The Life of Joey Cramer: Childhood Fame and Later Struggles

The 1986 Disney science-fiction movie Flight of the Navigator starred child actor Joey Cramer. He played David Freeman, a 12-year-old boy who accidentally travels eight years into the future. While the movie made him famous, his real life after Hollywood was very difficult. His childhood environment and family choices played a big role in his later struggles with drug addiction and criminal charges.

Family Background and Early Choices

Joey Cramer was born in Vancouver, Canada. His mother, Carollyne, followed a bohemian (unconventional or artistic) lifestyle. She was part of the counter-culture movement of those years. This lifestyle choice can be seen in Joey's full birth name: Deleriyes Joe August Fisher Cramer.

Joey's mother made a firm decision to raise a child completely on her own. To do so, she looked for a specific man to get her pregnant. The first man she asked refused her proposal. Instead of changing her mind, she found another man, one who was ten years younger than her. He agreed to her plan. This choice meant that Joey's biological father was completely absent from his life from the time he was a baby. Joey grew up without a male role model or father figure in his home to help guide him.

Entering the Film Industry

Joey's mother worked in the theater department at a university in Vancouver. Because she worked around the arts, she encouraged Joey to join a local community play just for fun. He showed a natural talent for acting. This quickly led to him being noticed by a local talent agent, who got him work by booking him for TV commercials, and eventually helping him to win the lead role in Flight of the Navigator. But this success meant that a young boy was carrying the heavy emotional and financial weight of a major movie production without a stable home structure.

High School and Bullying

When Joey's acting career slowed down, his mother decided they should leave Hollywood and that he should enroll in a normal public high school in Canada. This transition was very difficult. His classmates at his new school did not treat him the way they treated each other. Instead, they bullied and isolated him because of his past fame, making fun of him for being a "movie star kid." They would beat him up and throw him into garbage dumpsters. To avoid this harassment, Joey started lying to people, denying that he was the boy from the Disney movie.

Desperate for a father figure in his life to help him deal with the bullying, when he was a teenager he tracked down his biological father. This first attempt to connect was a failure. His father rejected him completely and refused to offer any emotional support. Later, as Joey started getting into more trouble and trying drugs to cope with his pain, he reached out to his father a second time to ask for help. This time, his father was verbally abusive and told Joey in no uncertain terms that he should just kill himself and everybody's problems would just be solved!

This double rejection from both his school peers and his own father severely damaged Joey's self-esteem. He began using hard drugs, like cocaine, as a chemical shield to numb his emotions.

A History of Theft and the Family Dynamics

As his drug use became worse, Joey started stealing to pay for his drug addiction. He committed property crimes around his community on the Sunshine Coast, which included stealing local cars for joyriding.

In the documentary, both Joey and his mother openly address his history of lying, fraud, and stealing, explaining that these actions were heavily driven by identity struggles and a severe, long-term drug addiction.

He began stealing from his own mother. He took cash from her purse and stole valuables from her house to pawn for drug money. His mother’s parenting philosophy was based on allowing Joey to do whatever he wanted to do, in line with her "hippy" philosophy of radical personal freedom. Because of this, she often shielded him from the consequences of his actions early on. However, the constant stealing wore her down, broke her trust and made the home situation unbearable. Eventually, when she could no longer manage his behavior or addictions, she made the difficult choice to kick him out of her house, even though she still loved him, which Joey himself understood and acknowledged. This left Joey homeless and made him commit even more crimes.

What His Mother (Carollyne) Said

• Transition Difficulties:Carollyne noted that after leaving Hollywood in 1987, Joey struggled deeply to fit in at his Canadian high school and suffered from an identity crisis.
• Early Warning Signs:She revealed that Joey's intense desire to feel "normal" while carrying the psychological weight of his past child stardom contributed to behavioral issues, including lying and stealing during his mid-to-late teens.

What Joey Said

• The Addiction Trap:Joey admitted that his stealing and check fraud were entirely fueled by a decade-long addiction to narcotics like heroin, which led to a cycle of homelessness and incarceration.
• The 2016 Bank Robbery:He explained that his robbery of a Scotiabank was born out of extreme desperation. He deliberately chose a non-violent method by handing a note to the cashier while wearing a disguise.
• A Cry for Help:Joey confessed that he actually wanted to get caught during the robbery. He felt an immediate sense of relief upon his arrest because he knew he needed to be forced into a specialized prison rehabilitation program to save his own life.
• Reclaiming His Narrative:He shared that speaking publicly about his criminal past stripped away the power of shame and guilt, preventing others from using his history as ammunition against him.

His Documented Rap Sheet

Without a stable support system, Joey's life turned into a cycle of repeated arrests and convictions over many years. His official criminal record includes the following entries:

• April 2008: Conviction for careless storage of a firearm, resulting in three months of probation.
• December 2008: Conviction for possession of a controlled substance for trafficking in illegal drugs, resulting in six months in jail and one year of probation.
• August 2011: Conviction for making threats and for weapons possession, resulting in 25 days in jail and one year of probation.
• October 2011: A police ticket and fine for drinking alcohol in a public place.
• November 2011: Conviction for using a forged document after he changed the names and amounts on bank checks to cash them. This resulted in a six-month conditional sentence and 18 months of probation.
• Repeated Breaches of parole restrictions: Multiple convictions over the years for failing to follow his court-ordered conditions and probation rules.
• May 2016: Joey committed a bank robbery at a Scotiabank in Sechelt, British Columbia. He used a specific disguise during the crime. He wore a shoulder-length, "scraggly" (messy and uneven) wig, a bandanna worn over his hair, and sunglasses. He also wore a dark jacket, which witnesses later reported had a reddish design on the back. He demanded cash and then fled from police officers in a car. He pleaded guilty to bank robbery, wearing a disguise, fleeing police, and dangerous driving. He was sentenced to two years minus one day in prison.

The Five-Month Caregiving Reconciliation

A major turning point in Joey’s life happened when he learned that his estranged (distanced or alienated) father was dying from a terminal illness. Joey made the choice to move into his father’s house to become his full-time, primary caregiver. He stayed there for the final five months of his father's life.

Living under the same roof meant Joey had to face his childhood trauma every day. He physically fed, bathed, and cared for the man who had abandoned him and told him to end his life. During these five months, his father became weak and dependent, and the two men had long, difficult conversations. Joey learned about the generational trauma his father had carried from his own past. This time together allowed Joey to understand that the abuse was a reflection of his father’s own personsl problems, not of Joey's worth as a human being. Taking care of his father helped Joey process his anger and find closure, which helped secure his long-term sobriety (staying clean from drugs).

Path to Redemption

After serving his prison sentence for the 2016 bank robbery, Joey went through a strict, mandatory rehabilitation program. He successfully beat his drug addiction and rebuilt his life.

His life story and survival became the subject of a 2020 documentary called Life After the Navigator, directed by Lisa Downs. Today, Joey Cramer is sober. He regularly attends fan conventions, speaks openly with people about his past struggles, and has found a stable, healthy life.