He was born as Carl Held in Jersey City, New Jersey, and is also known as Karl Held. Held was married to fellow Star Trek guest star Sarah Marshall from July 20, 1964 until her death on January 18, 2014. He visited the set in August 1967 during filming of "The Deadly Years" , in which Marshall guest starred. In 2006, Held acted on film for the first time in 15 years, appearing in low-budget horror film Bad Blood.