Editing David Janssen (section)

==Early life==
[[File:David Janssen Richard Diamond 1957.JPG|right|thumb|{{center|David Janssen in 1957}}]]
David Janssen was born on March 27, 1931, in [[Naponee, Nebraska|Naponee]], a village in [[Franklin County, Nebraska|Franklin County]] in southern [[Nebraska]]. His father was Harold Edward Meyer, a banker, and his mother, Berniece Graf, was formerly Miss Nebraska and [[Ziegfeld girl|a Ziegfeld girl]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Eder |first=Shirley |title='Angels' Will Be Back – Without Shelly Hack |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19800220&id=TWhQAAAAIBAJ&pg=3044,1222316 |newspaper=[[Evening Independent|St. Petersburg Independent]] |date=February 20, 1980 |page=12-B |agency=Knight–Ridder Newspapers}}</ref> Following his parents' divorce in 1935, his mother moved with David to Los Angeles and married Eugene Janssen in 1940. David used his stepfather's name after he entered the show business as a child.<ref name="Hollywood Walk of Fame 2019 v183">{{cite web |title=David Janssen |url=https://walkoffame.com/david-janssen/ |website=Hollywood Walk of Fame |date=October 25, 2019 |access-date=March 30, 2024}}</ref>

He attended [[Fairfax High School (Los Angeles)|Fairfax High School]], where he excelled on the basketball court, setting a school scoring record that lasted over 20 years. His first film part was at the age of thirteen, and by the age of twenty-five, he had appeared in twenty films and served two years as an enlisted man in the [[United States Army]]. During his Army days, Janssen became a friend of fellow enlistees [[Martin Milner]] and [[Clint Eastwood]] while posted at [[Fort Ord]], California.<ref>{{cite web |last=VRIES |first=HILARY de |date=1992-08-02 |title=COVER STORY : His Own Man . . . Always : Clint Eastwood used to be the actor with no name. Respect came, but only after years of spaghetti cowboy and Dirty Harry jokes. Now, as he saddles up again, he still deals with life on his own terms. |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-08-02-ca-5559-story.html |access-date=2024-03-18 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=2015-09-07 |title=Martin Milner, star of 'Adam-12' and 'Route 66,' dies |url=https://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/09/07/npr-martin-milner-star-of-adam12-and-route-66-dies-at-83 |access-date=2024-03-18 |website=MPR News}}</ref>