Lear was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of Jeanette (née Seicol) and Hyman "Herman" Lear, a traveling salesman. His mother was born in Elizabethgrad in Kherson Gubernia in Ukraine, while his father was born in Connecticut, to Russian-born parents. He had a younger sister, Claire Lear Brown (1925–2015). Lear grew up in a Jewish home and had a Bar Mitzvah ceremony.\n', '

When Lear was nine years old, his father went to prison for selling fake bonds. Lear thought of his father as a "rascal" and said that the character of Archie Bunker (whom Lear depicted as white Protestant on the show) was in part inspired by his father, while the character of Edith Bunker was in part inspired by his mother.\n', '

Lear graduated from Weaver High School in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1940 and subsequently attended Emerson College in Boston, but dropped out in 1942 to join the United States Army Air Forces.\n', '

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