At the age of 3 Hechter moved to New York from Puerto Rico with his mother and two sisters. He grew up in an environment of music and movies. His mother, a former singer on Puerto Rican radio often had musicians at the home. His grandmother was a huge fan of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies which also had a huge influence on Hechter, until he discovered Elvis Presley. He tried desperately to imitate "The King" in his youth. By his own admission he didn't imitate him well.
His family moved to West Harlem where many of his friends got involved with the wrong crowd. Knowing that this was a bad thing Hechter kept to what he refers to as his own gang, a group of singers that he had befriended. In another attempt to stay away from the gangs he spent many hours at the local movie theaters, where he dreamed of one day leaving the Harlem gangs behind him.
Being a part of Harlem had made him uncomfortable with his Latino image but watching Latino movies with stars such as Arturo de Cordoba, Jorge Negrete and Miguel Aceves Mejía made him more comfortable. These became his heroes and heavily influenced his future career.
Gaining more confidence in his acting and singing abilities he decided to audition for the High School of Performing Arts. Perhaps a little over confident he chose a monologue from Macbeth as his audition piece, having never seen any Shakespeare performed on stage. After the audition he was asked who his favorite performer was and he replied "Elvis Presley". Hechter was accepted.
He felt at home at the High School for Performing Arts as he was in among people who had similar drives and talents as his own. Ben Vereen was among his classmates while he was there. He started to develop interests in classical music and with the help of a friend who's family came from Trinidad he also became interested in Calypso music. During this time he performed outside of the school, most notably in "Ye Olde Triple Inn" where Freddie Prinze was performing comedy.
Three months after High School he started performing on Broadway. Here he was encouraged to study Opera. Although not always able to pay for his singing lessons he was still encouraged by his mentor to carry on. Hechtor eventually payed every penny he owed whenever he could.
From there his movie career started to bloom and many roles came forward for him. His most memorable role would probably be that of drug king "Rico" in Crocodile Dundee II. Hechtor was offered many roles after his powerful performance.
Eventually returning to Broadway he managed to join an old friend, Raul Julia in "Man of La Mancha". He still continues to perform live both on Broadway and in his own cabaret show which has been running since the year 2000.
Hechter enjoys any roles that stretch him both as an actor and as a singer. He feels particularly grateful for being able to rise above his humble beginnings and do what he has always loved to do, to perform in front of an audience whether on stage or screen.
