Early Life
Desmond was born in North London into a Jewish family, the youngest of three children. His father, Cyril, was at one time managing director of cinema advertising company Pearl & Dean. An ear infection caused the sudden loss of Cyril Desmond's hearing and, according to Richard, he used to take him along, when he was no more than three years old, to act as "his ears" in business meetings, where he ostensibly acquired his "first taste of business dealings". After Cyril lost a significant amount of family money to gambling, his parents divorced and 11-year old Desmond moved with his mother into a flat above a garage; he has described his impoverished early adolescence as a time when he was "very fat and very lonely".
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