Beginning his professional acting career at the age of fourteen, East is known for his portrayal of Huckleberry Finn in the United Artists feature films Tom Sawyer (1973) and Huckleberry Finn (1974), as well as for his portrayal of a teenage Clark Kent in Richard Donner's Superman: The Movie (1978).

[1][2] East's feature film credits include The Flight of the Grey Wolf (1974), Stranger in Our House (1978), Mary and Joseph: A Story of Faith (1979), Klondike Fever (1980), Deadly Blessing (1981), Up the Creek (1984), Dream West (1986), Pumpkinhead (1988), Another Chance (1989), and Deadly Exposure (1993).

Unbeknownst to East when the film was being made, his Superman dialogue was dubbed over by Christopher Reeve.

In February 2004, he moved back to Kansas City to take over his father's commercial real estate company.

In 2014, East got married for the second time, to Pascale Lambert, and moved to Nice, France.