diff --git a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/ActorCell.scala b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/ActorCell.scala
index 2cd84f85f4..7ca838c5ee 100644
--- a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/ActorCell.scala
+++ b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/ActorCell.scala
@@ -111,6 +111,7 @@ private[akka] class ActorCell(
   def start(): Unit = {
     if (props.supervisor.isDefined) props.supervisor.get.link(self)
     dispatcher.attach(this)
+    Actor.registry.register(self)
     dispatcher.systemDispatch(SystemMessageInvocation(this, Create, NullChannel))
   }
 
@@ -232,7 +233,6 @@ private[akka] class ActorCell(
           val created = newActor(restart = false)
           actor.set(created)
           created.preStart()
-          Actor.registry.register(self)
         case instance if recreation ⇒
           restart(new Exception("Restart commanded"), None, None)
         case _ ⇒
diff --git a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/ActorRef.scala b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/ActorRef.scala
index 1c8ece435f..ba09de903b 100644
--- a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/ActorRef.scala
+++ b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/ActorRef.scala
@@ -262,7 +262,14 @@ class LocalActorRef private[akka] (
 
   protected[akka] def underlying: ActorCell = actorCell
 
-  protected[akka] def underlyingActorInstance: Actor = actorCell.actor.get
+  protected[akka] def underlyingActorInstance: Actor = {
+    var instance = actorCell.actor.get
+    while (instance eq null) {
+      try { Thread.sleep(1) } catch { case i: InterruptedException ⇒ }
+      instance = actorCell.actor.get
+    }
+    instance
+  }
 
   protected[akka] override def timeout: Long = props.timeout.duration.toMillis // TODO: remove this if possible
 
diff --git a/akka-camel/src/main/scala/akka/camel/component/ActorComponent.scala b/akka-camel/src/main/scala/akka/camel/component/ActorComponent.scala
index b2f7100ed6..aa487ff588 100644
--- a/akka-camel/src/main/scala/akka/camel/component/ActorComponent.scala
+++ b/akka-camel/src/main/scala/akka/camel/component/ActorComponent.scala
@@ -224,7 +224,7 @@ private[camel] object ActorProducer {
  * @author Martin Krasser
  */
 class ActorNotRegisteredException(uri: String) extends RuntimeException {
-  override def getMessage = "%s not registered" format uri
+  override def getMessage = "'%s' not registered" format uri
 }
 
 /**