11 Things You Didn’t Know About Eric Stonestreet
Eric Allen Stonestreet is a famous American actor and comedian best known for his role as Cameron Tucker in the sitcom Modern Family. His talent is critically acclaimed, and he has won many awards for his craft, making an impression in not only his role in Modern Family but also films like The Secret Life of Pets, The Loft, and Bad Teacher.
Stonestreet has many beautiful characteristics, and although he is very private about his off-screen life, there are still things that are worth noting about this underrated comedian.
Updated on September 13th, 2021, by Lynn Gibbs: Eric Stonestreet may be best known for his role as Cameron Tucker, but he’s been acting since the late ’90s. He had a consistent role as Ronnie Litre on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation in the early 2000s and was the voice of Minimus in Sophia the First. But there’s more to Stonestreet than just his acting nods and time as Cameron Tucker. At the center of it all, Stonestreet is an actor from the Midwest with a love for comedy who’s always adding interesting details and facts to his ongoing career.
11 Newly Engaged
Cameron Tucker was one of the most likable characters throughout Modern Family and while he was married to Mitchell Pritchett in the series, Stonestreet lives a different life. In August 2021, Stonestreet proposed to his longtime girlfriend, Lindsay Schweitzer.
According to Page Six, the couple met at a charity event back in 2016 and have been dating ever since. While on The Ellen Degeneres Show, Stonestreet said this about his future wife, “I’m a big baby, too. She calms me — she calms my nerves. I’m a very high-strung person.”
10 Stonestreet’s Origin Story
According to The Kansas City Star, Stonestreet was born on the 9th of September 1971 in Kansas. He graduated from Piper High School, and later on, continued his education at Kansas State University where he obtained a degree in sociology.
Ironically (or not), his character Cameron Tucker was also from the Midwest and proud of his roots. In the series finale, Tucker got a head coaching job at a college in Missouri and uprooted his family for a new start. With both men being from the Midwest, Cam’s passion for the midwest matched Stonestreet’s real life, in a sense.
9 A Love For Acting
According to Celebrity Networth, Stonestreet was studying at Kansas State University when he got into the performing arts. He even starred in famous works like Twelfth Night and All My Sons. This had an outcome in him being seriously interested in pursuing a career as an actor. It would be fun if Stonestreet starred in a live-action version of a play he was in during college.
It took him some time until he really got into it, and in 1999 he was officially set. His first ever role was a very tiny one in the movie Prelude to a Kiss, which he auditioned for to win a dare.
8 Stonestreet Is Very Different From Cameron
Modern Family fans know and love Cam as a bubbly, funny, over-the-top drama queen who loves to overreact in the sweetest possible ways. As the audience followed the show for 11 seasons, Stonestreet noted in an interview on that some were disappointed when they realized the actor was nothing like the character he portrays on Modern Family.
As hilarious as Cameron is, he has a tendency to be toxic. In real life, Stonestreet is considered very calm, logical, and not as hyper-dramatic as his character was.
7 A Change In Career Plans
During his teenage years, the actor was never interested in pursuing a career in acting; on the contrary, he was convinced that he would work with the penal system, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He even studied criminal justice in order to become a prison administrator. The affiliation to this line of work was connected due to where he grew up, and that was near the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas.
Later on, when Stonestreet found a fondness for acting, he got a role as a Ronnie Litre, a Q.D. technician in some of the best episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. The fact that the actor starred in five seasons of the show brought him a lot of popularity, and he was noticed by the producers of Modern Family.
6 A Fan Of Football And College Sports
Stonestreet loves all kinds of sporting events, and he is often known to visit numerous football games at Kansas State University where he is an alumnus. Besides him keeping the attendance high, Stonestreet is also working with numerous organizations at the university, according to Chiefs.
It’ll be interesting to see if Stonestreet stars in a football movie in the future. Staying involved with a school or a university from the past is a very noble thing when the person knows that they can contribute and make improvements.
5 Fizbo Was Inspired By A Real Memory
According to CheatSheet, when Stonestreet was a child he wanted to become a clown so badly that he invented a whole other persona that was called Fizbo. Throughout the following years, he developed the character so much that by the age of 11, he already had the confidence to perform at children’s birthday parties. He even had his own business cards that carried the name of the clown.
Later on, when he was cast to play the role of Cam, the Modern Family producers gave him the liberty to develop Fizbo in order for him to feel more comfortable when acting. This was the moment when the actor decided to include Fizbo and make him famous as well, giving him many memorable moments in the show.
4 He Almost Didn’t Get The Role Of Cameron Tucker
For Modern Family fans, it would be impossible to imagine the show without Eric Stonestreet as Cameron Tucker. Surprisingly, this scenario was very likely to happen, according to Contact Music, if it wasn’t for the casting director Jeff Greenberg. Fortunately, Greenberg had a very strong opinion that Stonestreet was the perfect man for the job.
Later on, as the seasons went on, the show was getting incredible ratings and the producers found themselves praising Stonestreet as well as his co-star Jesse Tyler Ferguson for their outstanding performances as Cam and Mitch.
3 He Got A Very Rewarding Feeling Playing Cameron Tucker
There is nothing more rewarding for an actor than the feeling of the audience connecting to the character. This was a privilege that Stonestreet got to enjoy alongside his colleague and on-screen husband Jesse Tyler Ferguson.
According to Huffington Post, the on-screen couple felt grateful that the audience adored them. They were also told that they had fans tell them stories about being inspired to come out as gay themselves.
2 He’s Won Several Awards And Has A Staggering Net Worth
The actor has had a very successful career for over 20 years, and his involvement in the industry has brought him a net worth of an estimated $23 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. So far, Stonestreet has worked on over 40 projects, and for his talent, he has received many awards as well as nominations.
So far, he has been nominated for three Golden Globes and has won two out of three Primetime Emmy nominations. Every award and nomination has been for his role in the series Modern Family, for which he became very highly paid.
1 He’s Openly Straight
The actor is doing such an amazing job as an openly gay actor that many people believe that he is gay in real life. In reality, he has stated that he is “openly straight,” but enjoyed playing Cameron Tucker throughout Modern Family’s 11 seasons.
Regardless of his role, he is a highly regarded actor in other projects, and despite being straight, he is a great supporter of the LGBTQ+ community, according to Huffington Post.
