When The Blue Lagoon hit screens in 1980, the entire world held its breath: two teenagers lost on an island paradise made viewers dream of wild nature and first love.

Brooke Shields became an icon, but the real shock was caused by Christopher Atkins. The golden-haired boy whom no one knew — and who could not be forgotten.

He was 19 then, he taught teenagers how to sail and did not intend to act in any films. But the agent literally pushed him to the casting — and Atkins turned out to be the perfect "child of nature".

The director fell in love with his image, and within a couple of months the young man was standing on the set, where dolphins hit him in the solar plexus with such force that he lost consciousness.

On screen, it was an perfect. In life, there was daily awkwardness, pain, and responsibility: his partner Brooke was only 14. He himself said:

“I felt like her older brother, not her lover.”

After the premiere, he was carried on hands — a Golden Globe nomination, thousands of fans, millions on posters. And then... silence. For every failure, a new Golden Raspberry. Hollywood quickly turned an idol into a target: first a star, then a joke.

And yet, Christopher Atkins survived. He did not drink himself to death, did not disappear, did not die alone. He left. Went into fishing, business, and fatherhood.

He pulled himself together on his son’s birthday — and never looked back. Today, he is 64. He lives quietly, rarely films and according to his mood.

And he does not yearn for Laguna. Because the fictional one remained in Fiji, and the real one is inside it.