Early Years
James was born Kevin George James in Mineola, New York. He is the second son of Janet, a homemaker who also worked in a chiropractor's office, and Joseph Valentine Knipfing, Jr., who owned an insurance agency. He has German ancestry. James has two siblings, Gary Joseph Knipfing, known as Gary Valentine, also a comedian, and Leslie Knipfing; Leslie works for James and helped raise money through charity events for retinitis pigmentosa, with which she is afflicted. James was raised Catholic, and stated in 2012 that he is "involved" in his faith. He grew up in the "S-Section" of Stony Brook, New York, and graduated from Ward Melville High School in 1983, where he was on the football and wrestling teams. One of his wrestling teammates, Mick Foley, eventually became a professional wrestler. James was a student at, but did not graduate from, the State University of New York at Cortland, where he was a member of Pi Lambda Phi Fraternity.
Read more about this topic: Kevin James (actor)
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or years:
“I looked at my daughters, and my boyhood picture, and appreciated the gift of parenthood, at that moment, more than any other gift I have ever been given. For what person, except one’s own children, would want so deeply and sincerely to have shared your childhood? Who else would think your insignificant and petty life so precious in the living, so rich in its expressiveness, that it would be worth partaking of what you were, to understand what you are?”
—Gerald Early (20th century)
“Quintilian [educational writer in Rome around A.D. 100] thought that the earliest years of the child’s life were crucial. Education should start earlier than age seven, within the family. It should not be so hard as to give the child an aversion to learning. Rather, these early lessons would take the form of play—that embryonic notion of kindergarten.”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)