Forsythe born on January 29, 1918 in Penns Grove, New Jersey to Blanche Materson (née Blohm) and to Samuel Jeremiah Freund. Forsythe was the oldest of three. Forsythe was raised in Brooklyn, New York. He was educated at Abraham Lincoln High School and at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill along with late actors R. G. Armstrong and Andy Griffith. 