Iconic 80s teen heartthrob who starred in scandalous film alongside Brooke Shields is seen on rare outing

Daily Mail​

27-07-2025

This actor and occasional model was pictured out in Connecticut on a rare outing this week.
He is best known for costarring with Brooke Shields in an iconic film from the early 1980s.
The movie struck up controversy that has endured for decades due to its copious nudity and the fact that Shields was only 14 when she worked on the production.
This star, who is now 64, later played up his image by posing nude in Playgirl just a couple years later.
Since then he has remained prolific with a variety of film roles and guest parts on television, including a reunion with Shields nearly two decades after they first worked together.
Can you guess who this '80s actor is?
He's Blue Lagoon star Christopher Atkins.
Atkins, who was born in New York in 1961, tends to fly under the radar, but he was pictured in a rare sighting in Southport, Connecticut, earlier this week.
He was seen running errands around town, which included a stop at a gas station to fill up.
The '80s heartthrob looked as if he was dressed for a day at the beach with a gray–green tank top and gray floral-patterned Hawaiian-style cargo shorts, along with beige flip flops.
He still sported his recognizable blond hair, though it had faded to the point that it was almost a platinum shade now.
Atkins and Shields starred in 1980's Blue Lagoon as a pair of children who are shipwrecked on a remote island.
After the only adult to survive with them dies, they are left alone to find for themselves.
The children grow up and eventually become lovers on the island, which is inhabited by indigenous people that they steer clear of.
Shields was only 14 at the time, so a body double performed her nude scenes. But Atkins was 18 and did his own full-frontal nude scenes. Critics savaged Blue Lagoon but it was a hit at the box office
Despite his boyish looks, Atkins was 18 at the time filming began, but Shields was only 14.
As a result, her numerous nude scenes were filmed by an adult body double, but Atkins performed his own nude scenes.
Still, critics and audiences were alike were scandalized by the story — in which Atkins and Shields' characters are cousins — and Shields' young age.
Although she isn't pictured in the nude, Shields still performed topless on set, though sometimes with her hair glued to her chest.
Critics savaged The Blue Lagoon, but it was a hit at the box office, where it reportedly grossed $58.8 million in North America along against a budget of just $4.5 million.
But Blue Lagoon's box office success didn't translate to major roles for Atkins, possibly because of the critical disdain for the film.
He followed it up with voice roles in the English-language dubs of Japanese anime adaptations of Swan Lake and Aladdin And The Magic Lamp in 1981 and 1982, respectively.
In 1982 he made the risky move to pose nude in Playgirl, which may have made it hard for audiences to separate him from Blue Lagoon's reputation.
The same year, he had a lead role in The Pirate Movie, an Australian musical loosely based on Gilbert and Sullivan's classic opera The Pirates Of Penzance.
The movie didn't change his fortunes, though, as critics again lambasted the movie, and it barely made back its budget.
Atkins got a more high-profile role as a recurring character on Dallas for a year beginning in 1983, but since then he appeared almost exclusively in low-budget films in supporting roles.
Atkins married the Australian model Lyn Barron in 1985, and they share two children.
Although he continued to act throughout the decade, it was the least productive period of his career, and in 2009 he told People that he struggled with alcoholism while also battling a career recession at the time.
He ended up going to rehab during the decade, but he boasted of being sober for more than two decades at the time.
He had a brief return to prominence in 1999, when he reunited with Shields on her sitcom Suddenly Susan for an episode.
Atkins also had a small role in the 2012 TV movie Blue Lagoon: The Awakening, which was a present-day remake of the earlier film.
Although he never gave up his love of acting, Atkins later took up additional trades as a swimming pool builder and a fishing lure designer
In 2022, he reunited with Shields for her podcast, in which they discussed the controversial nudity on Blue Lagoon. After joking about Atkins' on-set nudity, Shields remembered thinking, 'Why do I have to look at this? I'd never seen one before. I'm not going to start now'
Two years later, Atkins scored another high-profile TV guest spot on an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
Although his other film projects have remained small scale, he has stayed impressive busy, and he currently has five projects that are completed or in post-production, according to IMDb.
Although he never gave up his love of acting, Atkins later took up additional trades as a swimming pool builder and a fishing lure designer.
In 2022, he reunited again with Shields for her podcast Now What?, in which they discussed the controversial nudity on Blue Lagoon.
After joking about how often he was nude on set, Shields remembered thinking, 'Why do I have to look at this? I'd never seen one before. I'm not going to start now.'
She added that members of the production 'wanted so desperately for us to fall in love with each other,' but that wasn't going to happen, as 'even kissed anybody.'
Atkins replied: 'Which was probably great for the film because that's what it was all about. You have to admit the chemistry between us was just amazing.'
The actor recently relieved his glory days when he graced the cover of Playgirl's July 2025 issue, 43 years after he first posed for the magazine.