Charles Nelson Reilly Quotes

Reilly was born in The Bronx, New York City, the son of Charles Joseph Reilly, an Irish Catholic commercial artist, and Signe Elvera Nelson, a Swedish Lutheran. When young he would often make his own puppet theater to amuse himself. His mother, foreshadowing his future as an entertainer, often would tell him to "save it for the stage." At age 13, he survived the infamous 1944 Hartford Circus Fire which killed 169 people in Connecticut and as a result, he never sat in an audience again through the remainder of his life.