‘Brady Bunch’ Star Christopher Knight Opens Up About His ‘Chaotic’ Childhood
While Christopher Knight played Peter Brady in the idyllic family sitcom The Brady Bunch, his real childhood wasn’t always so perfect. On Jennie Garth’s podcast, I Choose Me, he opened up about the struggles he faced with his parents and how he got into acting.
Knight was just 10 years old when he was cast as Peter and played the role until he was 16. He began acting because his father was an out-of-work actor in New York City and decided to see if his sons could get gigs. He said that his parents were surprised when he started booking roles because his brother was much more outgoing.
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Luckily, Knight said that getting the job on The Brady Bunch was as good as it got for a child star because the set was just as wholesome as the show. He added that it gave him a sense of family support that his own family didn’t give him. He described his real home life as “chaotic and not abundant,” and said that his father once told his mother to “feed them every other day,” referring to Knight and his brother. Even though he enjoyed being on the set of The Brady Bunch, he said he was still relieved when it was over.
“I wanted to go to school,” Knight explained. ” It wasn’t my idea to be an actor, though I was getting so much from it and very much appreciated it. I hadn’t decided on what I wanted to do with my life.”
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In the late ’80s, he left acting to pursue a career in the booming computer industry and got a job as an account sales manager for Martec, Inc. He ended up landing the company’s first million-dollar sales deal and was later named vice president of design system marketing and sales at New Image Industry. In the ’90s, he founded several companies including Visual Software, Kidwise Learningware and Eskape Labs. He currently owns his own furniture and home goods business called Christopher Knight Home.
Listen to the entire podcast episode here.
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