Born in Wyandotte, Michigan on April 23, 1939 he was quickly adopted by relatives (Harvey & Mildred Yeary) located in Middlesboro, KY. He discovered the family secret of his adoption when he reached his teens. He had an older brother Bill by his adoptive parents (aunt and uncle).
Growing up he became a football star and even received an athletic scholarship to Indiana University, which he attended for two years.
Lee later transferred back to Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) in Richmond, Kentucky. After several broken noses, dislocated shoulder and severe back injury that resulted in him being paralyzed from the waist down for two weeks.
Risking life in a wheelchair and discovering he had a defect in his spine known as spondylolisthesis, a congenital abnormality of the bones of the spine. He threw in the towel leaving possibly a great football career. Lee recovered and graduated in 1962 with a degree in History and Physical Education qualifying him as a teacher from EKU.
He married at the age of 22 to Kathy Robinson (1961) and the following year they had a son, Lee Majors Jr. (or also known as Lee Majors II).
Lee first appeared on stage in Danville, Kentucky at the Pioneer Playhouse in a play entitled 7 Husbands, with his wife Kathy. The stage did not hold him there as he examined his life and acting to achieve where his football career had failed.
He applied and received the job of Recreation Director for North Hollywood Park located in Los Angeles at a salary of $2.83 and hour. With the long move from Kentucky to the lights of Hollywood his work as a park director gave him contacts with several Hollywood associates (actors, directors, etc.) and he was encouraged to act.
With such encouragement he attended acting lessons (MGM drama school) for a year and then tried out for parts, determined to make it. Although fame did not come quickly,Lee had appeared with top headliners but with bit parts.
One of his first was in the movie Straight-Jacket (1964), a Joan Crawford movie in which he only survived five minutes before his character was killed. The next movie guest spot was an Alfred Hitchcock thriller, The Monkey's Paw - A Retelling (1964).
