Arthur Hecht

Arthur Hecht's life in the spotlight began when he was named "Perfect Baby" in a Los Angeles Baby Week event. His photograph made the front pages and was the start of a life in pictures. As an adorable, curly-haired young boy, he got parts in "Buster Brown" comedies and a role in the "Our Gang" series. After his run as a child actor he took several years off to go to military school, spend time with his family and do all the normal things owed a child his age. By his 20s Hecht entered the newspaper business as a reporter for the Los Angeles Examiner. Ater several years, though, the acting bug bit him once again, and he traded in his typewriter for scripts. Instead of writing, he was now the one being written about. Hecht was obtaining roles left and right. Among his many films, he starred with Robert Cummings and Lizabeth Scott in Paid in Full (1950), Ella Raines and Helen Walker in Impact (1949), Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in both Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet the Killer Boris Karloff (1949) and Africa Screams (1949), Barry Sullivan in Badmen of Tombstone (1949); and Peggy Cummins in Gun Crazy (1950). Television was also good to him, as he became a member of KTLA's Who's That Girl and starred as R.N. Chalmers in the TV series The Lineup (1954). By the 1950s he moved to San Francisco and became successful producing, writing and starring in television commercials -- over 1,500, to be exact. In the early 1970s he did 30 commercials a week for four years on KELP-TV in Texas. Advertising became a major part of his life, and he went on to start his own ad agency back in the San Francisco Bay area. It was then, during a shoot, that he met his future wife, Yolanda, a model. In 1980 they had a baby girl, Michelle, who they opted to keep out of the business as a child star. It had been a good life for Arthur Hecht in the entertainment business, but it was also tough. Only when their daughter became an adult did she decide the business was also for her, and she is working toward a career very much like her father's. Arthur Hecht died suddenly in 1992; he was 69 years old. He had a unique and fascinating life, but the most fulfilling came from the love he shared with his wife and daughter, who continue to keep his memory and strong presence alive for those who never knew this wonderful man.