Charles Howerton
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Charles Howerton was born in Cuero, Texas, in 1938, son of a Naval
officer. At age ten he enjoyed exploring abandoned Japanese machine gun
nests on Guam, at 12 sailing dinghies in Coronado bay amid navy ships,
at 14 trekking in the Florida Everglades, and at 16 caught in the
middle of a revolution to oust Juan Domingo Perón in Buenos Aires,
Argentina. He gathered clams and chased rheas near the Straits of
Magellan, hunted and fished in the pristine forests and streams of the
north and south of Argentina, visited Macchu Picchu in Peru, and played
2nd base on a city championship softball team. He was in the senior
class play at the American school in Buenos Aires, his first taste of
acting. At the University of North Carolina, Charles was Chief
Announcer and co-production Manager of WUNC-FM, where he wrote,
directed and performed in radio dramas for the NAEB and appeared on the
Playmakers stage. He also caught a winning pass in intramural football
and wrote plays and short stories, many of which have been published.
He graduated with a B.A. in Communications in 1960. During the summers,
He worked as a YMCA tennis counselor in Connecticut, on a surveying
crew in Johnsville, PA, as a top-40 disc jockey at WKVA in Lewistown,
Pennsylvania, and as a cub reporter on his home town newspaper, The
Cuero Record, in Texas. He then attended the Graduate School of Theatre
at the University of Texas, where he majored in Playwriting, but also
acted in productions with guest stars Rip Torn
and Barbara Barrie, and in leading roles
at the Austin Civic Theatre. Charles married his college sweetheart,
Jeri Lynn Mooney (aka Susan Howard)
and went west to Los Angeles in 1962, working in theatre with old-time
actors Frank Faylen,
Percy Helton,E.J. André,
Lyle Bettger and
Alan Mowbray at the Masquers Club. He wrote
dialogue and narration for independent features. He and Susan divorced
in 1966. They have one daughter,
Lynn Howerton, and grandchildren Daniel
and Noelle. Charles re-married, in 1967, to actress
Linda Gary. In 1970, after working in TV and
commercials, they vacationed in Europe, found film work in Rome, Italy,
learned Italian and stayed four years, working in films and
commercials, and doing foreign to English dubbing in Italy, Spain and
Germany. Charles attended the Cannes Film Festival in
'72 as
a journalist for the Texas Press Association, and interviewed
Gregory Peck,
Groucho Marx and
Alfred Hitchcock. They returned
to L.A. in 1974 with new daughter
Alexis Howerton, and Charles was hired
to go on the road with Eve Arden in "Under
Papa's Picture". After the birth of another daughter, Dana Howerton,
Charles became the volunteer drama coach for the Gifted and Talented
Program at their elementary school, for which he wrote and directed
(with Linda) an original play, "Flashpants and the Magic Ring", a
musical comedy, later selected for production by the Boston Children's
Professional Theatre. Charles and his family made a tradition of
vacationing in distant and exotic parts of the world -- with an
itinerary of nature trips and museums, river rafting and camel rides,
para-sailing and scuba diving and sampling the local cuisine, staying
in local inns, never breaking the tradition no matter how many "jobs"
Charles and Linda had to miss. After Linda's death in 1995, Charles
re-married again in 1996, to singer Jeanne Page. He continues to
perform in film and television and on stage, and to publish poetry and
short stories.
