It is a celebratory, milestone day for Candace Cameron Bure.
On Monday, April 6, one day after Easter Sunday, the Full House alum rang in her milestone 50th trip around the sun.
It also marks the fourth decade that she has been in the spotlight, having first debuted on the screen when she was nine years old, landing the most prominent role of her career, as D.J. Tanner on Full House, just two years later.
In recent years, Cameron has turned away from mainstream Hollywood and become known for her conservative politics and devotion to religion, specifically Christianity, having converted to a Christian when she was 12 years old.
Candace, pictured above with her brother, evangelist Kirk Douglas, appeared on a slew of other TV series before Full House, among them Growing Pains, which her brother also starred in.
Candace was around 11 years old when she began starring as Tanner older sister D.J., short for Donna Jo, opposite onscreen father Bob Saget, surrogate fathers Jesse Stamos and Dave Coulier, and sisters Jodie Sweetin and Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen.
Full House, which ran for eight seasons, portrayed many of a typical teenâs ups and downs, from first loves and cutting school to meet your favorite popstar, to struggles with body image and eating disorders, which D.J. experiences and later Candace admitted to struggling with as well, specifically bulimia nervosa in her early 20s.
Since 1996, Cameron has been married to Russian-American NHL hockey player Valeri âValâ Bure, who she met two years prior, when she was 18 years old, after her Full House co-star Dave introduced them at a charity hockey game.
Candace first became a mom when she was 22 years old in 1998, when she and Val welcomed their first daughter, Natasha Perry, who is now 27 and married to child star Bradley Steven Perry. She is also a mom to sons Lev, 26, who is married to Elliot Dunham, and Maksim, 24.