He was born Anthony Dominick Benedetto in Astoria, Queens, New York, to Italian-born immigrant grocer John Benedetto and seamstress Anna Suraci.
Benedetto reportedly sang to customers while waiting tables as a teenager.
He was drafted into the United States Army in November 1944, during the final stages of World War II. Benedetto narrowly dodged German bullets as an infantryman before witnessing the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp, which he helped liberate.
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