Christopher Atkins, the actor who starred opposite Brooke Shields in 1980’s “The Blue Lagoon,” says he is approaching 40 years of sobriety, and he credits becoming a father for the decision to quit drinking.
Atkins spoke with Fox News Digital at the Chiller Theatre Expo in New Jersey, where he laid out the moment that changed his life.
“I guess the turning point for me was having children, so I wanted to be a dad more than I wanted to be a drunk,” Atkins said. “So, I did that, cleaned up, coming up to 40 years, so still very active and wouldn’t change it for a minute.”
He shares two adult children, Grant and Brittney, with his former wife, Lyn Barron Weber. The two married in 1985 and divorced in 2007.
Atkins said that even after his kids grew up and moved out, and after his divorce, the temptation to return to drinking came back. It was the arrival of grandchildren that kept him on track.
“Just when you think, okay, well they grew up, they moved out, got a divorce, now you’re by yourself, ‘I guess it’s okay to start drinking again,'” he said. “No, they had grandkids, so now I don’t want my grandkids ever seeing their grandpa drunk, you know, so no.”
Atkins has been candid before about how drinking derailed parts of his career. Earlier this year at Fanboy Expo Knoxville, he said he had been in the running for the lead in 1984’s “Footloose” but showed up to meet filmmakers while drinking heavily. The role went to Kevin Bacon instead.
“I was a mess back then,” Atkins said at that event, according to People magazine.
Atkins never set out to be an actor. He got into entertainment through modeling before landing an open casting call for “The Blue Lagoon.” When the film blew up, the sudden fame hit him hard.
“There wasn’t a place on the planet I could go where I didn’t get recognized and people stopped me,” he said. “It was very, very, very weird.”
Now in his 60s, Atkins has left Hollywood behind for a quieter life on the East Coast. A New York native, he moved from California to Connecticut after his children settled in North Carolina, and after both his father and stepfather died while his mother began experiencing memory issues.
“I’m an East Coast guy. You can’t take the East Coast out of the boy,” he said.
These days he spends his time fishing, hiking, working with wood and epoxy, and chasing a new physical goal: a stretch of the Appalachian Trail.
“My goal is next year to do a leg of the Appalachian Trail, take a week or so and see if I can do 100 miles or 200 miles or something,” he said.
The years of sports have caught up with his body. Atkins recently had shoulder replacement surgery less than a year after an elbow replacement, and he has a metal plate and artificial disc in his back along with three prior knee surgeries. Even so, he intends to keep moving.
“I think staying physical and staying active is really important to keeping more metal out of your body,” he said.
