Whatever Happened to ‘Charlotte’s Web’ Star Pamelyn Ferdin? The Surprising Reason She Quit Acting
What To Know
- Pamelyn Ferdin, the voice of Fern in the 1973 animated Charlotte’s Web, was a prolific child actor.
- She left Hollywood after high school to pursue a more stable career as a registered nurse.
- Ferdin has since dedicated her life to advocating for animals.
Do you remember the cartoon version of Charlotte’s Web from 1973? Based on the book by E. B. White, the animated movie from the good folks over at Hanna-Barbera tells the story of a spider named Charlotte, who, with the help of a young girl named Fern, is able to save the life of a sweet little pig named Wilbur. The voice of Fern belonged to actress Pamelyn Ferdin.
After starring in a movie like that, it’s probably not too much of a shock to discover that Ferdin does not eat pork. What might surprise you, however, is that she did not actually become a vegetarian until a couple of decades after the movie was made. In fact, her journey to becoming a serious animal rights activist did not come from working on Charlotte’s Web; instead, it came from an experience she had in a New York animal shelter. However, before looking back at that life-changing moment, let’s talk about Ferdin’s time as a child actor in Hollywood.
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Ferdin seemed to be constantly working. Television viewers way back then most certainly saw her or, at the very least, heard her voice. She was Lucy in a handful of animated Peanuts TV specials and was hired regularly by the aforementioned Hanna-Barbera animation team, which is how she ended up auditioning for the part of Fern when she was just 14 years old. Beyond that famous role, she played Felix’s daughter in The Odd Couple and had a two-year run as one of the kids in Lassie.
While appearing on an episode of Star Trek, Ferdin developed something of a crush on William Shatner. Talking to Classic Film & TV Café, she said this: “I think he got so tired of me pestering him that he sat down with me and started talking and we became good, good friends”.
Despite being one of the most in-demand child actors of that era, Ferdin felt her experience in Hollywood was at times very lonely. She was always in and out of school due to filming schedules, so she did not have many friends growing up. When she finished high school, Ferdin decided to leave acting behind to find a more secure career. She went to college and became a registered nurse, which felt natural to her because she loved helping others.
After spending years in nursing, Ferdin took a job as a media relations officer for an animal shelter in New York City during the early 1990s. It was there that her view of the world completely shifted.
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In an article written by Pam Kragen, a staff writer for The Californian that was published on August 25, 2000, Pamelyn said that on one particular day, she arrived at work early, around 5:00 a.m., and walked into a situation where shelter workers were euthanizing unwanted animals. It was a shocking experience that she said forever changed her life. Ferdin saw about a hundred dogs chained to a wall in a room, all of them whimpering and crying.
Ferdin told Kragen, “I was so appalled and depressed that a paradigm shift occurred in me. I had spent my life helping humans, but humans have the ability to help themselves. Animals have no one to protect them from harm.”
Because of that terrible morning, Ferdin decided to dedicate her time to fight for animal rights. She eventually moved back home to Los Angeles and worked with the Animal Defense League. She also began traveling around the state, making public appearances to speak out against all kinds of animal abuse.
Thinking back, Ferdin said she never realized how pro-animal rights E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web story really was until she watched it again in a classroom with a group of schoolchildren years later.
Again, speaking to Kragen, she said, “It’s really a great film because it shows how loving children can be. In the years that I’ve been speaking to groups about animals, it’s always the children who respond to me the most. They’re the ones with the biggest hearts.”
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