Bea Benaderet

Beatrice Benaderet was born on April 4, 1906, in New York City. Her mother, Margaret (née O'Keefe), was Irish American, and her father, Samuel David Benaderet, a Sephardic Jewish emigrant from what is now Turkey, was a tobacconist who relocated the family from New York City to San Francisco in 1915 after his participation in the Panama–Pacific International Exposition. The same year, he opened a smoke shop that operated for 65 years, making it the oldest such retailer in California at the time of its closure in 1980.

Benaderet was raised in her mother's Catholic faith and attended grade school at a Dominican convent. She studied voice and the piano; her first acting performance came at 11 when she portrayed a bearded old man in a school play.

The following year, her participation in a children's production of The Beggar's Opera resulted in a local radio station manager inviting her to a one-time performance on one of his programs, for which she was paid $10. Benaderet made her professional theatre debut at 16 in a production of The Prince of Pilsen, and, after graduating from the Academy of St. Rose, a private, all-girls' high school, she attended the Reginald Travers School of Acting and joined his stock company The Players' Guild, appearing in stage productions of works such as Polly, Lysistrata, and Uncle Tom's Cabin.