| Radames Pera | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 14, 1960 New York, New York |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1972 - Present |
Radames Perá (born Radames Pera 14 September 1960) is an American actor who is best known for his role as the young Kwai Chang Caine in the 1972-1975 television series Kung Fu.
Radames Pera was born in New York, New York, the son of Eugene R. Perá, a renowned painter and originator of Spin art, and Lisa Perá, a Russian-born actress. They moved to Los Angeles in 1963 so Lisa could pursue her acting career, but the marriage suffered and they were shortly divorced. Lisa struggled as a single mother, working nights at the famous '60s Hollywood night club, The Fog Cutter.
At 8 years old, young Radames was discovered by director Daniel Mann for the role as Anthony Quinn's and Irene Papas' dying son in A Dream of Kings (1969). The boy's mother was up for the part of Quinn's mistress eventually played by the late Inger Stevens. Radames met the Director, Mann at a dinner party and was eventually cast in the role of Stavros.[1] Soon after that Radames got an agent and went on to play many serious roles in television and films. Pera was considered a young character actor and was cast in an unusual variety of roles requiring different looks, accents (Spanish, German, Italian, Russian) and handicaps (mute, blind, schizophrenic, etc.)
He is best known as originating the role of the Young Student Caine, or "Grasshopper" in the series, Kung Fu, appearing throughout its seminal run on the ABC Television Network, and in worldwide re-runs.[1] The now classic Wise-Master/Student relationship was first depicted on that show and clearly echoed in subsequent films like The Karate Kid and Star Wars as well as semi-parodied in later hits like Kill Bill and even The Matrix.
Pera's other notable appearances include a disturbed young man in an episode of Night Gallery, Silent Snow, Secret Snow narrated by Orson Welles. Campier roles included a guest appearance on The Six Million Dollar Man and as Don Ameche's son in Gidget Gets Married. Between 1969 and 1985 other guest-starring credits include two episodes of Lassie and Marcus Welby, M.D., and single episodes of Hawaii Five-O, The Waltons and others.
In Los Angeles in the summer of 1978 Radames began 3 years of acting and directing studies with the legendary Stella Adler and followed her to New York that fall, in spite of much protest from his L.A. agents. Fellow classmates at Ms. Adler's Conservatory included Jeff Goldblum, Judd Nelson, and other Brat Packers.
Though his career had gained some momentum from the recurring role as Mary Ingalls' love interest, John, Jr., on Little House on the Prairie.[1] Radames' agents were right to warn that Hollywood quickly forgets, especially child actors most often left forever frozen in time, type-cast in their best known roles.
After returning to L.A. in the fall of 1981, Radames was never able to regain that earlier career momentum and dropped out of the acting business a few years later.[1] His final television appearances were in episodes of Mickey Spillane's The New Mike Hammer and Starman and his last film role was as Sgt. Stepan Gorsky in John Milius' 1984 feature Red Dawn.
Radames Pera married Marsha Mann on Leap Year Day in 1984, 6000 feet above the Mojave Desert - exchanging rings and vows in front of a judge and then jumping out of the plane on their first ever sky dive - calling the event "A Leap of Faith".[1]
Pera developed other interests in video and electronics and eventually formed his own company, All Systems Go! in L.A.[1] in 1988, designing and installing home theaters and residential sound systems for the rich and famous, with clients including Johnny Depp, Nicolas Cage, Ben Stiller, and Sharon Stone.[2]
During this time, Pera and his wife formed a creative alliance with the L.A.-based performance-art-band, "Freshly Wrapped Candies". The couple toured extensively with the band creating and performing digitally manipulated live video images for many of the band's West Coast performances. Working with the Fairlight Computer Video Instrument (CVI), a camera, and an array of monitors and video projectors. They also produced an hour-long live performance video entitled "The Sheep of Things to Come" in 1990, with excerpts from several of these live shows which was distributed by Modern Visual Communications (MVC) and Ralph Records.
The band broke up in the early 1990s and Pera moved into more commercial work with the Fairlight, producing digital video FX for The Disney Channel, a Max Headroom-like character for their hit show Kids Incorporated as well as high-tech animated effects for the feature film Bulletproof.
In 1993 Radames and his wife moved to Portland, Oregon, successfully relocating his home theater company at the same time. After 10 years in the Pacific Northwest the couple moved back south to the coastal town of Ventura, CA.
During this period (2002–2004) Radames became involved in advocacy for the reformation of laws and regulations pertaining to child actors. He reactivated his Screen Actors Guild membership in order to participate in SAG's Young Performers Committee alongside prime advocates Paul Petersen and SAG President at the time, (fellow Little House on the Prairie alumnus) Melissa Gilbert. He attended monthly Committee meetings at SAG's West Coast headquarters and co-chaired many Young Performers' Orientation Seminars along with former child actors he had worked with many years before, among them Alison Arngrim and Johnny Whitaker), providing essential professional and personal insights and survival advice to parents of young people entering the acting business for whom no other practical information like this was readily available.
In 2004, Pera and his wife moved to Austin, Texas, where he started up the same business under the name "Get It Wired". As of June 2009, he has been in the field of custom home entertainment for over 21 years. But Austin is also home to a burgeoning film community, and Radames now happily divides his attention between running a business and participating in the local film scene there. He occasionally screens episodes of Kung Fu to young filmmakers at the Austin Film Society hoping to inspire young people to tackle The Bigger Ideas with their projects.