Deadliest Catch's Jake Anderson Always Had An Eye On Fame

If almost two decades of high seas "Deadliest Catch" action has taught us anything, it's that captaining a crabbing vessel on the Bering Sea is about as far from a cushy day job as a human being can get. However, the job can also be a pretty lucrative one if you're good at it. And as the long-running reality series has proven over the years, it can also make you a bit of a celebrity in the small screen realm. 

The series has put several of its captains and crew members on the right side of fame during its run, with names like Sig Hansen, "Wild" Bill Wichrowski, and the Hillstrand brothers essentially serving as household names these days. So too is F/V Saga captain Jake Anderson, who actually started out on the show as a greenhorn on Hansen's Northwestern vessel, and eventually worked his way up to the captain's chair.

Anderson has become a legit fan favorite since taking the helm of the Saga, and has become a low-key celebrity to boot. But according to the captain's comments to Yahoo! Entertainment, that was his ambition from an early age, with Anderson telling the outlet, "The thing is, my friend Casey and I — he wanted to travel and skateboard — I wanted to be famous." 

Jake Anderson made that admission during a 2014 interview, noting he wasn't even really aware of how much he wanted to be famous until fame found him. "I really didn't know that then, but I wanted to be famous," he told Yahoo!, adding, "Not that I'm real famous now, but I just wanted to be famous."

Though fame has indeed come Anderson's way on "Deadliest Catch," the Saga captain admitted later in the interview his road to crab fishing stardom was hardly an easy one. "It's hard coming into the industry when you don't have a family that owns boats," Anderson admitted, continuing, "So I have to really work hard to get to where I want to be." The Pacific Northwest native went on to say that while crab fishing can be extremely frustrating, he wouldn't change a thing about his career choices.

It's easy enough to see why, with Anderson's empire now stretching well beyond the Bering Sea. Anderson now has his own branded merchandise and is the author of a best-selling autobiography, "Relapse." And his success isn't something that Anderson takes for granted. "I'm not Sig Hansen or Michael Jordan, but there hasn't been anything that's been denied to me in my life," Anderson said. Given his enduring popularity on "Deadliest Catch," it's clear Anderson's hard-earned fame will likely not be fading anytime soon.