In 2004, two years before falling in love with Vanessa Hudgens's Gabriella in "High School Musical," Zac Efron starred in the Lifetime original movie "Miracle Run" alongside veteran actress Mary Louise Parker. The story follows Corrine Morgan-Thomas, a single mother raising twin boys on the autism spectrum. A young Efron plays Stephen, one of the brothers, and an aspiring high school cross-county runner (per Cosmopolitan). Efron was widely-praised for his portrayal of Stephen — a 2004 Variety review called his performance "commendable," and the film earned a Young Artist Award in 2005 (via IMDb).
"Miracle Run" was based on the true story of the real-life Corrine Morgan-Thomas and her twin sons (via Penguin Random House). In 2009, several years after the success of Lifetime's "Miracle Run," Morgan-Thomas wrote a memoir and parenting guide detailing Stephen and Phillip's "first steps into adulthood," per Amazon. In an excerpt from her book narrating the struggle of watching children grow and gain independence, Morgan-Thomas considers, "maybe all this worrying and wondering and struggling to let go is normal. Maybe I'm no different and no more special than any other parent when it comes to the twin desires to hang on and to let go . . ."
