Charles Herbert Saperstein was born on December 23, 1948, and died on October 31, 2015.
Known as Charles Herbert, was an American child actor of the 1950s and 1960s.
Before reaching his teens, Charles 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.
Charles 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.
Charles was born Charles Herbert Saperstein in Culver City, California, the son of Pearl (Diamond) and Louis Saperstein.
According to Charles, his career began when he was discovered by an agent: “I just happened to be riding on a bus while on a shopping trip with my mother 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.”
Blue-eyed and freckle-faced, his first job was at age four on the television series, Half Pint Panel in 1952.
The Long, Long Trailer (1954) might have been his first movie, just after appearing in the stage production of On Borrowed Time at the Rancho Theatre.
Auditioning with some forty other kids, they picked Herbert only to cut him out of the movie.
This period was highlighted by 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 who 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.
Charles passed away in Las Vegas on October 31, 2015 from a heart attack.