American child actors aren’t expected to turn out well as adults. Tabloids, reality television, and Twitter keep us informed of the latest shenanigans of grown-up former child stars. One member of their ranks has taken a stranger path than most. 

Brandon Cruz played the character of Eddie Corbett in the television show The Courtship of Eddie’s Father opposite Bill Bixby from 1969 to 1972. The show had a long run in syndication in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Cruz appeared in other television shows (The Incredible Hulk, Love, American Style, Gunsmoke) and the 1976 movie The Bad News Bears before leaving acting behind. Cruz took up skateboarding and surfing and became involved in the hardcore punk scene in Ventura County, California around 1980.

Cruz was a part of the scene in the Silver Strand Beach area near Oxnard. He was the vocalist for the band Dr. Know from 1981 to 1983 (later reforming with bassist Ismael Hernandez from 1998 to 2010). The original line-up was vocalist and guitarist Kyle Toucher, bassist Ismael Hernandez, and drummer Robin Cartwright. Dr. Know was one of many hardcore bands around Oxnard that made up the local subgenre of “nardcore,” along with Agression, Ill Repute, Rich Kids on LSD, and Stäläg 13. Cruz later recalled that the Ventura County scene was a diverse one in the early 1980’s, with a mixture of white, Filipino, Mexican, Japanese, and African-American musicians and fans.

Cruz explained the origin of the name “Nardcore” to Ginger Coyote of Punk Globe: 

Agression, Ill Repute, and a bunch of other people were all there at a party one night when Ismael heard the D.O.A. Record, Hardcore ‘81. Ismael remarked that if they were Hardcore, then we were Nardcore. Simple as that. Tony From Ill Repute took that joke and ran with it. It turned up in graffiti all over town, on surfboards and skateboards, and pretty soon, we had a scene.

After leaving Dr. Know, Cruz performed with Flipper, Harmful If Swallowed, Twister Naked, SVDB, The Ugly Truth, MDCN+MN, and the reunited Dead Kennedys, replacing vocalist Jello Biafra from 2001 to 2003. Cruz’s reunited line-up of Dr. Know disbanded in 2010 because of difficulty finding a suitable new guitarist. Founding member Kyle Toucher immediately reformed the band under the name The Real Dr. Know. 

Cruz appeared in Paul Rachman and Steven Blush’s 2006 documentary American Hardcore:The History of American Punk Rock 1980-1986. After achieving sobriety, he began working on a professional level in the drug and alcohol rehabilitation community in southern California, utilizing surfing as a mode of therapy for recovering addicts. Last year he appeared in the Rob Zombie horror film The Lords of Salem.
 

Dr. Know (with Brandon Cruz) performing at the Whisky A Go-Go in Hollywood in 1997