This actor starred in an iconic 80s sci-fi blockbuster but was later busted for robbery.

Think you know who it is?

He walked into a Canadian bank in April 2016, wearing a disguise and carrying a note demanding cash.

Within minutes, he had left with cash in his hand.

This wasn’t your typical career criminal but a former Hollywood child star whose face had once appeared on screens around the world.

However he was now homeless, struggling with heroin addiction and having thoughts of suicide.

At just 12 years old, he had made his appearance in the iconic 1986 film Flight Of The Navigator. 

The successful movie, which included impressive special effects for its time and a talking alien spaceship, had earned $18million worldwide. 

This actor starred in an iconic 80s sci-fi blockbuster but was later busted for robbery. Think you know who it is?

This actor starred in an iconic 80s sci-fi blockbuster but was later busted for robbery. Think you know who it is?

After feeling overwhelmed by fame and wanting to return to a normal childhood, he left Hollywood completely

After feeling overwhelmed by fame and wanting to return to a normal childhood, he left Hollywood completely

Yet within months of the film’s release, the boy made a surprising decision that would alter his entire life.

After feeling overwhelmed by fame and wanting to return to a normal childhood, he left Hollywood completely.

What followed was a 30-year decline that ended with that bank robbery – a crime he committed not for money, but as he calls it a desperate call for help.

The former child star is Joey Cramer.

He opened up about his struggles in an interview with the Daily Star in a 2020.

‘I just wanted to be a normal kid again, have fun, skateboard and all that stuff. 

‘But once I went back to school, I didn’t quite fit in anywhere.

‘I was teased because I was the ‘movie star kid’, so I fitted in where I could – and it’s easy to fit in with the misfits who smoke and drink and smoke weed, so that’s what I gravitated towards.’

By 18, Cramer said he was regularly using crack cocaine and then completed his first rehab program.

Joey Cramer starred in the iconic Flight Of The Navigator

Joey Cramer starred in the iconic Flight Of The Navigator 

‘I got into cocaine at a really young age – 14 or 15.

‘I look back and go, ‘What were you thinking?’, but as a kid it just didn’t register that doing these harder drugs was that much worse than smoking weed and drinking.

‘By the time I realized, it was too late. I was a mess.’

Cramer moved to Mexico in his twenties which helped him get sober for ten years while working regular jobs.

But one night of weakness at a party in his mid-thirties led to a total relapse that introduced him to heroin in 2011.

Then when his daughter was born in 2014, Cramer’s situation got worse.

‘Before I knew it, I was wired. I didn’t even enjoy it – I was just doing it to numb myself.

He gave up on recovery and turned to crime and life on the streets after getting stuck in a destructive relationship and facing the possibility of losing custody. 

By 18, Cramer said he was regularly using crack cocaine and then completed his first rehab program

By 18, Cramer said he was regularly using crack cocaine and then completed his first rehab program 

Cramer is pictured at a recent fan event for Flight of the Navigator

Cramer is pictured at a recent fan event for Flight of the Navigator

‘I thought I had no recourse,’ he said. ‘So I really went off the rails.’

By 2016, Cramer was homeless and constantly thinking about ending his life.

That’s when he developed a desperate plan to commit a crime serious enough to get into prison where he knew treatment programs existed.

Wearing a wig, bandana and sunglasses, Cramer entered the Scotiabank in Sechelt, British Columbia, and handed over a note demanding money.

Three days later, when police arrested him, he actually felt relieved.

‘I was in a really bad place and I knew about this therapeutic community, Guthrie House, inside the prison. It was such a relief when I got arrested.’

Sentenced to nearly two years, Cramer used his prison time to address decades of unresolved issues through meditation, yoga and therapy while undergoing methadone treatment.

Now 51, Cramer has been clean for several years and is slowly rebuilding his relationship with his daughter.

Now 51, Cramer has been clean for several years and is slowly rebuilding his relationship with his daughter. He's returned to acting through small independent films and volunteers helping other people in recovery

Now 51, Cramer has been clean for several years and is slowly rebuilding his relationship with his daughter. He’s returned to acting through small independent films and volunteers helping other people in recovery

He’s returned to acting through small independent films and volunteers helping other people in recovery.

‘I know I’ve done bad things, but I’m not a bad person. I have regrets, but I know I can’t change things in the past, so all I can do is try to be better from today and share my experiences in the hope it might help someone get through something.’

His experience became the subject of the 2020 documentary Life After the Navigator, which brought him back together with former co-stars and provided an honest examination of the cost of childhood fame.

‘Every time I share it reminds me that the past doesn’t control my life any more, that the past doesn’t define me and that the memories of me don’t define who I am.

‘That last one’s super important because it’s easy to focus on what’s happened and who we’ve been in the past so much that it defines who we are in the present.

‘Once I learned to let go of who was in the past, I became a totally different person.’

Daily Mail reached out to Cramer for further comment. 

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