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 Peron 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 Annoncer 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 hometown newspaper, The Cuero Record. 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. Andre, 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, and granchildren 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 for 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 1972 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, and Charles was hired to go on the road with Eve Arden in Under Papa's Picture. After the birth of another daughter, Dana, 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.