He was born Sidney Chayefsky, one of three sons of Russian-born immigrants Harry and Gussie Stuchevsky Chayefsky. The household was a traditional Jewish one in the Bronx, supported by Harry's Dellwood Dairy firm in Yonkers, which went bankrupt in 1934. Harry instilled in young Sidney a love for traditional Yiddish theater and the arts and respect for education. The Yiddish theater, especially, would later play a large role in Chayefsky's scripts for television, stage, and movies.
Chayefsky graduated in 1939 from DeWitt Clinton High School, where he had edited the literary yearbook and school paper. He earned a bachelor's degree in social science from City College of New York in 1943. While at college, he played semi-professional football with a Bronx team called the Kingsbridge Trojans. He enlisted in the United States Army, and during his stint as an army machine gunner from 1943 to 1945, he received the nickname "Paddy" from a skeptical lieutenant who thought it odd when this very Jewish young man opted to attend Catholic Mass rather than endure the drudgery of KP duty; he kept the nickname professionally because it was distinctive. Chayefsky earned a Purple Heart after being injured by stepping on a German land mine in 1944.
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