diff --git a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/ActorRef.scala b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/ActorRef.scala
index 80ed2bbca5..df87360c65 100644
--- a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/ActorRef.scala
+++ b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/ActorRef.scala
@@ -194,7 +194,7 @@ private[akka] abstract class InternalActorRef extends ActorRef with ScalaActorRe
   /*
    * Actor life-cycle management, invoked only internally (in response to user requests via ActorContext).
    */
-  def start(): ActorRef
+  def start(): Unit
   def resume(causedByFailure: Throwable): Unit
   def suspend(): Unit
   def restart(cause: Throwable): Unit
@@ -260,10 +260,13 @@ private[akka] class LocalActorRef private[akka] (
 
   /*
    * Safe publication of this class’s fields is guaranteed by mailbox.setActor()
-   * which is called indirectly from actorCell.start() (if you’re wondering why
+   * which is called indirectly from actorCell.init() (if you’re wondering why
    * this is at all important, remember that under the JMM final fields are only
    * frozen at the _end_ of the constructor, but we are publishing “this” before
    * that is reached).
+   * This means that the result of newActorCell needs to be written to the val
+   * actorCell before we call init and start, since we can start using "this"
+   * object from another thread as soon as we run init.
    */
   private val actorCell: ActorCell = newActorCell(_system, this, _props, _supervisor)
   actorCell.init(ThreadLocalRandom.current.nextInt(), sendSupervise = true)
@@ -284,10 +287,10 @@ private[akka] class LocalActorRef private[akka] (
    */
   override def isTerminated: Boolean = actorCell.isTerminated
 
-  override def start(): ActorRef = {
-    actorCell.start()
-    this
-  }
+  /**
+   * Starts the actor after initialization.
+   */
+  override def start(): Unit = actorCell.start()
 
   /**
    * Suspends the actor so that it will not process messages until resumed. The
@@ -400,7 +403,7 @@ private[akka] trait MinimalActorRef extends InternalActorRef with LocalRef {
   override def getParent: InternalActorRef = Nobody
   override def getChild(names: Iterator[String]): InternalActorRef = if (names.forall(_.isEmpty)) this else Nobody
 
-  override def start(): ActorRef = this
+  override def start(): Unit = ()
   override def suspend(): Unit = ()
   override def resume(causedByFailure: Throwable): Unit = ()
   override def stop(): Unit = ()
diff --git a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/RepointableActorRef.scala b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/RepointableActorRef.scala
index 03c66ec12e..b644ba6445 100644
--- a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/RepointableActorRef.scala
+++ b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/RepointableActorRef.scala
@@ -78,10 +78,10 @@ private[akka] class RepointableActorRef(
    * unstarted cell. The cell must be fully functional.
    */
   def newCell(old: Cell): Cell =
-    new ActorCell(system, this, props, supervisor)
-      .init(old.asInstanceOf[UnstartedCell].uid, sendSupervise = false).start()
+    new ActorCell(system, this, props, supervisor).
+      init(old.asInstanceOf[UnstartedCell].uid, sendSupervise = false).start()
 
-  def start(): ActorRef = this
+  def start(): Unit = ()
 
   def suspend(): Unit = underlying.suspend()
 
diff --git a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/dungeon/Children.scala b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/dungeon/Children.scala
index 63d312fa8d..d59b0b71da 100644
--- a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/dungeon/Children.scala
+++ b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/dungeon/Children.scala
@@ -193,6 +193,7 @@ private[akka] trait Children { this: ActorCell ⇒
       if (mailbox ne null) for (_ ← 1 to mailbox.suspendCount) actor.suspend()
       initChild(actor)
       actor.start()
+      actor
     }
   }
 
diff --git a/akka-remote/src/main/scala/akka/remote/RemoteActorRefProvider.scala b/akka-remote/src/main/scala/akka/remote/RemoteActorRefProvider.scala
index 3f13f39f75..87c66522b4 100644
--- a/akka-remote/src/main/scala/akka/remote/RemoteActorRefProvider.scala
+++ b/akka-remote/src/main/scala/akka/remote/RemoteActorRefProvider.scala
@@ -243,7 +243,7 @@ private[akka] class RemoteActorRef private[akka] (
         provider.deadLetters ! message
     }
 
-  def start(): ActorRef = this
+  def start(): Unit = ()
 
   def suspend(): Unit = sendSystemMessage(Suspend())