought to be a better husband," Cameron told The Christian Post. "When each person gets their part right, regardless of how their spouse is treating them, there is hope for real change in their marriage."

Cameron faced fierce backlash on social media for his remarks. Hey, what works for one marriage might not work for another. That's all we'll say about that.