Leno was born James Douglas Muir Leno in New Rochelle, New York on April 28, 1950. His homemaker mother Catherine (née Muir; 1911–1993) was born in Greenock, Scotland and came to the United States at the age of 11. Leno's father, Angelo (1910–1994), who worked as an insurance salesman, was born in New York, to immigrants from Flumeri, Italy. Leno grew up in Andover, Massachusetts and even though his high school guidance counselor recommended that he drop out of school, he later obtained a Bachelor's degree in speech therapy from Emerson College, where he started a comedy club in 1973. Leno's only sibling was his late older brother Patrick, who was a Vietnam veteran and a lawyer.