The future stage, screen and TV star (real name: Fred Eisley) was born in Philadelphia. His father was general sales manager and "troubleshooter" for a large company, and his work kept the family on the move (up and down the East Coast) throughout Eisley's young life. As early as the days of school plays Eisley knew that he wanted to be an actor, but because he lacked show-business contacts he felt nothing would come of his aspiration. He later took drama courses at the University of Miami, "not because I thought I could really be an actor, but because I was taking the easy way out to get a degree". Finally following up on his longtime ambition, Eisley landed a job with a stock company in Pennsylvania, where he worked opposite James Dunn in a stage production of "A Slight Case of Murder." Later roles in long-running plays like "Mister Roberts", "Picnic" and "The Desperate Hours" ensued, along with some early movie (Operation Pacific (1951), Fearless Fagan (1952)) and television (Racket Squad (1950)) work. Eisley later went on to TV and exploitation movie stardom.