Biography:

---

Charles Herbert, (born Charles Herbert Saperstein on December 23, 1948, in Culver City, California, U.S.), was an American film and TV child actor of the 1950s and 1960s.

Before reaching his teens, Herbert was renowned by a generation of moviegoers for an on-screen broody, mature style and wit that enabled him to go one-on-one with some of the biggest names in the industry, and his appearances in a handful of films in the sci-fi/horror genre have garnered him an immortality there. In six years he appeared in 20 Hollywood features.

Herbert supported his family from the age of five and went from being one of the most desired and highest paid child actors of his time to one of the multitude of performers Hollywood "discarded" upon reaching maturity. His situation and the lifetime of damage it created for him have only recently come to light.

Early life and career:

"I just happened to be riding on a bus while on a shopping trip with my mother, Pearl, one day, and a gentleman who was a talent agent in Hollywood, named Cosmo Morgan, saw me talking and must have thought I was cute or something. He gave me his card, which I immediately tried to give to the bus driver! That’s basically how it started," stated Herbert in a recent interview.

Blue-eyed and freckle-faced, his first job was at age four on the television series, Half Pint Panel (1952). The Long, Long Trailer (1954) could have been his first movie, just after appearing in the stage production of On Borrowed Time at the Rancho Theatre. Auditioning with some 40 other kids, they picked Herbert only to cut him out of the movie.

This period was highlighted with a celebrated performance at age eight for his role as a blind child on an episode of Science Fiction Theater (1956). Airing December 22, 1956, The Miracle Hour is about a man that never gives up hope that his fiance's blind six-year-old son will not have to spend the holidays in darkness. Herbert starred with Dick Foran and Jean Byron.

Career:

What followed included roles in such popular and cult films as The View from Pompey's Head (1955); The Night Holds Terror (1956); These Wilder Years (1956), with James Cagney and Barbara Stanwyck; Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957); The Colossus of New York (1958); The Fly (1958); Houseboat (1958); Man in the Net (1959), with Alan Ladd; The Five Pennies; Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960) and 13 Ghosts (1960), in which producer/director William Castle gave him top billing at the age of 12 in order to secure his services.

Herbert's final feature film and starring role was in The Boy and the Pirates (1960), produced and directed by Bert I. Gordon (Mr. B.I.G.), the master of giant monster films, co-starring his daughter Susan. Herbert and Susan Gordon had previously worked together in The Man in the Net (1959), the hospital scene in The Five Pennies (1959) and a TV pilot episode entitled The Secret Life of John Monroe (aka The Secret Life of James Thurber). The 30-minute unsold pilot aired as the "Christabel" episode of Alcoa/Goodyear Playhouse, June 8, 1959. Very rarely seen, The Boy and the Pirates was released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment as a Midnite Movies double DVD set with the more recent Crystalstone (1988), on June 27, 2006. An interest in pirate films was generated by Walt Disney Company's theatrical release of Johnny Depp's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, on July 7, 2006.

During his peak he was performing non-stop with multiple projects completed each year. By 1959, Herbert had achieved a lofty place among the most desired and highest paid child actors of his time, making nearly $1650 per week. He had established for himself both the reputation and the nickname of "One-Take Charlie." Of his acting style, one reviewer described Herbert as, "Sincere, accurate, ever over-annunciated at times, like a storybook character come to life. An extraordinary child actor by any standard. Herbert’s intense emotive quality is very much of the method acting school, highly unusual in such a young performer."

Herbert's work had him opposite such major talent as Cary Grant, Sophia Loren, David Niven, Vincent Price, Johnny Carson, Donna Reed and Ross Martin, all of whom he has high praise for their treatment towards him. "Anybody who is in that category (a well-known actor) who is nice to the children is a nice person. 'Cause I worked with some who were not. Children and animals are not big favorites with movie stars."

Starring screen roles in the 1950s soon evaporated and Herbert was relegated to TV appearances in the 1960s. Growing into that typically awkward teen period, he was forced to subsist on whatever episodic roles he could muster up, including bits on Wagon Train (1957), Rawhide (1959), The Twilight Zone (1962), The Fugitive (1963), Family Affair (1966) and My Three Sons (1966).

Herbert's career amassed 20 feature films, over 50 TV shows and a number of commercials during his youthful 14-year span.

Quote:

“ I'm a big movie fan, I always have been, but I've never been a big science fiction fan. It's the only category of movies I'm not a fan of... I love comedies, I love dramas, action... For some reasons, science fiction and horror movies have never been [appealing] to me. Maybe it's because of all the work I did in it. ”

Personal life:

He was the breadwinner of his family at age five. His father had a heart condition and could not work, and his mother was her husband's caregiver. "I didn’t come from a wealthy family, or from a family that lived that type of lifestyle," said Herbert.

Because of the studio attitude towards child actors of the time, Herbert has a keen interest in the child actors of today. "I lost a lot more than the financial things. Financial things are way down the list for me. The way that it’s set up in Hollywood is, I did 50 TV shows, the 20 movies, the commercials, all of that stuff... and when I turned 21, zero was put away in the bank for me. It was not that way for every (kid actor): If you signed a long-term contract, like for instance if you did Lassie or The Donna Reed Show or something, they put away like five percent for you. But if you were not on a long-term contract, ALL of the money you earned for the movies, for ALL the TV things, went to your guardians, and your guardians could do with it whatever they saw fit." The only money put away for him until age 21 from his TV and film earnings was $1,700.

Describing his studio education as "non-existent," Herbert attended public schools (Melrose, Bancroft, Fairfax High). "My parents made that mistake, without malice; they were not too familiar (with the problems that child actors face)." He made up the story that he had a twin brother—-that it was not him his classmates were seeing in movies and on TV. Referencing his role in the sci-fi movie classic The Fly, he says, "Back in those days, the very few people who did know I was an actor, when they were kidding me they’d go, Help me, help me, help meeee!"...

"Herbert was always happiest and at his best when he was performing. A talented actor, he felt secure and confident when the cameras rolled, but like many child actors, he faced difficulties adjusting to the real world beyond the controlled environment inside the studio walls. The career of a child actor often creates a profoundly troubling lack of identity at a difficult time, just after he has lost his commercial value" with the onset of puberty.

Unable to transition into adult roles, Herbert's personal life went downhill as well. With no formal education or training to do anything else and with no career earnings saved, he led a reckless, wanderlust life and turned to drugs.

Recent activity:

With no family of his own, it took Herbert nearly 40 years to turn his life around. Clean and sober for 24 months (August, 2006), his films, now reaching new generations of fans via DVD and cable TV, and his appearances at science fiction film festivals and conventions sustain him.

He has expressed deep appreciation of the work Paul Petersen's organization, A Minor Consideration, has done for assisting present and former child actors both financially and emotionally. Herbert and Petersen played brothers together in the film Houseboat (1958) starring Cary Grant and Sophia Loren, and he guest-starred on Peterson's series The Donna Reed Show four times as David Barker.

Charles Herbert appeared in the celebrity lineup at the 2006 Monster Bash, held June 23-25 at the Pittsburgh (PA) Airport Four Points.

Filmography:

Actor:

Print

Tell friend

Top

---