Mini Biography: Jack Warden was born John H. Lebzelter (German for "honey-cake baker") on September 18, 1920 in Newark, New Jersey to a Jewish father, Jack Warden Lebzelter, and his Irish wife, Laura M. Lebzelter (nee Costello). Raised in Louisville, Kentucky, at the age of 17, young Jack Lebzelter was expelled from Louisville's Du Pont Manuel High School for repeatedly fighting. Good with his fists, he turned professional, boxing as a welterweight under the name "Johnny Costello", adopting his mother's maiden name. (In an interview, Jack Warden said that his mother had tried to suppress his identification with Judaism, possibly out of a misguided sense of having him avoid the then-prevalent antisemitism of American society. However, as he got older, his Jewish heritage became more important to him.) The purses were poor, so he soon left the ring and worked as a bouncer at a night club. He also worked as a lifeguard before signing up with the U.S. Navy in 1938. He served in China for with the Yangtzee River Patrol for the best part of his three year hitch before joining the Merchant Marine in 1941.

Though the Merchant Marine paid better than the Navy, Warden was dissatisfied with his life aboard ship on the long convoy runs and quit in 1942 in order to enlist in the U.S. Army. He became a paratrooper with the elite 101st Airborne Division, and missed the June 1944 invasion of Normandy due to a leg badly broken by landing on a fence during a nighttime practice jump shortly before D-Day. Many of his comrades lost their lives during the Normandy invasion, but the future Jack Warden was spared that ordeal. Recuperating from his injuries, he read a play by Clifford Odets given to him by a fellow soldier who was an actor in civilian life. He was so moved by the play, he decided to become an actor after the war. After recovering from his badly shattered leg, Warden saw action at the Battle of the Bulge, Nazi Germany's last major offensive. He was demobilized with the rank of sergeant and decided to pursue an acting career on the G.I. Bill. He moved to New York City to attend acting school, then joined the company of the Dallas Alley Theater in 1947 as a professional actor, taking his father's middle name as his surname. This repertory company, run by Margo Jones became famous in the 1940s and '50s producing 'Tennesse Williams''s plays. The experience gave him a valuable grounding in both classic and contemporary drama, and he shuttled between Texas and New York for five years as he was in demand as an actor. Warden made his television debut in 1948, though he continued to perform on stage (he appeared in a stage production in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1966) (TV). After several years in small, local productions, he made both his Broadway debut in the 1952 Broadway revival of Odets' "Golden Boy" and, three years later, originated the role of "Marco" in the original Broadway production of Miller's "A View From the Bridge". On film, he and fellow World War Two veterans Lee Marvin (Marine Corps, South Pacific) made their debut in You're in the Navy Now (1951) (a.k.a. "U.S.S. Teakettle"), uncredited, along with with fellow vet Charles Bronson, then billed as "Charles Buchinsky".