Radames Pera is an American actor best known for his role as "Grasshopper", the student Kwai Chang Caine in the 1972 to 1975 television series Kung Fu.
Early life and acting career
Pera was born in New York City, the son of actress Lisa Pera and Spin Art's inventor, Eugene R. Pera. The couple split shortly after moving to Hollywood with their son in 1963. Over the next five years Lisa reached some notable success as an actor in film and network TV.
In 1968, at age eight, Radames was discovered by classic film Director Daniel Mann to play the role of Anthony Quinn and Irene Papas' dying son in the feature A Dream of Kings (1969). The two met at a dinner party Radames' mother held and he got cast in the role of Stavros.
After numerous young character roles, between 1972 until 1975 Radames appeared as Young Caine (better known as "Grasshopper") in the ABC television series Kung Fu. Caine was an orphan from Hunan Province in China who had an American father and a Chinese mother. He appeared throughout the original 4-year run of the hit Warner Bros./ABC series and for many more years in worldwide re-runs. since 2017.
Post-acting career
Pera developed other interests in video and electronics, forming his own company, All Systems Go! in L.A. in 1988, designing and installing home theaters and residential sound systems for clients like Johnny Depp, Nicolas Cage, Sharon Stone, Winona Ryder, Robert Downey Jr., Ben Stiller, Chuck Norris and others. Six years later he successfully relocated his life and business to Portland, Oregon for the next ten years, then to Austin, Texas, for another eight years. He continued to specialize in eliminating remote control clutter and other AV and WiFi solutions at his San Diego–based company, Remotalize (2012–2015). After retiring from the AV business Radames moved to France in 2017, where he wrote his memoirs and is currently seeking a literary agent and publisher.