Christopher Knight Was 10 When His Mom Had to Sacrifice Him for the Good of the Whole Family

When his mother raised the idea of Christopher Knight becoming an actor, the young child welcomed it. Little did he know just how life-changing the decision would become.

Christopher Knight was just seven years old when he appeared in his first commercial as an actor. His mother had instigated his entry into stardom for the sake of their family.

His father, Edward Knight, was a Broadway actor who was also educated but poor, while his mother was an artist. The family had no financial security, and they realized they could get this by getting young Christopher into acting.

When Christopher started auditioning and acting, he realized that he didn't enjoy it. He wanted to be out playing with his friends rather than stay up late at night shooting commercials.

Christopher would sometimes come home to see his mother all dressed up. The actor would then have to cancel whatever plans he previously had with his friends so his mother could take him to set to shoot more commercials.

She smoked during the rides, which sometimes took an hour for them to get through traffic. Christopher's brother went along on these trips, but he never got a callback and eventually stopped accompanying them.

GETTING AND DEALING WITH FAME

Christopher Knight became a household name when he was cast as Peter Brady on the popular 70s sitcom "The Brady Bunch." He was just ten years old when he landed the part.

Christopher co-founded a pioneering 3D graphics company in 1991 called Visual Software.

His father Edward was anti-television because he believed real acting was done on the stage, and those acting on TV were only doing it for the money.

Surprisingly, when "The Brady Bunch" premiered, his parents bought a new TV to watch him act on the series. Christopher himself had not seen the episode before that day.

The actor explained he did not know his world was about to change and how hard it would be from that moment for him to walk down the street without getting recognized.

He declared he hated the show and the character he played on it because it became so hard for him to deal with the responsibilities and fame that came from it.

As an active child actor, he was not in school most of the time as he was always scheduled for filming. He and his co-child stars were required to have teachers on set because of their filming commitments.

When he returned to public school in the second semester, which started in February, the actor discovered he was ahead of the class. He hated this and would always complain to his mother that he just wanted to be an average child.

Christopher struggled to fit in seventh grade because he was widely recognized, and according to him, that was the worst time in the world for that kind of attention as middle school is a formative year for a child. His participation and recognition of his acting greatly affected him, and he would always get teased.

He struggled so much that he did not want anything to do with the character he was playing on the show. He did not want to be a "Brady," he just tried to ignore it.

By the time he was in eighth grade, the actor had learned to deal with teasing. He admitted he would laugh at himself with those teasing him; otherwise, it would have gotten worse.

He became Christopher Knight to them and not the character Peter Brady, and he explained this was a valuable lesson early in life.

Christopher realized the show was much bigger than himself. He learned to live with the fame of appearing on the show for five years. Although he struggled with people not being able to differentiate between the man he is and the character he played.

In the end, the actor claimed he realized that his identity was more than the character he played in the series, and coming to terms with it made it possible for him to move forward.

WHERE IS HE NOW?

Christopher stopped acting in the 80s and decided to move into business. He started working as an account sales manager for Martec Incorporation.

He became very successful at the company, and he was named Employee of the Year in his second year. Not long after that, he became the first person to get the company its first $1 million sales.

Christopher co-founded a pioneering 3D graphics company in 1991 called Visual Software. Then in 1995, he founded another company called Kidwise Learningware.

He also founded a TV tuner company, Eskape Labs, and he continued to be a very successful businessman. He also returned to acting when he appeared in the reality show "The Surreal Life."

During his time on the show, the actor had been married twice before meeting model Adrianne Curry. She was 25 years younger than him, but that did not stop them from starting a relationship and eventually getting married.

The couple then appeared on the reality show "My Fair Brady." The marriage, unfortunately, did not last as the couple separated not long after. Christopher then married again in 2016 to Cara Kokenes; however, the actor has no children.

He recently appeared in "A Very Brady Renovation," a four-part HGTV series to mark 59 years since the debut of "The Brady Bunch." All the original kids on the show reunited, and the show also generated more than 23 million viewers.