Today on another encore episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast, we are bringing you part one of our conversation with former child actor Radames Pera, best known for his roles on shows like Kung-Fu and Little House on the Prairie. We had to split this episode into two episodes because there as so much more than we bargained for when we sat down to record this episode. Somehow in addition to covering Radames’ career, we got into spin art, the Coogan Law, punk rock, fitting in at school and so much more.

Part of that so much more involved his mother Lisa Pera whose acting career involved TV shows like Get Smart, Perry Mason, Hawaii 5-0 and many, many more. We discuss what it was like being raised in a Hollywood apartment by a young, single mother who was too emotionally mixed up from her own time as one of the many victims of being a Ukrainian – Russian in Nazi Germany during WWII. It’s so unreal, it’s hard to believe it’s not more well known or talked about 70+ years later.

And somehow, this is just the beginning of Radames tale because there is an entirely different story in part two of the podcast as well. What starts as a story about seemingly idyllic roles as John Jr. and a young Caine that found Pera on the cover of teen magazines as a heartthrob for years turns very dark, very fast. It’s emotionally honest and brutally so. Take a listen to this episode of the Rarified Heir Podcast. Everyone has a story. But not like this one.