 He spent the early part of his childhood in Forest Hills section of Queens, as well as in Texas and Tennessee.Later in the 1940s, he lived in the Strathmore section of Manhasset, Long Island.He was athletic and was one of the faster boys at his grade school, Munsey Park School, and started his acting and singing career in a fourth-grade production of the Gilbert Sullivan operetta, HMS Pinafore, as Captain Corcoran.