He won sole custody of his son in 2011, and focused on him until he graduated from school.
Editor's note: This article was originally published on August 4, 2022. It has since been updated.
Dean Cain, who is best known for playing Superman, wasn't always into acting. A little-known fact about the star is that he always wanted to be a footballer. However, his sports career was cut short by a knee injury, after which he got into acting, according to The Famous People.
Cain was born Dean George Tanaka on July 31, 1966, in Michigan, to Sharon Tanaka and Roger Tanaka. Unfortunately, just two years after their marriage, Roger abandoned Cain and his family. When he turned three, his mom remarried. She found love in director Christopher Cain and the two of them decided to move ahead with their relationship. Soon after the wedding, Christopher legally adopted Cain and his brother. That's when he officially became Dean Cain!
“My biological father is Japanese. I never knew him, never met him," said Cain, according to ABC News, thus showing that his biological father was no longer a part of his life. Roger Tanaka never really tried to reach out to his sons and be a part of their life, either.
Cain, meanwhile, grew up to be a successful actor, and several roles came his way after his 1993 hit Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. He was touted to be a ladies' man who didn't prefer to settle down and start a family.
But, in 2000, his ex-girlfriend, Samantha Torres, who was formerly a model and Playboy Playmate, gave birth to their son. Cain named his son Christopher, to honor his adoptive father. While he was happy being a father, things went south with Torres, and in 2003, they were embroiled in a bitter custody battle over their son, per PEOPLE.
Cain was determined not to give up and finally, in 2011, he was awarded sole custody of his beloved son. Since then, he's made sure to always be there for his son. In fact, he even cooks all of his son's meals!
“I cook every meal for my child. If I don’t cook, he doesn’t eat. I cook a very mean steak. I’m also very good at taking the nine leftovers I have and turning it into something,” he once said in an interview, per ABC News.
But the decision to be there for his son did not come easy. It made him choose between things and, time and again, he preferred his son over anything else, and that includes acting. “I’ve learned to make the decisions that put him first,” he shared.
He only resumed acting when his son graduated high school and began college. But even with work, he wanted to be present for his son, for even the smallest of things. "I'm there. I'm a very present father, and I would never do it otherwise. I'm blessed to be able to have the ability to do so many different things and yet still be a father first," he told Closer Weekly.
The two share a close bond and regular updates on social media prove it. Cain feels he's done everything he can for his son and hopes that Christopher would be proud of him one day.
"My best day would be just to wake up, and I and my son have a great day at home," he shared.
References:
https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/dean-cain-34660.php
https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/things-dean-cain/story?id=27401545
https://people.com/parents/dean-cain-single-parenthood-son-christopher/
https://www.closerweekly.com/posts/dean-cain-superman-160734/
Cover Image Credit: Instagram | Dean Cain
