RIP Charles Herbert

Charles Herbert, Mid-Century Child Star on TV and in Movies, Dies at 66

By SAM ROBERTSNOV. 4, 2015
Photo
The actor Charles Herbert with Patricia Owen in the 1958 horror movie “The Fly.”

Charles Herbert, who was 4 years old when he was discovered by a Hollywood talent scout on a bus while out shopping with his mother and went on to become a top-earning child actor of the 1950s and ’60s, died on Oct. 31 in Las Vegas. He was 66.

The cause was a heart attack, said his brother and only immediate survivor, Jerry Saperstein.

Mr. Herbert was supporting his parents by the time he was 5. He appeared in more than 20 films and 50 television episodes, in which he fended off all kinds of adversaries, from a robot to a human fly. He shared the limelight with Cary Grant, Sophia Loren and James Cagney.

He played a blind boy in a memorable episode of “Science Fiction Theater” in 1956, and appeared in a 1962 “Twilight Zone” episode in which a widowed father takes his children to choose an android grandmother.

Charles Herbert Saperstein was born on Dec. 23, 1948, in Culver City, Calif., the youngest of three children of Louis Saperstein and the former Pearl Diamond.

He appeared in the movie “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” (1957), with Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster (Mr. Herbert played Virgil Earp’s son, Tommy); “Houseboat” (1958), with Mr. Grant and Ms. Loren; and “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies” (1960), with Doris Day and David Niven. But he was better known for horror films like “The Fly” (1958) and “13 Ghosts” (1960).

Mr. Herbert was making more than $1,600 a week at one point (almost $13,000 in today’s dollars), but wound up broke and, later, addicted.

“My friend died sober,” said the actor Paul Petersen, whose organization, A Minor Consideration, provides guidance and support to former child actors. He said that Mr. Herbert had been living on a modest Screen Actors Guild pension and fees from appearances at film festivals and conventions of science fiction fans.

In a 2006 interview with the website Classic Images, Mr. Herbert said, “The worst thing a person can lose is your identity,” adding: “It’s O.K. as a child because people look at the screen and say, ‘O.K., he’s Fred’ or ‘O.K., he’s Tom Sawyer.’ But when you’re an adult, people don’t know who the hell you are — you don’t walk around with your credits. They want to know who Charlie is. And I didn’t know.”